The McShay Show - Stanford GM Andrew Luck on Life After Football, Harbaugh Stories, 2027 QB Advice, and More

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Welcome back to The McShay Show! Todd and Steve open by reacting to the news that the Big Ten and SEC voted to ban NFL players from returning to college after signing professional contracts. Then, they’re joined by Stanford GM and former no. 1 pick Andrew Luck to talk about life after football, his favorite Jim Harbaugh story, the best college QB of all time, his advice for 2027 draft prospects, and more.(00:00) Welcome to The McShay Show!(01:45) CFB Conferences Ban NFL Players from Returning(10:15) Who's actually making the final decisions?(27:20) Andrew Luck joins the show!(28:03) Favorite Coach Harbaugh Memories(29:55) Andrew Luck's Relationship with Football(34:35) Role as the GM of Stanford Football(37:45) Sharing Responsibilities with Coach Tavita Pritchard(40:13) Football and Business Lessons from Dad(43:18) Expectations for Stanford QB Davis Warren(44:43) Andrew Luck's playing career at Stanford(47:32) Developing the Stanford Football Program(49:48) Advice for Top QB Prospects(53:05) Rapid fire questions with Andrew Luck Nintendo: Power up your play with Nintendo Switch 2. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines.Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve Muench, Andrew LuckProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Abou Kamara Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The SEC and Big Ten draw a firm line in the sand. No players that even sniffed professionalism are going to be playing football in their conferences, or basketball for that matter. Should Kiffin stay in his lane, or is this a war worth waging? Plus, we have a special guest today, and his name is Andrew Luck, and we are pumped to have him. Just 246 days until the NFL draft. Metsch, you good? I'm stoked, man.

Roll that beat, talk. This episode is brought to you by Nintendo, when you've got different ages, different interests, and a busy schedule, finding something everyone can enjoy is a win. Boy, do I know that. The Nintendo Switch 2 system gives you options with games like Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bonanza, and EA Sports FC26. Two controllers are included so you can start playing together right away. And many existing Nintendo Switch games also work on Nintendo Switch 2. Learn more at nintendo.com slash Nintendo Switch 2. Games and systems sold separately.

Some Nintendo Switch games may not be supported or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2. Games rated E to E10 plus. Well, that didn't take long with the SEC and the Big Ten, huh? No, I saw the first statement they put out had no teeth. It was, we don't really like this. Yeah, we don't really like this. And I was like, well, that's not liking something. isn't stopping it or preventing it from happening.

And then sure enough, sure enough, hours later, they came out and said, no, no. Yeah, and the Big Ten, I think the Big Ten came out with their teeth before the SEC. Right away. It required a vote. And it was Zoom calls and arguments and discussions. And then typically what happens is, you know, the schools like LSU will state their case. But essentially, you wind up falling in line and voting. and it's unanimous votes from both the SEC and the Big Ten to not allow players,

and I could read all of it, but essentially players who have signed contracts, who have participated in camps in the NFL, also for like the G League, WMBA. So essentially, as I said, off the top, if you've sniffed anything professionalism, if you've been a part of whether it's a contract or participating, you're not allowed to come back. and play football or basketball in these respective conferences, right? Right. How did we get here? Let's work off of this.

The NCAA moved towards, as we all know, five seasons, five for five of competition within a five-year eligibility window. The new policy applies beginning with athletes who entered the, enter college in 2023, right? Not the high school class of 2022, okay? So a group of 2022 players sued arguing that they should receive the same fifth year, right? A Louisiana judge, enter the state judges again. A Louisiana judge granted a temporary restraining order to a group of those players creating this bizarre situation that we're sitting in right now, right?

Right. Some had already exhausted what they believe was their eligibility, entered the NFL, signed contracts, and participated in training camp preseason, right? and now have a court order potentially allowing them back into college. Okay. The poster child for all of this is Dayquan Wright, the tight end, former Ole Miss Tide end, who signed with the Eagles, undrafted, then was claimed by the Cleveland Browns, was participating in training camp before getting waived. Another player that's not spoken about as much, but is as big a story in all of this, is Xavier Harris, former Ole Miss player, signed with the Saints,

drafted and was waived earlier this month. So those two players, plus you've got junior Tuia Hala, Tuiahala Maka, who was a former Notre Dame player, but he also didn't sign with or appear in an NFL roster, so his case is a little different. Why am I mentioning these three players? All three have been invited to go play for the LSU Tigers, Lane Kiffin, right? And, And actually, my understanding, I've had some conversations last night and this morning. My understanding is they're in Baton Rouge, and they are set to participate in practice as early as this week. I guess the college football season is we're staring down the gun barrel, right? Okay.

So that's the backdrop in all of this. There's a lot of different angles here, Steve. So I'm just going to throw it to you. What jumps out, like what's your first response when you're hearing all this? you're watching the news come down, you're scouring social media, you're looking at the SEC and the Big Ten scrambling,

getting votes in, saying, no, you can't do it, but also knowing this isn't the end of it. What are your thoughts? What a cluster fuck. Again, just a cluster fuck. I mean, this is what this is, right? Like, you know, like, tell me you didn't know Big Ten.

Tell me you didn't know SEC that when these players filed the injunction a month ago, that this was a possibility and you could have come out and said, we understand that this is going through the courts right now. But that being said,

those players will not be allowed to play in our conferences. They can play college football, but not in our conferences. Did they do that? No, they didn't do that. And here's what really pisses me off about this is that it's always about the game.

