PALO ALTO, CA – SEPTEMBER 30: Former Stanford and NFL quarterback Andrew Luck is inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame at halftime of a Pac-12 NCAA college football game between the Stanford Cardinal and the Oregon Ducks on September 30, 2023 at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)
Andrew Luck is returning to his alma mater to become the general manager of the Stanford football program, he told ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
“I’m excited,” Luck told ESPN. “I think Stanford is taking an assertive and innovative step. We’re undoubtedly the best athletic department in college sports. We have to re-prove it in football, and we’re excited to be part of that challenge.”
The 35-year-old Luck, who quarterbacked the Cardinal from 2008-2011 and was a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist, is going back “home” for this newly created role that will put him atop the program’s hierarchy. The GM job will see Luck involved in everything Stanford football related, including handling the coaching staff, player personnel staff, recruiting, and roster management.
There is a business side to Luck’s new gig. He will deal with important aspects of the NCAA experience such a fundraising, sponsorships, and alumni relations.
According to Luck, this idea was devised last month in a conversation with school president Jonathan Levin when Levin proposed that the 2012 No. 1 pick in the NFL draft run the football program.
Luck has remain closely involved with Stanford since leaving for the NFL. A decade after graduating with a degree in architectural design, he went back to school and got his master’s degree in education. During the Paris Olympics this past summer, Luck and his wife, Nicole Pechanec, who was a gymnast at Stanford, helped get the school’s mascot, The Tree, to the Games to support 59 athletes with ties to the school.
“I’m a product of this place,” Luck said. “Besides my folks and the friends and extended family I grew up with, Stanford, this is home for my wife and I. I’m profoundly influenced by Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, Pep Hamilton, and all the coaches and professors that I’ve ever had.”
Luck said he understands he’s entering this job without a lot of experience, but he’s taking it on with “eyes wide open and aware of my strengths and my limitations.”
The program has plenty of work to do to turnaround their recent history. The Cardinal have not made a bowl game and have not won more than four games in a season since 2018. This year, Troy Taylor’s team is 3-9 in their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“I’m very thankful for what football has given me,” Luck said. “In many, many ways on many, many levels. Stanford is one of those deeper levels. There’s something about it, especially the people there. This is going to be a daunting challenge. It’s a steep climb. But I’m fired up.
“It’s going to take a whole team of people.”