Andrew Luck virtually retired one yr earlier. Coming into the 2018 season — his seventh with the Indianapolis Colts — contemporary off of a 2017 marketing campaign spent on the sidelines because of a shoulder harm, Luck had severe questions on his future. 

Then got here new coach Frank Reich, who had a hand in convincing Luck to stay round for a minimum of yet another go. 

“Frank preached trusting the method and trusting getting higher every single day,” Luck stated at Reich’s introductory press convention as Stanford’s interim head coach Tuesday. “I attempted to embody that, and we did. I feel I do not forget that coaching camp, by the point the season had rolled round, I do not assume I had thrown a move greater than 40 yards in observe. I did not know if I might. However we simply stored trusting our course of.”    

Beneath Reich’s steerage, Luck was named the 2018 NFL Comeback Participant of the Yr whereas posting a career-high 98.7 passer score. The Colts made it to the NFL Playoffs after a 1-5 begin to the common season. Luck’s delayed determination to step away from enjoying soccer lastly got here in August 2019. 

Now Luck, in his function as Stanford’s basic supervisor, is entrusting Reich with a distinct challenge: protecting Cardinal soccer afloat. 

Reich was named Stanford’s interim head coach on Monday. Throughout his introductory press convention on Tuesday, each Reich and Luck emphasised that Reich’s tenure won’t prolong past the 2025 season. 

“That is the right state of affairs for each of us,” Reich stated. “It matches completely good. Simply because it is a one-year deal doesn’t imply that we won’t take a significant step to serving to fulfill this imaginative and prescient and have huge success.”  

Stanford hires Frank Reich: Ex-NFL coach will function interim boss for one season underneath distinctive settlement

Will Backus

Stanford, underneath regular circumstances, is a tough job. The Cardinal haven’t gained greater than 4 video games since 2018. The college’s rigorous educational requirements restrict the expertise pool that Stanford can draw from in each highschool recruiting and the switch portal. 

However Reich can be inheriting a program rocked by college investigations that discovered former coach Troy Taylor mistreated feminine staffers and tried to have a compliance officer eliminated for mentioning minor Degree III violations dedicated by Taylor and his employees. Luck fired Taylor on March 25, lower than per week after the investigations got here to mild.

“Even per week and a half in the past I assumed the path for our program was completely different than the place we are actually,” Luck stated. “However with time, like on many issues, with new knowledge factors and a deeper and new perspective, I noticed it was time for a reset on the head teaching place.” 

The timing of Taylor’s firing, with Stanford set to open spring camp on the identical day that Reich was launched, factored closely in Luck’s option to choose an interim now whereas planning a wider seek for after the 2025 season. 

And Reich is not any stranger to instant turnarounds. The Colts went and not using a profitable file in three straight seasons main as much as Reich’s hiring, and he nonetheless took them to the postseason in two of his first three years.    

Reich’s time in Palo Alto, California, may need a particular deadline, however Luck is hoping that the inspiration set in 2025 stands agency. 

“Ideas and values and tradition and taking a step ahead, that is enduring, and that’ll final,” Luck stated. “That is what we’re feeling and that is what we’re getting ready for. Frank’s right here, the employees’s right here. We’re doing one thing that can final in some ways. 

“That is why I’ve deep conviction that this can work.”