Like, this is not an integrity of the game thing. Like when it's gambling and it's Brendan Sorsby, that's a bigger than the game issue. You have to protect the game. We're talking about giving another year of eligibility. Let's just take Dayquan right, okay? He played seven games at Virginia Tech as a freshman. If he had played four games, he would still be eligible and he had a chance to go back. If he had the opportunity, if they had said earlier that the 22 class was included in the

five for five, he may never have gone to the pros. We don't know. He would have had that decision to make. So to me, it's never thinking about the player. Like we're going to hurt Dayquan right because we don't like the way this is going. And I really wonder in my mind, and they've got to clean it up. You can clean it up going forward, but this is where we are today. This is the state of the union as we are today. And so we're going to throw our hands up and be like, this is just unfair and it's not good for the game. Understood. Not DeKuan Wright's fault. Not LSU's fault. Like figure it out college football. It's on the decision makers. It's not on these guys. Like I just don't get it. And I do wonder, I do wonder if Kirby Smart,

if this was a case that happened in Georgia and Kirby Smart, who is a just, you know, right, so looked as one of the most respected coaches of the game, said, no, I'm not, like, we're going to give these kids an opportunity to play because it's the right thing, and I'm not going to leave them out in the wind, and a judge has ruled that this is okay for us to do. Would we feel differently about it, or is it this

is there a little bit of a Lane Kiffin thing going on here? I mean, your phone was buzzing while you're talking. I don't know if it's Craig Sankey. I don't know if it was Lenkiffin. I'm throwing the phone. I've done the phone. It might have been Kirby Smart calling. I'm sure it was important.

All right, so. I mean, cluster fuck's accurate, right? It's, well, here. So let me give you one more bit of information because I, listen, like, this is our job. Like, when all of this news is going down, like, it's my job to pick up the phone and start calling or texting people to try to get more information. It's our job, but it's not really our lane. It's not our, like, designated lane. Now, we have to in this job.

And fortunately, 26 years of contacts. and working with people and fostering relationships. Like it's easy for us to dive in and get this information and to stay, you know, in tune with what's going on and also we have strong opinions on it. But I don't expect or suspect, and quite frankly, like if I'm on the beach somewhere or on vacation, the middle of the end of the summer,

like I'm not following this thing and I'm kind of like, all right, so the SEC Big Ten, it's over. Like, you can't do it. Well, that's, that's the part I want to share and make sure everyone who's watching and listening is clear on. Like, the SEC's attempting to stop Lane Kiffin specifically because we've got those three players now in Baton Rouge. Now, it doesn't mean that there, there could be others, right? But as it pertains right now, we're talking about those three players that I mentioned. And mostly, to be frank, Dayquan, right, the tight end, Zavian Harris, the defensive tackle. The SEC's attempting to stop Kiffin.

And that becomes the story because Kiffin is the most polarizing human being in college football, arguably in all of college sports. And so now it becomes a Kiffin versus the world, right? Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. And so, well, like, information-wise, the SEC's attempting to stop Kiffin, right? And Harris would be ineligible under the SEC's newly adopted policy that just came to fruition yesterday. yesterday. But stay tuned, folks. That's the important part here. Don't think because the SEC and the

Big Ten got the commissioners or the presidents together, they all voted unanimously that this is done. You should, first of all, you should know college football better. Secondly, no Kiffin better. And thirdly, you better get to know the state of Louisiana better. Okay. Yeah. Because let me tell you something. The policy has to survive legal challenges. That's the open question right now. And I, this is fact in the state of Louisiana. And we've seen from, from one state, like Texas with the Sorsby situation, Louisiana was

some of its situation, different states trump college rulings and states. Yes. Rulings in state district courts within the state trump conference decisions and rules, right? Correct. this is the power structure in the state of Louisiana. And the state of Louisiana, unless something drastically changes in the next couple of weeks, the state of Louisiana, it appears ultimately will make this decision, right? The power structure in the state of Louisiana is Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry.

And just below Landry is Lane Kiffin. And you go several notches down with all due respect. power player, but not Landry and not Kiffin. Several notches down is LSU president, Wade Rouse. And people, my first question was, wait, unanimous? SEC voted unanimously? Which would mean, yeah. LSU still in the SEC.

So now the president of LSU is voting against the second most powerful person in the state of Louisiana. And I got news for you. Kiffin's got the support of Landry, the governor. So now he's voting against both Kiffin and Landry. And I get news for you too. Who do you think puts, this is a state school, folks. The SEC, I mean the Louisiana State University,

your ultimate boss is the governor. So why did, why did Rouse vote with? Apparently there was a Zoom call before the Zoom call where Rouse was fighting vehemently and stating, listen, I know I answer to this group in the SEC, paychecks come from, this is my employee. So I will fall in line publicly, but I'm also telling y'all that the Louisiana State University is going to fight this, right? Yeah. And we got the support of the higher ups.

So that's it. So that's where we stand. Yeah. That's the, here's where I am. I can sit here and we can do 40 more minutes on how big of a cluster, as you put it. The structure is in college football, right? I've said so many times on this, and you've heard it from other people too. My conversations with general managers and head coaches in college football, and I've had over a dozen of them on these kind of matters alone,

what's going to save college sports, college football specifically. And it's like because there are so many people with their hands out from these like agents and what do they call, like the runners and all the way up to, you know, to college coaches. There's a lot of people who have their hands out and are benefiting from the system being in total disarray right now. So you're not going to find people who are a part of this, who are collecting off of it that are going to, promote, yeah, we need a structure. Yeah. The line between amateurism and professionalism, it's gone.

So as college programs bring in Andrew Luck to be their general manager, who will have on the show in just a few minutes. They bring in Jim Nagy, former NFL, NFL front office guy and senior director of the executive director of the Senior Bowl. as they bring in Caldwell, former general manager to be Florida, as they bring in all these NFL guys to run front offices for college sports.

Within the buildings, everyone's getting the memo. This is no longer amateurism. We have to have a salary cap. We have to have a pay structure. Positions have specific values, right? We're not going to pay a right guard the same thing we're paying a wide receiver or quarterback. So that's all going on in each individual business.

building. What's not going on is the same overarching governing system that is in place with all these other leagues that are professional. If the structure and the pay structure and everything else is going to act in line with that of professionalism, why do we not have a governing body? I can sit here and I can bang on the door. There has to be a commissioner with a board or a group underneath that commissioner. And then there has to be. a PA, a college football players association, and then they have to have collective bargaining. And they've got to fight to see which side gets this and that in the power structure, right? And who benefits financially?

