Andrew Luck makes big decision on Stanford coach

Recently, Stanford head coach Troy Taylor found himself in the middle of controversy after numerous complaints emerged about his conduct toward female athletic staffers. And after initially siding with Taylor on the matter behind closed doors, Stanford Football general manager Andrew Luck has now changed his mind about Taylor’s future at the program.

For those unfamiliar with the situation, Taylor had been accused of bullying and belittling female athletic staffers. Additionally, he reportedly seeked to have an NCAA compliance officer removed after she warned him of rules violations and repeatedly making “inappropriate” comments about another woman’s appearance.

Luck initially chose to make no public comments on the matter. And behind closed doors, Luck even reportedly spoke favorably about Taylor’s future at Stanford.

However, Luck changed his tune on Tuesday, issuing a statement publicly to inform Stanford football fans that the program would be going in a different direction at head coach and parting ways with Taylor.

“Since beginning my role as General Manager, I have been thoroughly assessing the entire Stanford football program,” Luck wrote in his statement. “It has been clear that certain aspects of the program need change. Additionally, in recent days, there has been significant attention to Stanford investigations in previous years related to Coach Taylor. After continued consideration it is evident to me that our program needs a reset. In consultation with university leadership I no longer believe that Coach Taylor is the right coach to lead our football program. Coach Taylor has been informed today and the change is effective immediately.”

These allegations are obviously incredibly damaging and would likely result in even good coaches potentially losing their job. But considering the lack of success that Taylor has had at Stanford thus far, the allegations likely made Luck’s decision a pretty easy one.

In back-to-back seasons at Stanford, Taylor’s program has floundered to the tune of a 3-9 record each of the last two seasons. Add in some off-field controversy, and the decision to part ways with him is simply a no-brainer.

Now, it will be on Luck to find the right fit to bring Stanford football back to relevancy. The program has undergone some significant struggles in recent years, with its last winning season coming all the way back in 2018, aside from the shortened 2020 season.