It's Tavita Pritchard! - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: It's Tavita Pritchard! (/thread-25910.html)

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - JohnR34231 - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 03:50 PM)PalmTree Wrote:  Disappointing - oh well, onward - hopefully upward, but not holding my breath....

Yep. Wouldn't have been my choice, but we will hope for the best.
Once again, in AL we trust.
Is that the best we could have done?

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - Spiny_Norman - 11-28-2025

Doesn't move the needle much for me. But he at least should come cheap. Stanford certainly was not competing with anyone else for Tavita's services for next season.

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - 2006alum - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 04:10 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  Doesn't move the needle much for me. But he at least should come cheap. Stanford certainly was not competing with anyone else for Tavita's services for next season.

I think that's my biggest reason for skepticism - if he's so great, why hasn't he found more demand elsewhere? Quarterbacks coach for 1.5 seasons is the full extent of his non-Stanford coaching experience. And that his 4 seasons as OC at Stanford corresponded with four of our worst offensive seasons in memory is doubly concerning. 

ESPN says they considered 30 candidates and garnered "strong interest from both the college and NFL world." Really? And we end up with someone I think most people were happy to say goodbye to just three seasons ago?

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - martyup - 11-28-2025

He's now our coach.  Until he fails to meet expectations, he has my full support.

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Chip.burns@glenborough.com - sunnyside sudser - 11-28-2025

Makes me wonder how many people turned us down

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - rudruff - 11-28-2025

I feel like there are enough other challenges to the program that this isn't some sort of brobdingnagian issue. He knows the program, knows the school, knows a lot of the key players already. Bigger issues are 


Keeping more players through the end of their eligibility. Tired of finding senior O-linemen at other schools that started here and transferred. 

Better portal use. We should be stealing soon to graduate seniors instead of losing them. Leland Stanford would have wanted it that way.

Walk over to the development office and figure out how to move some of the billions they raise each year into NIL.

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RE: Chip.burns@glenborough.com - PalmTree - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 04:25 PM)sunnyside sudser Wrote:  Makes me wonder how many people turned us down

Thanks - I needed that!  And a good drink...

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - CompSci87 - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 04:19 PM)martyup Wrote:  He's now our coach.  Until he fails to meet expectations, he has my full support.

I'm with Marty. To me it's a lot more fun to be optimistic.

I won't blame Pritchard for the slow mesh, as that was always presented as Shaw's idea. At least I'm sure he won't bring it back!

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RE: Chip.burns@glenborough.com - chrisk - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 04:28 PM)PalmTree Wrote:  

(11-28-2025, 04:25 PM)sunnyside sudser Wrote:  Makes me wonder how many people turned us down

Thanks - I needed that!  And a good drink...

Pritchard is the same age as Shaw when he was hired as head coach in 2011. Were Shaw's credentials that much more impressive than Pritchard's at that time?

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Northwestern promoted a 38-year-old FCS defensive coordinator to head coach (initially as interim). Braun has taken a team that had been 4-20 in the previous 2 years and has them at 18-18 since. Stanford will have dodged a major bullet if it goes 18-18 or better in the next 3 years. That would likely mean 2 bowl games.

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RE: Chip.burns@glenborough.com - 2006alum - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 04:32 PM)chrisk Wrote:  

(11-28-2025, 04:28 PM)PalmTree Wrote:  

(11-28-2025, 04:25 PM)sunnyside sudser Wrote:  Makes me wonder how many people turned us down

Thanks - I needed that!  And a good drink...

Pritchard is the same age as Shaw when he was hired as head coach in 2011.  Were Shaw's credentials that much more impressive than Pritchard's at that time?

He had moved up the coaching ladder at a variety of non-Stanford institutions, mostly in the NFL. Although he also hadn't been a head coach prior to his appointment, my sense was that there was a broader non-Stanford consensus about his abilities than I think there is with Pritchard?

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - ELcat - 11-28-2025

Congratulations Coach Tavita!

I figured this would be the choice given his relationship with Andrew. For this to succeed, everyone has to be on the same page from Levin to Luck to Pritchard. Their legacy will be tied together. I’m happy that a dorm mate, fellow Stanford 09er, and accomplished football player and coach will now have the opportunity to lead his alma mater.

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - SkiBum80 - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 03:50 PM)PVTree Wrote:  Cautiously optimistic. If Tavita had some head coaching experience. I would be more enthusiastic about the hire.

He checks many of the boxes in terms of knowing the school, it's culture, the people, facilities, recruiting landscape, etc.

I thought he was the favorite to be offered the job because of how connection to Andrew, but thought there's more qualified coaches or there we should be making a priority. 

Here's hoping for the best as I trust Andrew, but don't want this to be an early 10s reunion amongst friends.

I'm with PVTree's sentiments. 
Lack of experience can be compensated for, even overcome, if have strong motivation, energy, focus, and learn quickly.
Hoping that Pritchard exhibits that.
Also as rudruff said, better to redirect some of the mega bucks that would have gone to a mega bougie-named coach, instead towards players.
And as others have well said, a lot will depend on what coaching staff we end up with.

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RE: Chip.burns@glenborough.com - Embo - 11-28-2025

In the >50 years I've been a devotee of Stanford football, there have been four coaches hired who had no prior experience as a head coach anywhere.