And how are we going to protect the players on the other side? How many games do we want to play? How much money are we going to get from the TV networks, right? So all of that has to be in place. So my new mindset on all of this is, fuck it all. Yeah. Every time there's an opportunity, every time. there's an opportunity to create disarray to draw more attention from the national government

to to everyone involved of how big of a mess this situation is. My new stance on it is, go for it. We're in the middle of us. It's like guerrilla warfare. It's guerrilla warfare. Like let's make this as the most wild wild west situation we can possibly make it. So finally someone, so you're going to see like the National Guard come in with like tanks and like ground troops and air support. Because finally, there's got to be enough mess for someone to finally say, we got to clean it out. Exactly.

We're allowing these conferences just to throw band-aids on things and get together and do votes and just pushing all of these major issues down the road until they actually get hurt, until actually something happens that they realize it's out of their control and forces them to the table, forces them to do things that we, I think. that most people who are around college football who followed college football are like yeah duh mickshay like that's exactly what they need like we all know that's what needs to happen it's just not happening which is your right but i can sit here and until then so i sat around because we knew we were going to talk about this today i sat around last night and then early this morning grabbing a cup of coffee

sitting at the harbor like clear of mind after a good night's sleep for the first time like a really good night's sleep nice clear headed and i'm sitting there and i'm like i legitimately can argue both sides here Oh yeah. I can argue, like, why, why doesn't DeKuan Wright get another chance to play a year of college? Why doesn't Zavian Harris get another chance to play college? You guys created the rule. Let them come back and play. Maybe they have the best year of their lives.

Maybe they turn that into a six-round pick and an opportunity, and maybe they just come back and make a few hundred thousand dollars and have a great year and do their best. And it helps to find them because they've faced adversity and whatever it is. I can see that. And then I see the other side where it's like, man, we got this blurred line. We've got to have structure. Man, that sucks that a player or two could get cut from the LSU football team that have been grinding it out. You and I were there.

That sucks. 5.30 in the morning with air horns waking us up for our first practice out in 90 degree heat with 87% humidity. And then come back and we lost 12 pounds because you weigh in before the first practice and after the first practice. Then you go get lunch and you go get like pre-tape and wrapped up again and you go get another. then when you're done with that next practice and you've lost 24, 26 pounds during that day, and you're trying to build that back up, you're sitting in meetings trying to stay awake at night so you can learn the new install for the next day. That's a fucking grind, man.

That's the part. Everyone sees the fun and the bands and the cheerleaders and the crowds and the tailgates and the awesome camera angles we have and the buses rolling in and the walkouts and all the pageantry and all the beautiful parts of college football. most people who are watching and listening to this or any other college football show don't know is what goes into that Saturday. Yep. 12 of them, 13, 15, 16, whatever it is.

The amount of commitment, the dedication. And what you're taught from your head coach who stands in front of you in meetings and from every position coach around him is when you want to quit, when something's wrong, look to your brother to your right, look to your brother to your left, fight through it, deal with the pain. So you're giving literally more than you ever thought as a human being you could give to something. Yep. And now that guy's going to get cut.

I don't care if he's the worst player on the team. So I can argue both sides of it. But my new stance is I want all the chaos in the world so we can finally this beautiful sport that we all love, that we can finally have a system in place where it feels competitively fair, reasonable. And we can all, there's all the NFL, the, the, the, the, The NFL fights with the players association, and they get in a collective bargaining. But that's healthy because that creates a little bit more of a balance for everyone involved. That's what I am.

By the way, college baseball and college hockey are completely different. I mean, they have different rules because the pros can come in and draft those guys and they can go back and play. So this is like a totally unthinkable thing that football could maybe figure something out. And if they don't want to go that route, that's fine. but be clear with everyone about what the rules are. Like, I don't understand. I think Todd Monkin's going to be a good coach for the Browns. Talented coach, talented staff.

Kellen Moore is a good coach with the talents of staff in New Orleans. It amazes me that they can take a kid who wasn't drafted and turn them into such a difference maker in a month or whatever time they have with them on the field. That is such an unfair advantage over everyone else. It's insanity to me. It's okay. It's okay for a Brandon Whedon,

Chris Winkie who won the Heisman at 28. At 28. It's okay for those guys to be away from football because the clock didn't start. It was a different sport. Yeah, yeah, stop with that. That's a good point. And we don't have to get into a big thing on this. We got Andrew Luck is waiting.

I'm thrilled to talk to Andrew. He doesn't do a lot of this national media stuff. So I feel quite frankly kind of honored that he's doing it with us today. But what about? I think age structure is going to be really important as we try to get a grip on some of the things going on. Like, I don't like that. I remember walking into a college locker room, and granted, it was a University of Richmond. It ain't Alabama.

It ain't Michigan, Ohio State, you know, but still looking at some of the 22-year-olds and maybe a few fifth-year guys who were turning 23 and looking at their bodies. Yeah, it was different. Five years of those critical years of maturing, weightlifting. conditioning, um, the nutrition, all like,

they look different. I'm afraid of that, you know, like that, that's going to hit me, you know? And so now we're talking about 24, 25,

26 and some, so like, I wonder if we're smarter to start viewing this in a different lens versus just the eligibility. Yeah, fine,

put a cap on how many years they can play, but also find, like, is it 23? you know, is 24 the cap? What is that cap on when it becomes like, there's a competitive disadvantage.

Right. There's more an advantage there. To ask some star 18-year-old who comes in who's talented enough to be on the field, but might get his, you know, brains beaten in by some 25-year-old, gotten grown-ass man who's been pounding weights and like doing all the right things for six years now, you know?

