Days after firing head coach Troy Taylor amid bullying allegations, the Stanford Cardinal have wasted no time hiring a new coach.
Cardinal general manager and former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck faced the first significant decision of his executive career and turned to an old friend.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Luck and Stanford are hiring former NFL coach Frank Reich.
Sources: Stanford is hiring veteran NFL coach Frank Reich as the school’s interim football coach for 2025 season. Both sides have agreed this will be only a one-season agreement. At that point, Stanford will launch a national search. pic.twitter.com/21NuVUCjjt
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 31, 2025
As Thamel notes, the agreement and expectation is for Reich to coach for just one season before the Cardinal are able to execute a full-blown coaching search.
Reich and Luck have plenty of history. Reich, a former Indianapolis Colts quarterback like Luck, was Luck’s head coach during the 2018 NFL season.
That season would be Luck’s last, as he abruptly retired during the 2019 preseason.
Reich spent five seasons as head coach of the Colts, going 40-33 and leading the team to the playoffs twice. His best season came in Luck’s final NFL year, leaving many to wonder what would have happened had Luck stuck around longer.
Reich’s other NFL head coaching stint went famously poorly. As head coach of the 2023 Carolina Panthers, he went 1-10 in 11 games before being fired in his first season.
The 63-year-old head coach has never worked as a head coach or coordinator in college football.
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