[Mick]

Reactions:
* I noted Luck talking about coming up with a way to move forward that was best for the players....and for the coaches. Really a surprising chunk of this press conference had the vibe of doing right by the coaches. That doesn't sit right with me. College football coaches sign up to work for a head coach and when the head coach fails the assistants get a bit untethered. That's unfortunate for them but it's the profession. If we were driven at all by a desire to maintain continuity for the coaches that's not really the hard-nosed competitive instinct I want to see. Luck may be having this impulse at the same time as thinking that continuity is what is best for the team in 2025, which may or may not be a rationalization. I hope we genuinely believe - and have valid reason - that the assistant coaches are good and it's a good model for 2025 to have them on board with Reich just swapping in for Taylor. My inclination is that Reich is a categorically higher caliber of coach than Taylor and we are forfeiting a lot of the benefit of getting an NFL head coach if we aren't going to have him select a staff his caliber of coaching enables. If we go into the season with just Taylor's staff that doesn't seem optimal to me.

Great post as always, msqueri...four quick questions:

1) What do you think the odds are that the assistant coaching staff will be intact between now and the Hawaii opener?
2) What do you think the odds are that Reich returns as head coach in 2026?
3) What do you think the odds are that Luck will take over the head coaching role at any point in time?
4) How much do you think Stanford's offense and quarterbacks will improve under Reich?

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Luck also owned the question on recruiting. He said he's been involved more in recruiting than a GM typically would be, owing in part to our structure (which presumably will be only more the case with Reich than it was with Taylor). It seemed to me that our main pitch is the institution and Luck himself as continuity. It sounds like we are going to try to convince 2026 recruits that the head coach is tertiary. Kind of weird but sell what you've got, and what we've got (long-term) is Stanford University and Andrew Luck. Like I suggested above, I will be interested to see if this pitch amounts to anything more than treading water with the level of recruiting we had under Taylor.

Do you think this will be a successful recruiting pitch? Sounds like overreliance on the 40-year decision...(jk)

[Mick]

Reactions:
* I noted Luck talking about coming up with a way to move forward that was best for the players....and for the coaches. Really a surprising chunk of this press conference had the vibe of doing right by the coaches. That doesn't sit right with me. College football coaches sign up to work for a head coach and when the head coach fails the assistants get a bit untethered. That's unfortunate for them but it's the profession. If we were driven at all by a desire to maintain continuity for the coaches that's not really the hard-nosed competitive instinct I want to see. Luck may be having this impulse at the same time as thinking that continuity is what is best for the team in 2025, which may or may not be a rationalization. I hope we genuinely believe - and have valid reason - that the assistant coaches are good and it's a good model for 2025 to have them on board with Reich just swapping in for Taylor. My inclination is that Reich is a categorically higher caliber of coach than Taylor and we are forfeiting a lot of the benefit of getting an NFL head coach if we aren't going to have him select a staff his caliber of coaching enables. If we go into the season with just Taylor's staff that doesn't seem optimal to me.

Great post as always, msqueri...four quick questions:

1) What do you think the odds are that the assistant coaching staff will be intact between now and the Hawaii opener?
2) What do you think the odds are that Reich returns as head coach in 2026?
3) What do you think the odds are that Luck will take over the head coaching role at any point in time?
4) How much do you think Stanford's offense and quarterbacks will improve under Reich?

---

Luck also owned the question on recruiting. He said he's been involved more in recruiting than a GM typically would be, owing in part to our structure (which presumably will be only more the case with Reich than it was with Taylor). It seemed to me that our main pitch is the institution and Luck himself as continuity. It sounds like we are going to try to convince 2026 recruits that the head coach is tertiary. Kind of weird but sell what you've got, and what we've got (long-term) is Stanford University and Andrew Luck. Like I suggested above, I will be interested to see if this pitch amounts to anything more than treading water with the level of recruiting we had under Taylor.

Do you think this will be a successful recruiting pitch? Sounds like overreliance on the 40-year decision...(jk)