Yeah. or seven or eight, you know? Yeah, it's that's, yeah. All right. I think it's actually almost a disadvantage. I'm just going to say this really quickly. Dick on Wright played in Link Kiven's system. I get that.

He didn't play with Sam Levitt. He hasn't been catching balls from Sam Levitt. He's going to have to do so. If he's able to play, he's going to have to do some catching up in some ways. Like this whole idea of like these guys were magically changed by their, there's brief amount of time in an NFL camp. And now that this is an absolute no-no. is it's mind-blowing to me.

Well, and here's the other part. I want to leave you with him. I know I get chided a lot for, oh, you love Lane, Lane Kiff. And yeah, like, I told you. I texted one other than the other day. It's always about, like, football or, like, other stuff. But, like,

Lane Kiffin's awesome at developing quarterbacks. I love Lane Kiffin's offense. Lane Kiffin's been doing this a long time. Lane Kiffin keeps reinventing himself and growing. I love all those things about Lane. It doesn't mean I always agree with his sensibilities. I don't like all. all the drama and stuff that comes with Lane sometimes.

Now, professionally gives us a lot to talk about. So I'm not like anti. I'm not like, he's always interesting, right? So that, but like I always say, all right, if I'm running that show, how am I handling certain things, right? Right. So don't make this about, of course, McShay's going to side with Lane and now all of a sudden he's like more chaos, the better.

It ain't that. I don't like, just because, just because I appreciate Lane and a lot of his growth and what he has done as a coach and certain aspects of his life doesn't mean I agree with all sensibilities. I love you. I appreciate you. You work your ass off. You're really good at what you do, Mesh.

You and I don't agree on everything in life and morality. There's certain things that like, yeah, we can agree to disagree. And that's okay. Yeah. This isn't about Lane specifically. This for me personally is about the players first and foremost. And it's about college football finally getting its act together because it's, it's, yes, it's embarrassing.

And we spend way too much time not talking about, I was on with Brandon Walker, right, with his new show recently. And I was like, my gosh, man, like you and Josh Pate, like, you guys, like, it's great. But like, can we start talking about the players? I haven't heard anyone on any show. And we're in mid-August at that point. Right. Can we talk about, like, we get Jeremiah Smith.

We get Dylan Stewart, we got Colin Simmons, we got Arch Manning, Dante Moore, Julian Sayan, C.J. Carr. Like, we're walking into the best season potentially talent-wise that we've maybe ever seen, especially at some of the most important positions. And my God, I feel like it's a wasted summer. All we've talked about is Sorsby and the gambling. And now these rulings and the N.I.L. and the transfer portal and what do we do and five for five. And like, can we just, can we get some shit together? Can we get our stuff straight?

So we can start focusing on what's awesome, like the coaches, the players, the guys we're going to see on Saturday, you know? Yeah. Maybe Andrew Luck. I'm certain Andrew Luck will be a breath of fresh air because this stuff gets old. Yeah. I mean, Andrew Luck, man, highest grade I've ever given a player. This is great.

He doesn't do a lot of national media. General manager now. Try to behave yourself. Oh, I always do. General manager now of Stanford. Pumped to having them on. He's coming up right now. The McShay Show is brought to you by Fandoul.

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Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with I Gaming Ontario. There he is, as promised, Andrew Luck. And men's during the break was kind of riding me about my evaluation of you. I thought I was like, where are the negatives, McShay? Going back to the 2012 draft. Highest grade ever?

Highest grade ever, 99 grade. Only player to ever get a 99 grade. How about that? That's who we're speaking to. Y'all know how to make me feel good starting a more. Yeah, we're just warming. We're warming you up before we start beating you up. No, I want to get to what you're doing now

and obviously what brought you back to Stanford. But I do want to start with this because I've spent not nearly as much time with Harbaugh as you have. But I'm curious, because I've got plenty of stories, and I've just kind of worked with them and done a couple things. I'm curious if you had to give one Harbaugh story, what would it be? Just one. One that you can share, I guess.

Jim was awesome. We were voting on his yet-to-be-born child's name in a quarterback meeting. Of course. You know, things like that. Only he could turn that into a competition, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always a competition. My gosh, you know, it's been fun.

He's been on my mind. I've chatted with him a bit more because Davis Warren earned the starting job as our quarterback this year. And Coach Harbaugh recruited Davis to Michigan, stuck by him through cancer and a COVID loss season. And so, and Tavita, Pritchard, our head coach, also played for, you know, for Jim. And he was his first boss. Tevita has some great stories. But a lot of, it's funny, a lot of Coach Harbaugh-Isms are coming back. And, you know, when, like, when you used to get compliments from someone,

He'd tell us to kick them the shins, not kick them in the shins. It was kick them the shins. We'd go around kicking people the shins. Right? One of the beauties of Coach Harbaugh is that he coached hard, and he was not afraid to coach people hard. But on game day, he had your back. You felt it.

You felt like he would run through a brick wall for you. I mean, if he could go, he would do anything to support his guys on the field. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I think everyone kind of, everyone who's played with him for him kind of shares that sentiment. I'm curious with you personally, as we kind of, you know, bring back to where you are today as a general manager and what you're trying to accomplish with Stanford. Like, the relationship with football for Andrew Luck after retirement. Like from the outside looking in, right?

I have to believe, like, physically, emotionally, quite a toll this game that you love took on you. And so if you don't mind sharing, maybe kind of like what the ebbs and flows have been with your relationship with football. And then ultimately kind of did it take time, some healing physically, emotionally to get back to the game that you grew up loving. Yeah. And I obviously, I am in love with this game in a different way. It's part of what brings me, you know, to be general manager of this program. And it's part of why I volunteer football coached at Pally High for a couple years before this. You know, Palo Alto High School right across the street.

