Stanford football has a new head coach, albeit on an interim basis.
Not long after the firing of Troy Taylor as the Cardinal head coach, Stanford found a new one to handle the job, at least in the 2025 college football season, with the program reportedly hiring former Indiana Colts sideline boss Frank Reich, per Pete Thamel of ESPN.
Via Thamel on X (formerly Twitter): “Sources: Stanford is hiring veteran NFL coach Frank Reich as the school’s interim football coach for 2025 season. Both sides have agreed this will be only a one-season agreement. At that point, Stanford will launch a national search.”
Of course, Reich has a connection with the Cardinal, as Stanford football's current general manager is none other than his former starting quarterback with the Colts and Indianapolis legend himself, Andrew Luck.
In a subsequent move, Stanford has promoted tight ends coach Nate Byham, who is now the team's offensive coordinator, per Thamel.
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Before his surprising decision to retire from playing football ahead of the 2019 NFL season, Luck played a year under Reich in 2018, which was also Reich's first campaign as the team's head coach.
Reich would coach Indianapolis for until the middle of 2022 when he was fired by the team amid a 3–5–1 start. He later found a new job in the pros when the Carolina Panthers brought Reich in for the 2023 season but coached the NFC South division team for only 11 games before getting let go.
While hiring Reich is a notable move for the Cardinal, there remains plenty of work to be done by the program in the offseason. Stanford, for one, has to deal with the exodus of players from the team in the wake of Taylor's departure.
The Cardinal have 22 outgoing transfers at the moment, per 247Sports. Among them are seniors, including offensive lineman Jake Maikkula and wide receiver Mudia Reuben. Another senior leaving Stanford football is edge David Bailey.
a]:text-link [&_>a]:underline">Rexwell Villas is an experienced sports writer covering a variety of sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college football. He's a Communications Arts graduate from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.