[Goose]

It occurs to me that “interim” could also be a political move by Luck to circumvent the Stanford bureaucracy. Interim avoids the time and gate keepers of the “committee” process Stanford always insists on. If Reich has some success and looks like he’s turning us around it is simpler to remove the interim tag than to hope he’s the one the committee settles on in the first place.

It is entirely possible this is the case. An additional political reason for an "interim" tag is that Stanford is also looking for an AD, at least ostensibly. It may be "important" to many AD candidates that they get to participate in selecting the head football coach. There may also be other more concrete considerations. Reich has never been a college coach. He may want to "try it out" and see if he wants to continue doing it. He may also want to determine if Stanford is a place he wants to work "permanently". The "interim" tag gives him the flexibility to do that. At the end of the year, the answer to one or both may be "no". We have to be prepared for that to be the case. It is also possible that by next December we have another candidate that we prefer. The "interim" tag would make that simpler as well. It is also entirely possible Reich fully intends to return to the NFL in 2026. He is willing to do this for a year to keep his name "out there" and as a favor to Andrew Luck but has no intention of remaining beyond a year. It wouldn't be public if that is the case because Reich doesn't want to be a "lame duck" from day 1.

I hope that is the case and that he gets to operate like a real coach and not just a caretaker. In particular I do not want to see too much staff continuity. Our staff has not covered itself in glory and, even more importantly/fundamentally, if we are going to have a coach the caliber of Reich I really don’t want him saddled with coaches the caliber of what we attracted in MTL/Muir/Taylor times. I hope Reich and Luck swaps out a healthy number of our assistants for what they view to be upgrades. It doesn't all need to happen now but, ideally, Reich becomes a permanent coach and by January has his stamp on the program.

Ideally, that would happen. Stanford has to be prepared in case it doesn't.

[Goose]

It occurs to me that “interim” could also be a political move by Luck to circumvent the Stanford bureaucracy. Interim avoids the time and gate keepers of the “committee” process Stanford always insists on. If Reich has some success and looks like he’s turning us around it is simpler to remove the interim tag than to hope he’s the one the committee settles on in the first place.

It is entirely possible this is the case. An additional political reason for an "interim" tag is that Stanford is also looking for an AD, at least ostensibly. It may be "important" to many AD candidates that they get to participate in selecting the head football coach. There may also be other more concrete considerations. Reich has never been a college coach. He may want to "try it out" and see if he wants to continue doing it. He may also want to determine if Stanford is a place he wants to work "permanently". The "interim" tag gives him the flexibility to do that. At the end of the year, the answer to one or both may be "no". We have to be prepared for that to be the case. It is also possible that by next December we have another candidate that we prefer. The "interim" tag would make that simpler as well. It is also entirely possible Reich fully intends to return to the NFL in 2026. He is willing to do this for a year to keep his name "out there" and as a favor to Andrew Luck but has no intention of remaining beyond a year. It wouldn't be public if that is the case because Reich doesn't want to be a "lame duck" from day 1.

I hope that is the case and that he gets to operate like a real coach and not just a caretaker. In particular I do not want to see too much staff continuity. Our staff has not covered itself in glory and, even more importantly/fundamentally, if we are going to have a coach the caliber of Reich I really don’t want him saddled with coaches the caliber of what we attracted in MTL/Muir/Taylor times. I hope Reich and Luck swaps out a healthy number of our assistants for what they view to be upgrades. It doesn't all need to happen now but, ideally, Reich becomes a permanent coach and by January has his stamp on the program.

Ideally, that would happen. Stanford has to be prepared in case it doesn't.