And so, yeah, I, I, you know, it was certainly my choice to stop, but there's still a, what I would call. And I think I see this in a number of guys who, when the game ends for you as a player, that you go through a grieving process. There was a massive part of my identity that no longer existed. And yes, you referenced it was a complicated identity, you know, to a certain degree. But I still, I think I didn't realize how much of my view of myself was colored in a positive or negative way on being a quarterback and a good one, always delivering for his teammates and making people, you know, lifting people up, lifting your teammates up around you. And go into the T.Y. Hilton's and the Zach Ertz's in college, you know, and like getting the protect, there was something that I, that filled me with purpose and that no longer existed. Now, that also came in a moment in my life where our first daughter was about to be born. Like there were other things that, you know, that that were a lot of colors. So a little bit of a grieving process, I'd say, a complicated relationship. I didn't want to watch football that first year. I didn't play. I heard for my friends. Like I remember, you know, you know, you know, Jacoby Brissette and I would talk because he was the quarterback that took over in Indy that year.

And I tried to make sure I have his back, but coming to terms with like the feeling of quitting on your teammates, because that's what I felt. That was a part of what I did, was quit on my team. Yeah. You know, and holding that in tension, that can be true. And also there can be reasons I needed to do it, you know? Right. And so I, there was a level of work that needed to be done.

My wife put up with me, and I'm an out loud private. processor. I got to talk things out loud and blah, blah, and at some point during the middle of, and it was the middle of COVID, right? Like we're spending a bunch of time together with us and our little baby and she turned to me. She goes, Andrew, I have never heard someone talk about themselves so much. My wife says the same thing to me. Well, that's good. I'm married to an out loud processor. Now I maybe I just got a tip on how to maybe potentially, you know. But then I, I then, I did. Slowly but surely, I think, started to pull out, started to look at football in a different way, started to really appreciate what coaches meant to my life, what my middle school, high school,

college, NFL coaches meant to my life. My relationship with Frank Reich got stronger, right? And I quit on him, you know? And so that sort of led to appreciation, a level of gratitude. and I hesitate to say gratitude because I think oftentimes the word gets stripped from some of its meaning in our current...

In our society, yes. Yeah, but like a sense of like, man, how lucky was I to get to do what I got to do? You know? And man, I need to... Man, this game, like I got to... I got to give back. Like, I get that sort of...

And so that led me back to graduate school thinking about coaches and teachers and how important high school football coaches are that led me to volunteer coach for a couple years. And then it led me to where I'm sitting now which is like right where I'm supposed to be, right where I'm supposed to be. And like, I didn't, like, we didn't win a Super Bowl. I didn't live out the dream all the way, right?

Like, didn't quite make it to that mountaintop. But, but certainly not ashamed of how my career went. And truly thankful for, for it because I am where I am now. And I'm right where I'm supposed to be. Yeah, I, I'm excited to see what you're going to do as the GM at Sanford. I mean, he likes, me too. I like to look back. I like to look forward, okay?

So now you're the GM at Stanford. It's like a new position in college football. It's the wild, wild west of college football. It seems like the landscape is shifting daily. What is one thing that has changed or maybe that you've learned since you took the job that going in, you didn't really expect this to be a part of it? Oh, man. I, look, when you're in charge of a program and there's 112, 18 to 22 year olds and their prefrontal cortex

are still the size of peas and they're like, you know, there's just stuff comes up and it's humans. And like, we don't ask our guys to be football robots. We ask them to show up as people, you know, as real humans. So there's certainly leading an organization of players and coaches that the human element has been both a lot of fun and a challenge. College recruiting. I mean, you guys see stories, you guys hear things I imagine. You talk to you. College recruiting is wild, right?

Like in it, and it's, yeah. And in the intersection of portal and money and old school, high school recruiting mixed, mixed with all is new. And speed dating in a transfer portal and trying to suss out character. And like, you know, I think the first hopped in to this job and we were, we started a portal immediately. And I was like, can I call this person? Is it illegal for me to call this person? What if I know the player's dad previously? Because I played in the NFL.

Like, so there's recruiting rules that ostensibly still matter, right? try to follow. And so recruiting is fun. And I enjoy it. I enjoy selling Stanford. I believe in what we're doing. I believe in our program. I believe in our coaches. And I forgot how fun practice

is, fellas. Like practice is magic. Yeah. Like, you know, like Zach Hertz was out here this off-season and I was just reminded how his superpower is creating separation. I mean, he does it somehow, some way. Like he's the friendliest receiver

you know, tight end. Right. You know, like him and Reggie Wayne were these just like past catchers that just always were friendly to the ball without necessarily the physical gifts that, that they're contemporaries, you know? Yeah. But like Zach Hurts like, man, he's so process oriented. The dude does the same stretching routine.

He's since being 18 years old when our strength coach call them as like, you know, as stiff as a racehorse, you know? Like. And so I love, I love. I love helping our young men figure out process, you know, and like how to build out a championship process. So traditionally, the head coach would handle a lot of responsibilities that you have now, but it's just gotten so big that they can no longer do that.

I think it speaks to the size of a staff, a college football program now needs and building out your staff and making sure not only that you have a strong staff, but enough people to cover all these things. When you sat down with Tevita, which you obviously had a relationship with before you made him the head coach, was there a discussion of, look,

I'm going to take care of this for you so you can go out and do this. And we're going to meet and do these things. I think of it as a, really as an NFL head coach and a GM, where the GM is doing all the evaluating during the year, and then they get together at points and they have meetings. Is it like that? Did you guys have a discussion about that?

What's your relationship like with Tevita? One, relationship's amazing. We started as teammates, competitors. We were fighting for a quarterback spot. He held me out for a year, and then I got his ass, so woohoo. But, yes, this was a massive part of both the interview process. I mean, intellectually, it's interesting, right, Steve? Like, it's, like, how does this work?

