By Zak Keefer, Sam Khan Jr. and Lauren Merola
Former Stanford star quarterback Andrew Luck is returning to the soccer program as basic supervisor, the college introduced Saturday. Luck will begin in his new position instantly, the college stated.
Within the expanded GM place, Luck, 35, will oversee each side of this system, each on and off the sphere. He’ll work with coach Troy Taylor on recruiting and roster administration and with administration on fundraising, alumni relations, sponsorships, student-athlete help and stadium expertise, the college stated.
Luck may also be concerned within the movie room. When requested on “School GameDay” on Saturday morning if he would have a hand within the X’s and O’s, Luck stated “completely” whereas acknowledging it’s primarily Taylor’s area. Luck stated he and Taylor are “shut,” and that he was on Stanford’s hiring committee when the college introduced Taylor on board earlier than the 2023 season.
“I think about this (position) being very hands-on,” Luck stated.
Able to construct the way forward for Stanford Soccer.#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/0F8tTTOBPx
— Stanford Soccer (@StanfordFball) November 30, 2024
Whereas Luck assuming the GM title itself isn’t distinctive, the scope of his energy is.
Based on ESPN, the whole teaching employees stories to Luck. If he has ultimate say on personnel choices, that will be a big evolution in how rosters are presently managed. In nearly each different FBS program, the top coach has the ultimate say on who’s signed — or who isn’t.
The one different program that approached one thing akin to an NFL mannequin is Texas Tech, the place head coach Joey McGuire permits his basic supervisor James Blanchard to supply scholarships to recruits with out his approval and that division is entrusted with the analysis of recruits and transfers. However McGuire nonetheless has the ultimate say.
Many energy convention packages make investments considerably in scouting and personnel departments to handle each highschool recruiting and the switch portal, just like how NFL groups dedicate employees to school (NFL Draft) and professional (free company) scouting. Some basic managers, like Blanchard, Alabama’s Courtney Morgan, Ohio State’s Mark Pantoni and Clemson’s Jordan Sorrells, make six-figure salaries. However that’s the exception, not the rule — most personnel and recruiting staffers beneath the GM make five-figure salaries.
However GMs, colloquially often known as administrators of participant personnel, have turn into vital place for contemporary packages.
The GM position in faculty soccer grew to become en vogue lately. With the launch of the switch portal in 2018 and rise of transfers since, the shift to creating transfers instantly eligible plus the addition of NIL compensation, roster administration has turn into fairly advanced. Gone are the times of merely signing 25 highschool recruits per yr. Now most groups signal a combination of highschool recruits and a double-digit variety of transfers.
Luck’s position additionally will span far past easy roster administration, although that’s a key element of it. One side that’s unclear: With the teaching employees reporting to Luck, how a lot affect will he have in hiring and firing choices? Does that stay the area of the athletic director and faculty president? If Luck has vital weight in these choices, his position extra resembles that of an NFL GM.
Stanford’s determination to present Luck extra energy than some other faculty soccer GM may foreshadow the game’s future. With income sharing on the way in which through the Home v. NCAA settlement, faculty soccer rosters might be managed equally to the way in which NFL rosters are: Payrolls should be managed. Evolving how gamers are acquired and groups are constructed solely is sensible.
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The Cardinal could also be on the innovative of school soccer program administration and putting in somebody like Luck, a pointy thoughts who has a deep soccer background and is passionate concerning the college, is a logical first step.
“I’m a product of this College, of Nerd Nation; I really like this place,” Luck stated in a press release. “I imagine deeply in Stanford’s distinctive strategy to athletics and teachers and the chance to assist drive our program again to the highest. Coach Taylor has the staff pointed in the fitting route, and I can’t wait to work with him, the employees, and the perfect, brightest, and hardest soccer gamers on the earth.”
Stanford has all the time been Luck’s completely happy place. It’s the place, in 4 years, he went from nerdy, redshirt freshman to a two-time Heisman runner-up and arguably the perfect NFL prospect since John Elway. It’s the place he met his spouse Nicole as an undergrad, and the place they settled with their two daughters in 2022 after shifting from Indianapolis — the place they lived for 3 years after he surprised the Indianapolis Colts and NFL together with his August 2019 retirement.
Luck was most not too long ago volunteering as a quarterback coach at Palo Alto Excessive College whereas pursuing his Grasp’s diploma in training at Stanford. He earned a Bachelor’s diploma in architectural design there in 2012.
However Luck was trying, since way back to the early days of his retirement, for his subsequent problem, uncertain of what was subsequent for him. He craves a problem, and retiring at such a younger age — he was simply 29 when he walked away from the NFL — left him wandering. He surfed. He skied. He cooked. He learn. For a time, he was a stay-at-home dad whereas Nicole pursued a profession in tv manufacturing. He’d generally joke with himself, saying “I can’t be retired at 30. That ain’t proper.”
So the gig with the Stanford soccer program — and a novel one at that — suits him and his abilities.
Together with Jim Plunkett and Elway, Luck is among the biggest gamers in program historical past. In three years with the Cardinal, Luck accomplished a mixed 67 % of passes for 9,430 yards and 82 touchdowns towards 22 interceptions. He added 957 yards and 7 scores on the bottom en path to a 2022 School Soccer Corridor of Fame induction.
Now, Lucks seems to reinstate dominance at Stanford after this system posted 4 straight 3-9 seasons.
“Soccer gave me quite a bit,” Luck stated final spring. “Most significantly … the relationships and the experiences with those who I really like. A part of me feels prefer it’s my flip to present again to this sport.”
Required studying
(Photograph: David Madison / Getty Photographs)
