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Stanford football legend and current program general manager Andrew Luck made his first big move on Tuesday, firing head coach Troy Taylor one week after allegations emerged surrounding the mistreatment of female staff members.
Taylor, who completed his second season in charge of the Cardinal in 2024, is alleged to have bullied and belittled female athletic staffers. Xuan Thai of ESPN also reported that Taylor also attempted “to have an NCAA compliance officer removed after she warned him of rules violations and repeatedly made ‘inappropriate’ comments to another woman about her appearance.”
Now Chris Kamrani of Stewart Mandel of The Athletic report that Luck, who is Taylor’s direct supervisor after being named the program’s general manager in November, decided that the program must move forward without Taylor.
“It has been clear that certain aspects of the program need change,” Luck told The Athletic. “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.”
Stanford Firing Troy Taylor Shows Andrew Luck Has Unique Power Within Program
The move is significant on several levels. For one, Taylor was trying to turn around a Stanford program in severe disarray. After an unprecedented run of success under Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw, the Cardinal finished with a 3-9 record in each of the last four seasons. Stanford hired Taylor to turn that around. But his first two seasons featured much of the same.
The second, and most intreresting point, surrounds luck. At most college programs, the general manager position is hired by and works for the head coach. But that is clearly not the case here. Luck, who is widely regarded as one of football’s smartest minds, seems to have carte blanche to mold the program how he sees fit.
He’ll now have the opportunity to hire the coach of his choosing. But he’ll have to do so at a time where the coaching carousel seems settled and his options may well be sparse. What happens from here could be a defining stamp on his image as the Cardinal’s general manager.