Former Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is becoming a member of the Cardinal in a common supervisor function, the varsity introduced on Saturday. In his function, Luck will oversee all features to help this system, making him a singular determine in fashionable school soccer.
Luck will deal with each soccer and enterprise operations for this system, in response to ESPN. His function will embrace managing the coaches, gamers, recruiting and roster administration, but in addition enterprise roles like fundraising, sponsorships and gross sales.
“I’m a product of this college, of Nerd Nation; I like this place,” Luck stated in an announcement. “I imagine deeply in Stanford’s distinctive strategy to athletics and lecturers and the chance to assist drive our program again to the highest. Coach [Troy] Taylor has the group pointed in the proper route, and I can not wait to work with him, the employees, and the perfect, brightest and hardest gamers on the planet.”
Luck ranks as one of many best gamers in Stanford historical past after throwing for 9,430 yards and 82 touchdowns in three seasons and ending No. 2 within the Heisman Trophy race in 2011. He gained the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award and was named a First-team All-American by quite a few retailers. Luck went on to make 4 Pro Bowls in seven years earlier than strolling away unexpectedly with greater than $40 million remaining on his contract.
In latest years, Luck returned to Stanford to earn a grasp’s diploma. He labored as a volunteer assistant coach at Palo Alto High School over the previous two seasons, primarily working with the JV group.
“Andrew’s credentials as a student-athlete converse for themselves and along with his legacy of excellence, he additionally brings a deep understanding of the school soccer panorama and group, and an unparalleled ardour for Stanford soccer,” Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir stated. “I couldn’t consider an individual higher certified to information our soccer program by way of a constantly evolving panorama, and I’m thrilled that Andrew has agreed to affix our group. This change represents a really completely different method of working our program and competing in an evolving school soccer panorama.”
Beginning with Luck, Stanford underwent a interval of large success from 2010-18 underneath Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw. The program gained 10 video games six instances in seven years and captured the Pac-12 3 times from 2012-15. However, this system has struggled because the introduction of NIL and the switch portal. Since 2021, Stanford has gained solely three video games each season. The Cardinal fired Shaw in 2022, changing him with former Sacramento State coach Troy Taylor.
The common supervisor function is without doubt one of the most quickly altering in school sports activities. NIL is barely three years previous and the upcoming House settlement set to be the following greatest shakeup within the historical past of school sports activities is not even finalized but.
It’s unclear how shut school soccer GMs may get to an NFL mannequin, the place entrance workplace executives make multi-million greenback salaries. Will a GM outlast one head coach and work with a subsequent one? Will a GM in school ever be capable to rent and fireplace head coaches, one thing that sometimes defines the fame of more and more larger paid athletic administrators? It’s all on the desk.
“I think about this being very hands-on,” Luck stated. “We do have a imaginative and prescient. We completely have a imaginative and prescient. We are underneath no phantasm concerning the panorama of school sports activities. I imagine deeply within the distinctive worth proposition of Stanford athletics — it is the perfect, most profitable athletics division within the nation. We stay up for soccer doing its half within the Home of Champions … we shall be aggressive in recruiting and retaining the perfect expertise on the market.”
Alabama common supervisor Courtney Morgan has shortly grow to be one of many faces after serving to assemble rosters that reached the nationwide championship sport at each Michigan and Washington. Morgan joined Kalen DeBoer at Alabama and signed a contract that can pay him greater than $2.4 million over the following three seasons to primarily handle personnel. Other colleges have equally began investing massive. However, Luck’s projected function is much more all-encompassing.
MORE: The GM arms race is on: Courtney Morgan turned down over $1 million yearly from USC to remain at Alabama