And so, yes, I do think it is more analogous to an NFL franchise, because I do sit on top of the organization. And I still report to our athletic director, but like, I'm in charge of football and have that and have that autonomy. And Tevita, frankly, I think, would have been uninterested in this job if he was splitting time as 50% head coach, 50% general manager during the year. He wants to be a head football coach. He wants to develop. He wants to get in the weeds on offense, on defense, on special teams, on game management. And so that was part of my cell.

like I'll take, I'll ease the burden of what a head coach is dealing with in many ways. And so that's a lot of the recruiting process during a season especially, right? We value all our coaches' opinions in recruiting and coach, like what's, what folks I don't think quite realize about college football is like the relationship between position coaches and recruits still matters. Position coaches, like that relationship is huge. But I, I, it's successful. one of the versions of success for us is if Tevita Pritchard, our head coach, feels like he is the most supported head coach in the world to work on football

and teach and developing, coaching our guys, scheme X's and O's. And yeah, we'll sit in and watch high school quarterback recruits together because we need to, right? You know, and also, like, I'm on it. Like, we have a great recruiting personnel department. I didn't grow up with 40 hours of film. You know, that's not my expertise. I, you know, I'm not you, Todd. I don't have that brand.

So I also trust. We have a lot of trust a lot around our building, but I think Tevita is set up to be a football coach. And look, that's a lot of trust. It's a lot of being very explicit. I mean, it's a lot of, we disagree on things, but getting in a room and communicating has been huge. As I say to the younger folks that watch or listen to the show,

like, you know, Google it if you don't know the backdrop. But your father, all over luck. And all of us, whether it's grandparents, it's mothers, its fathers, you know, you grow up and you, you've learned lessons and you're around certain things that your parents are. And I was even reading recently, like, your days as a youngster with your dad all over luck with like the Houston Dynamo. Like what have you learned from your father now that you've transitioned from being the guy as the quarterback to now kind of the business operation and managing people and leadership? What have you learned from your dad that's really kind of helping you in what you're doing now? Yeah. You know, my dad's been one of my heroes my whole life, right?

And he was a backup quarterback in the NFL and he went to West Virginia University, was in sports business, NFL Europe, Houston Dynamo in the MLS, NCAA, XFL. And so things on leadership that I have appreciated watching him, I mean, I still talk to him twice a day, certain things, you know, for advice. He's incredibly comfortable in his own skin, like incredibly comfortable and has a level of humility that allows him to, like, constantly be curious about things. Like, I grew up in a home where, like, we read the old school newspaper at the breakfast table, and it was, you know, the local one in whatever national publication, he was, you know,

and that was like, and I loved to have that newspaper. I just went to the sports page and would try to find the Norman Chad syndicated column. But he like authentic, curious about things. And my, you know, my dad also, like he, he did a great job of just being a dad. He wasn't a coach at home. Like as soon as I started middle school and middle school football, like, he stopped coaching me. It was just dad. Like I never had an answer for my performance, good or bad at home.

So it felt like like it was a psychologically, he helped my mom and him help create a psychologically safe space to just like unwind, you know? Right. And then, you know, on the business side, a bunch of little lessons. But my dad, my dad, he'd go to Kiwanis Club meetings, better business bureau meetings, lines, breakfast, lunch, dinner, always out in the community. Always out. Always accessible to people. I mean, I remember being a kid in Houston.

And if we were driving in the car and he would stop at auto body shops or restaurants and walk in and start selling season tickets. And this is the president of the team, right? That's awesome. So I have this image in my mind of like it's everybody's job, especially if you're the El Hefe, to sell tickets, to spread the word, to spread the message. And that's really cool. He's never been shy of the work, like if that makes sense.

And, you know, the actual work of it. Right. That's awesome. Well, yeah, when you set the bar like that other, I think it just trickles down to everyone else. But can you talk to us about Davis Warren a little bit? you see in him and maybe big picture what you're looking for in a starting quarterback for Stanford yeah all right starting quarterback big picture you got to be tough you got to execute you you have to an alpha a leader like there is an affect that that position demands to play well and

i you know right it does and davis has all of that the dude is resilient he's gritty he earned the respect of his teammates like that here and and his he's just don't a full fantastic job leading. It was a great quarterback competition. Mike Mitchell, Dylan Rizick, Charlie Meyer did an unbelievable job and Davis earned that role. I'm excited he can make the throws. He can make all the throws across the field. He understands football. Like he is a football nerd. Right. And there's like on a even just outside of quarterback Steve, like we want we need football nerds that are tough. Like we need tough, tough young men. We need we need guys who love football and want to nerd out and want to understand the difference meaning over and underfront and not just

not just because it's intellectually interesting but so like I can go operate the run game better you know right in the game and so david davis has that i'm i'm he's so he's so easy to root for i don't know how else to say it like he's an easy young man to root for i'm really excited about him is it true that you've turned down the start not turned down but you told harbaw you told harbaw like I haven't beaten anyone out. I haven't earned it yet. Is that a true story? Is that just part of the legend?

That was a long time ago, Todd. I, I, gosh, what I, what I remember about that, I don't know if those exact words came out of my, I do remember not feeling like I beat anybody out. Like, I remember that feeling. And I, and I maybe, I maybe told, shared that with Jim. or as I would have called them Coach Harba at the time, I remember feeling not ready to play, you know?

And like, yeah, and me not being, yeah, I don't know. Like, I just wasn't ready. I think it's great that you were able to be able to express that, though. Like, I think a lot of guys don't, wouldn't be honest about that. That's interesting to me that you were able to, you had that kind of relationship with him and that kind of confidence to say, maybe I'm not ready right now. Yeah.

And truly, I don't remember. a conversation, you know, or maybe there were versions of it or not, but like, I don't, look at someone else, but I have a different penny. Who knows? You put me out there. You don't know what happens. But like, I, and I do sitting in this seat, think, not all football experience is good experience. You can throw people out there too early, especially the closer you get to the football, D-line, O-line, like, not all experience is good experience. And like, I needed a year old-school redshirt to mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, like, grow the F up, you know? Yeah.