1976 - Bill Walsh.  Not much needs to be added.  I'm proud he will always be associated with Stanford.
1978 - Rod Dowhower.  He's kind of an outlier, as he was just one year.  I will never know why he resigned.  He had John Elway and shook up the college football world with the tie at #1 USC.
1995 - Ty Willingham.  Was never even a coordinator.  Despite his exit, he was undoubtedly a terrific leader.
2010 - David Shaw.  who would have thought we'd go to three Rose Bowls in 4 years?

So, for Tavita, it was a surprise, but I am optimistic. I've been pretty negative about college football for the past two years, with NIL, the transfer portal, and how it's essentially free agency.  I'll be renewing my season ticket.

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RE: Chip.burns@glenborough.com - PalmTree - 11-28-2025

(11-28-2025, 04:32 PM)chrisk Wrote:  

(11-28-2025, 04:28 PM)PalmTree Wrote:  

(11-28-2025, 04:25 PM)sunnyside sudser Wrote:  Makes me wonder how many people turned us down

Thanks - I needed that!  And a good drink...

Pritchard is the same age as Shaw when he was hired as head coach in 2011.  Were Shaw's credentials that much more impressive than Pritchard's at that time?

To be fair, his credentials weren't - but Shaw also didn't come in after being one of the top staff on-board during a four year descent into the Marianas trench of college football. As with my sometimes epicly bad game predictions, I'll be happy to be proven otherwise.

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - ELcat - 11-28-2025

Did folks read the quotes in his press release? Pretty impressive that they were able to get a bunch of lofty quotes from Dan Quinn, Kliff Kingsbury, Marcus Mariota, and Zach Ertz.

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - Chupacabra - 11-28-2025

The pessimism here is embarrassing. We really don't know anything about him as a coach, he was a non-play calling OC under Shaw. He got a great year out of Jayden Daniels as a rookie, though that's hard to quantify because of Daniels's talent and Kingsbury as OC. He does now have two years under a really good coach in Quinn. We don't know anything about the system he wants to run or where he lands on the CEO-play caller scale.

What we do know is that he was the QB for what was possibly the most important win in program history, and that Andrew Luck believes in him. He's also an alum, which increases the chance that he's not going to jump to a bigger program or the NFL at the first sign of success.

I'm convinced many on this board don't actually want to enjoy the team, preferring to wallow in their misery instead of living optimism.

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - BobK - 11-28-2025

While I believe in the Peter Principle I feared a re tread I’m excited I’m happy
The key as with any manager is the staff
The other key we so need a QB. Maybe he brings Mariota with him lol

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - SkiBum80 - 11-28-2025

A further thought...
I was very concerned that Stanford might offer a Coach whose move to Stanford would be sideways at best, or even a step down.
There were many many Coach names floated on this board where this would have been the case.
The reason I didn't relish that, is that I believe the nature of human motivation and enthusiasm is not so great when making a sideways or downward move.
(a recent poster boy for this observation is Belichick at UNC, a $10 mil / year data point)
Far better natural motivation if the move to Stanford is clearly an upward move.
Which it is for Pritchard.

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - ELcat - 11-28-2025

https://x.com/blutman27/status/1994528637916516571?s=46

For those who said others were not interested.

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RE: It's Tavita Pritchard! - d4cohn - 11-28-2025

Echoing what others have said: positives are Tavita embodies the characteristics of the university, understands its mission deeply (not insignificant after the disaster of the TT tenure).

Negatives to me seem this is a complacent hire at a time when we can least afford to be complacent. I have always rated David Shaw's tenure higher than Harbaugh's (on account of the peaks being higher and Shaw doing it for longer), but we need a Harbaugh like figure in the sense of innovation and trying something different (because the last several years simply haven't worked).

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(11-28-2025, 04:58 PM)Chupacabra Wrote:  The pessimism here is embarrassing. We really don't know anything about him as a coach, he was a non-play calling OC under Shaw. He got a great year out of Jayden Daniels as a rookie, though that's hard to quantify because of Daniels's talent and Kingsbury as OC. He does now have two years under a really good coach in Quinn. We don't know anything about the system he wants to run or where he lands on the CEO-play caller scale.

What we do know is that he was the QB for what was possibly the most important win in program history, and that Andrew Luck believes in him. He's also an alum, which increases the chance that he's not going to jump to a bigger program or the NFL at the first sign of success.

I'm convinced many on this board don't actually want to enjoy the team, preferring to wallow in their misery instead of living optimism.

I think I was as optimistic on David Shaw at the end of his tenure as anyone on the board, but time and circumstances call for different hires at different times. Continuity hires (like David Shaw) work really well when the program is on a high. Yes, our last change hire was a disaster on the field and apparently off, but I believe we need a change hire when we haven't put up a winning record in 5 years.

At the end of the day, even if we set aside convincing the donor base (which is arguably very important in the NIL era), Tavita is going to have convince recruits with other options football and NIL wise why his tenure as HC will be different than 2019, 2021 and 2022 as OC. I think Tavita will be a great representative of the university, but I don't think this question will be an unreasonable/unfair one from recruits, donors etc.

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