Stanford Cardinal's GM of Football, Andrew Luck (Who Just Fired Stanford's HC for Bullying) Has Hired ex-Colts Head Coach Frank Reich to Coach Stanford Football for One (1) Year
ESPN - Stanford has hired veteran NFL coach Frank Reich as the school's interim football coach for the 2025 season, it was announced Monday.
Both sides have agreed it will be only a one-season deal, sources told ESPN. Stanford will launch a national search to find a permanent replacement for fired coach Troy Taylor at the end of the 2025 season.
"The unique responsibility to mentor the best student-athletes in the world, to be the absolute best in what they aspire to do, is an opportunity I will fully embrace," Reich said in a statement.
Taylor was fired last week amid findings by two outside firms that he had bullied and belittled female athletic staffers, sought to have an NCAA compliance officer removed after she warned him of rules violations and repeatedly made "inappropriate" comments to another woman about her appearance.
First off, Stanford did a fantastic job burying the "Andrew Luck fired our head coach for bullying" headline. Maybe we were all just preoccupied with being mad about March not having enough madness. But the Andrew Lucky firing Troy Taylor for bullying story flew right over my head.
Details as to exactly what Troy Taylor did aren't super clear, but according to ESPN, investigations into Troy Taylor cited multiple complaints filed against Taylor for "hostile and aggressive behavior", along with, "personal attacks". The law firm who conducted the investigation stressed a "palpable level of animosity and disdain" that Taylor had for Stanford's compliance office. The likes of which they've never seen before.
ESPN - "Even during the interview with me, when talking about compliance issues, Coach Taylor's tone was forceful and aggressive," O'Brien wrote.
He called Taylor's treatment of the team's compliance officer "inappropriate, discriminatory on the basis of her sex," saying it had a "significant negative impact" on the staffer. O'Brien concluded that Taylor retaliated against the compliance staffer by "seeking her removal from her assigned duties" after she raised concerns about NCAA rules violations related to illegal practices and player eligibility.
O'Brien outlined possible disciplinary procedures, including termination, under NCAA bylaws if an employee retaliates, "such as intimidating, threatening, or harassing an individual who has raised a claim."
One source with direct knowledge told ESPN that Taylor has "lost the locker room." Two sources told ESPN that Taylor's behavior extended beyond athletic department and compliance office staff and onto the field.
Taylor had back-to-back 3-9 seasons before he was fired. He was previously the head coach at Sacramento State.
Reading between the lines, this all seems pretty simple. Troy Taylor is an asshole. Like a lot of football coaches are. He was unpleasant to work with. But still… had Troy Taylor been winning football games, he'd probably still have a job. But when everyone in the building hates you, and there are reports that you "lost the locker room", and you've gone 3-9 in back-to-back seasons. Then you're probably not gonna keep your job. Especially when you're at a school like Stanford, who you know will have a tighter leash on the "berating women" stuff than say, an SEC school. Even more specially when Stanford just hired Andrew Luck as their GM, and he's trying turn the program around. All things considered, I'm sure it was pretty clear to Luck when he looked at the situation that there's no way Troy Taylor was the answer to fixing their program. It's not like he has a long history of winning at a high level to fall back on.
So if you're Andrew Luck, you might as well move on now and build Stanford from scratch using your guys. Kinda seems like a no brainer. But in case Andrew Luck and Stanford were still on the fence about whether or not they made the right decision in firing Taylor, hopefully this TikTok from ex-Last Chance U football coach, and ex-Jeff Nadu podcast co-host, Jason Brown will give them some closure.
Firing Troy Taylor seems like it was pretty obviously the right move. But maybe Stanford is being a bit cowardly in hiding behind the fact that Troy Taylor was "bullying a female staffer", as opposed to just saying "You're fired because nobody likes you and you don't win football games". Maybe they're trying to weasel their way out of a buyout. We don't know exactly what went on behind closed doors. But as a football coach, under no circumstances do you want Jason Brown in your corner.
Even if you like the guy, unfortunately I don't think he's doing you any favors in football circles. If you're an active football coach who has ever crossed paths with Jason Brown, do yourself a favor and nip that relationship in the bud right now. Call him up and insult his mother. Anything so you don't wind up with a Jason Brown endorsement when you accidentally say the wrong thing to a compliance officer someday.
Now that Troy Taylor is gone, Stanford is bringing in Andrew Luck's old head coach Frank Reich to coach the boys for a season, while Stanford conducts a thorough search for a long-term head coach. Which means, most importantly, that on November 8th, 2025, Bill Belichick's North Carolina Tar Heels will host Frank Reich's Stanford Cardinal in a classic ACC matchup. What a weird time for college sports. You've got head coaches leaving for coordinator positions, or NFL assistant jobs, because they're tired of dealing with the NIL. Now we have NFL coaches taking over college programsadd colleges hiring GM's. None of the conferences make a lick of sense anymore. Nobody agrees on how to do the playoffs. It's like college football went through a mid-life crisis. It crashed out in the span of a couple years, and now they're stuck trying to pick up the pieces and put their life back together in a way that makes sense for everyone. But they're still not quite sure how to do it.
At least for entertainment purposes, Stanford got more interesting today. Stanford should be a fun team to watch in the coming years. How much do they really care about football? Because they have all the money in the world to build a top tier college football program if they want to. The fact that they hired Andrew Luck makes me think they do. At least to an extent. We'll find out soon enough.