And if you ask me, am I proud of being a scout team quarterback my freshman year? Absolutely. Hell yeah. I was on a scout team with David DeCastro and John Martin and Conrad Rulid and guys like Crystal Wusu and Griff Whalen. You learned some tough lessons there, man. That's one thing I know. Yeah.

Tough lessons. And we ended up having like six NFL guys from that. team, you know? Yeah. So. I were on the same scout team at Richmond and I remember turning back a lot and saying, sorry and picking him up off the ground. There was a lot of that.

Ghost fighters. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's just interesting talking to you and being reminded of like how refreshing, you were refreshing different breed and kind of like a throwback, but with your own like intellectual twist on it that made you. so unique from everybody else. And I just, I wonder now as I'm sitting here and we're just coming off a conversation with like five for five and NIL and transfer portals and are we going to let pro players back in and the amount of money for all, like how your like sensibilities

adapt to what's going on today, you know? Yeah. One, I'm going to kick you in the shens for the compliment later. So be ready for that. I understand that. Yeah. Two, we got a win, man. Like that. That is core to part of why, I mean, massive part of why I'm here, massive part of why I love Stanford. If we'd lost while I was at Stanford, like I would not love it as much, you know? Winning is fun. Winning is awesome. Our head coach, winners, our staff, winners, our young men coming to be, come here to be winners.

Now, part of so much of the early work with Tavita, myself and program leadership, was on values. Who are we? What are our standards? What are we about so that we can ping everything that comes off of that core, right? Of who we are. Part of that is being adaptively excellent, right? We know we're going to have to adapt to what the changes are in college football because it is a reality. And look, part of the beauty of it for me is I'm not beholden to what was 10 years ago.

I joined a year and a half ago. This is my second season. All I know is a portal, you know, all I know is having a year where a portal was in the middle of spring ball. You know what I mean? Like, all I know is NIL and negotiations. So I think we try to keep ourselves intellectually honest. We try to stay values aligned. Like the NFL back from the NFL thing, like as soon as that happens,

it's like, hey, who's eligible for us? We have to our team to find a winning edge everywhere, right? Doesn't mean we, you know, go all the way on certain things. But like, yeah, we're going to, we're going to look. We have to find a winning edge in a. all margins. We know. Be curious and explore. Yeah. Yeah. And doing that with a team. I'm loving working at Stanford with Stanford with these amazing partners. And I feel a lot of, I feel very empowered from our president, our AD, our provost, the board that that we are values aligned and that they

trust us to go go push, right? To go push, to go push. To go push. Because there's truly, it's not just about trying to be excellent. It's adaptively excellent. How do we how do we address this? question in this context today. I'm fairly certain you haven't been studying tape on all these college quarterbacks who are going in the NFL, but we are entering a year

that's like, it has a chance, you know, for our purposes to be one of the greatest NFL drafts when it comes to the quarterback position with big names that you're aware of with Arch Manning and Dante Moore and Lenora Sellers and Darien Mensa, C.J.

Carr, Julian saying, like the list goes on and right? I'm just curious from you. Is there any advice you would give these young men? Like was there a portion of that pre-draft process or going into your final year at Stanford that I don't want to say regret, but you're like, man, why'd I spend so much time worrying about that? Or I'm really proud that I blocked out this or whatever it would be when you look at, you know, there's going to be a lot of talk around college football this year, how great this quarterback class could be and how great the quarterbacks in the country are. What can you share with those young men who are entering potentially their last year and going on to the NFL? First of all, we play a few

of those guys that you mentioned, so I got no advice for them. We're going to talk postseason if they're not at their respective schools. Right, right, right. Look, one of the beauties of my, I'm going to answer the question a little differently, and I won't get to it. Perfect. I will get to it. One of the of my roles, I get to be somewhat of a, I'm not the quarterback coach at Stanford, right? We have an amazing one, Brian Lindgren. He's been an officer coordinator for much of his career. He's awesome. We have a head coach who was just Jaden Daniels quarterback coach and Marlon Marl Gariotas, right? Like, we have, I get to play quarterback mentor. I get to talk about, I get to share with Davis, hey, here's my, my last year in the NFL. Here's how I studied film to get ready for the install,

to get, you know, process. I get to talk to Mike Mitchell, our true freshman, about how to connect with older guys and how to how to not feel like you have to you know win the super bowl in every throw you know that it's okay right it's okay to be boring playing football like as a quarterback at times like sometimes you just want to be boring you know and just all to the dude and that's open and what you know so just growth so if i had advice for quarterbacks it's remember it's the team game and the greatest team game in the world and yes you're a quarterback which has its own weird space and the zeitgeist of our culture. But like, you ain't a hundred meter runner.

And you don't throw the javelin. You play quarterback. Like, it can be all about you. But if, but the real dudes get the ball to their teammates. And your job is to be a distributor in many ways, right? A massive dimension of your job. So it's not all about you. It's about making it, it's about the other guys.

So I just think like you got a whole, you got a whole, you got a, live in that tension and be comfortable in it. And, yeah, yeah. I'll end it there. I got no advice. Yeah, we'll bring you back on in March, and you can give some specific advice. Yeah, I just, I think that's fascinating.

Anything else, mention you got? Have you, Andrew, did you ever read McShay's scouting report on Andrew? Oh, gosh. No, no. and you don't need to do any of it right now. You're like, I'm worried about Hawaii right now. I don't need to talk about my scouting report. And speaking of the quarterbacks, they got a good one, man.

And I respect these young men that are sticking out their schools and like, you know, go to figure it out. And like, yeah, I'll tell you, this job is fun. It's fun trying to help support coaches. It's fun. It's fun recruiting kids, retaining kids. I'm proud of what our team has done. Like we made a real effort to retain our roster after last season because I was tired, you know, as a fan before I took this job at Stanford.

And then my first year, it's not a fun feeling to look around the country and see fourth and fifth year guys playing on other school that started at your school and contributing to winning, right? And like some of, I mean, some of football is complicated and the ecosystem feels complex. But like there are some truths. Like 22 year olds might be, might be more calloused and have. have more scars that they've lived through and be better, better, more consistent football players than 18 year olds. You know what I mean? Like, and so I get excited about our defensive unit this year.

They're salty. We got age everywhere, right? We got some young, talented guys, but we got old guys that, like, that, like, love ball and want to see this, want to see this thing take off that, like, I, that fires me up. Like, I love seeing Matt Rose, 106 tackles last year, an all-ACC performer from Brexville, Ohio that like to wear sunscreen because he gets way too red and pasty out. But like the dude, the dude like wants it and you feel it and you feel him and Jay Green are all conference safety.

Like just and our guys, our older guys like setting a tone that's fun to be around. They make the job fun. And I'm proud of those dudes. and excited to see them on display. I'm proud of you, Andrew, because what just happened was Steve Meds tried to play tick-tac-toe with Andrew Luck and he just got check-meat.

That was chess all over. That's the most predictable thing we could have done. That was awesome. That was awesome. All right, rapid fire. I want to get you out of here. You got a lot more important things to do in your day, but I got a few for you.

Who's the best college quarterback of all time and Andrew Luck's Mike? Who's the best college? Some easy ones at the end. Who's the best college quarterback of all time it's you're like I'm gonna be so so you guys are gonna hate me for it but like watching John Elway highlights is like freaky you know he maybe didn't have the national championship production in the the woods of others but like we'll go back and

watch like for those that are listed that don't that like maybe are too young to really know Elway and like I was oh it was absurd it's different play a quarterback. Yeah. And in those times, too, the mobility with the throwing, it was strength. And like some of his plays remind me of that Pat Mahomes play. You remember, like there's some highlights of Mahomes where he's just running and run and run and sticks a foot in the ground and it's like, like, Elway.

There's an Elway version of those plays, you know, as well. So, John. Who's the funniest teammate you ever played with? funniest teammate you know who comes to mind right now jack newhort colts offensive lineman ohio state guy i was just i was just with them i flew into toledo to drive down to canton to go watch adam vintetary getting up the hall of fame oh that's cool with jack and so we had a nice two and a half hour drive you know through through ohio and uh i forgot how devilishly cynical witty and intelligent

because that humor is not nine but like oh it's funny to listen to. Offensive line and the cynicism is always there. Best throw you ever made. Best throw I ever made. I'll be honest. There is a throw that has nothing to do with played at a football game that I'm really proud of

that I'm going to bring up. I got to go on a U.S.O. tour around the world with a vice chair, the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Sandy Winifeld, went with Dwayne Allen, my Colts teammate, David DeCastro, my Stanford, who was on Steelers and Chuck Pagano, our coach at the time. So, one, it was an amazing experience, like, period, just going around the world on, and my perspective changed on a lot of things. But we were on an aircraft carrier, and we were on stage, like old school Bob Hope grandstand thing. Yeah. Yeah, and it was throwing footballs to the crowd. And there was someone like a tech standing on the wing of a fighter jet in the bay of the thing, like 40, 40, 45 yards away. And I didn't think twice.

And I just ripped a throw over to the dude. And he caught it standing on the wing of a plane. That's awesome. Yeah. Very proud of that because it was caught. You know, not because of the throw to go back. It's because it's got to be caught. That's the beauty of it, Todd.

Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. All right, last one. You're famous for thanking defenders after every hit, right? NFL films that's had a field day with it. Thank you. You know, thank you. I've originally thought best hit you ever took,

but maybe I'm going to put a twist on this. Was there one hit you can remember where you almost were like, I can't thank him? You know, like, is there one memorable hit where it like took everything inside of you to actually execute that thank you? because it hurt so bad or they got you so good? Two times. One sophomore year starting Stanford, playing Oregon at home

and a little wide zone action right, bootleg left, high red zone. One of the Matthews brothers read it, and I sort of stumbled coming out of it and was leaning forward. And like he just, he read it, identified, and hit me so quick. And I was leaning forward into it, right? Like out of the play fake.

Yep, yeah, yeah. And I didn't say anything. Yeah, I probably saw him, and he hit me clean. It was good. But, like, I went to the sideline. I couldn't take my mouth. I was scared to take my mouthpiece out to call the next play because I thought he dislodged a tooth.

And so I left my mouth. We ended up scoring or kicking a field and going, I went over to the bench and I, like, gingerly took it out. And I said, Tavita, because he was backing me up that year. Do I still have all my teeth? You know? I did. And then the NFL, my rookie are Nick Perry, Green Bay Packers, USC.

I think there was a breakdown in protection. And I was standing there sort of like this. And he just, he can, I think that one, I'm sure that one's on YouTube. Like it, he lifted me up and planted me again, clean, like part of it. Yeah. Right. And I think I just laid there. Like, if I tried to talk, it would have been like, go.

What about? Oh, man. But you get back up, Todd, and you keep going. That's it. That's it. I genuinely say this. I couldn't have imagined having a better 30 minutes with you, man. Like, this is awesome to see where you are, what you're doing.

How fortunate all those young men are to have you in that building and sharing your experiences and just the way you carry yourself. And so we're polling for you. We appreciate you and appreciate your time. And I just think it's awesome. So good luck with everything to show. appreciate this was a very enjoyable 30 minutes for me. And I'm the lucky one to be around these guys. And man, if you're listening, you're in the Bay Area,

come out 4 p.m. Saturday versus Hawaii. There we go. There he is. There he is. He learned from his old man. Yeah. Good luck to see you, man. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star

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