It wasn’t his behavior, but this Stanford program belongs to Andrew Luck
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Dan Wetzel
Troy Taylor’s record in his first two years as the Stanford football coach includes six victories and two internal disciplinary investigations.
Oh, and 18 losses.
His future would be tenuous even if he hadn’t, per two separate Stanford investigations uncovered by ESPN, been accused of bullying and belittling female athletic staffers, seeking to have an NCAA compliance officer removed after she warned him of rules violations and repeatedly making “inappropriate” comments to another woman about her appearance.
Complaints about Taylor were enough for Stanford to twice hire outside investigative firms, both of which independently painted a picture of behavior ranging from “concerning” to “inappropriate,” according to documents obtained by ESPN’s Xuan Thai.
That included numerous clashes with the school’s compliance office and the attempted reassignment of duties for one staffer who raised concerns about NCAA violations pertaining to player eligibility and illegal practices. One of the law firms, experienced in these types of investigations, concluded it had never seen “this palpable level of animosity and disdain” to a compliance office.
After the first investigation, Taylor signed a “warning letter” in February 2024 acknowledging he could be fired if he didn’t behave better.
By summer he was under investigation again.
It’s somewhat of a mystery exactly why he remained on the job — this is Stanford, after all, or at least is supposed to be. The NCAA violations were fairly minor, but that’s all the more reason not to fight them. The attitude displayed to compliance is a red flag of its own. Again, Stanford.
Furthermore, multiple sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity told ESPN’s Thai that Taylor’s behavior extended beyond staffers and compliance officers to people within the coaching staff. One source said Taylor “has lost the locker room.”
Yet, Taylor is preparing for Year 3 on the Farm, one more — and presumably last — chance to win some games and reform his leadership style.
“I willingly complied with the investigations, accepted the recommendations that came out of them, and used them as a learning opportunity to grow in leadership and how I interact with others,” Taylor, 56, said in the statement to ESPN on Wednesday. “I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively and collegially with my colleagues so that we can achieve success for our football program together.”
Here’s hoping he’s successful in that endeavor, if only for everyone else’s sake. The task of leading Stanford as it transitions (and repeatedly travels) to the Atlantic Coast Conference is challenging enough without this behavior.
Taylor is dealing with another development, though, a new one that could be in play for a lot of schools in the future.
He isn’t the face of the program.
The team’s general manager, former Stanford and NFL great Andrew Luck, is.
Once upon a time, the head coach was the undeniable, and often indomitable, man in charge. Mostly, they still are.
It’s not just the Clemson Tigers, it’s Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers. Or Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs. Or so on and so on.
The coach runs everything and hires everyone. He sets the direction, makes the decisions and speaks for the entire operation. Win enough and a coach can quickly become more powerful than the supposed bosses — athletic directors — and even university presidents.
The firing of a coach causes a program to reset entirely. There’s a reason it’s called a “program” and not just a team. It’s why schools are often hesitant to make the move.
What now, though?
The role of general manager is a new one in college sports, a response to the changing ways rosters are constructed in this era of the transfer portal, revenue sharing and NIL payments. While athletic directors rarely have much stature with fans, prominent alums or big names lured from the pro ranks into a GM role could.
Luck certainly qualifies. He was a two-time Heisman runner-up for the Cardinal before becoming the No. 1 pick of the 2012 NFL draft and a four-time Pro Bowler in Indianapolis. He not only harks the program back to Stanford’s glory days under Jim Harbaugh and, later, David Shaw, but he has a reputation for intelligence, integrity and football acumen.
Understandably, Stanford leapt at the chance to bring him home last November. It hasn’t won more than four games since 2018. Luck is tasked with “overseeing the Cardinal Football program, including working with Coach Taylor on recruiting and roster management, and with athletics and university leadership on fundraising, alumni relations, sponsorships, student-athlete support, and stadium experience.”
Perhaps on some org chart somewhere, Luck isn’t the boss of all bosses. In reality, this is his program and Taylor will serve at his will.
A source with direct knowledge told ESPN’s Thai that Luck met with the team in Taylor’s presence on Thursday, and that Luck doubled down on standing by his coach.
Whatever Luck thinks of Taylor is unknown to fans and the public. He was on the committee that hired Taylor after a successful stint at FCS Sacramento State. He was just this week praising Taylor for his coaching skill during a Stanford pro day. However, he declined a chance to comment to ESPN on Taylor’s disciplinary file.
Did he know about it? What about the NCAA violations? What about any possible issues with the treatment of players? How much will all of this weigh on his evaluation of Taylor, who even if he was up for sainthood needs to start winning?
The questions go on. The answers, thus far, are nowhere to be found.
Right now, all of Stanford’s trust is in Luck, and for good reason. He has earned that. He has earned the chance to run this program through uncertain, even potentially dire, times in the ever-shifting landscape of college athletics.
It’s his program now, and that means Troy Taylor is his coach; everything reflecting back on not just the school but on the all-time great in charge via a new-age job.
NASCAR driver Katherine Legge said she has been receiving “hate mail” and “death threats” from auto racing fans after she was involved in a crash that collected veteran driver Kasey Kahne during the Xfinity Series race last weekend at Rockingham.
Legge, who has started four Indy 500s but is a relative novice in stock cars, added during Tuesday’s episode of her “Throttle Therapy” podcast that “the inappropriate social media comments I’ve received aren’t just disturbing, they are unacceptable.”
“Let me be very clear,” the British driver said, “I’m here to race and I’m here to compete, and I won’t tolerate any of these threats to my safety or to my dignity, whether that’s on track or off of it.”
Legge became the first woman in seven years to start a Cup Series race earlier this year at Phoenix. But her debut in NASCAR’s top series ended when Legge, who had already spun once, was involved in another spin and collected Daniel Suarez.
Her next start was the lower-level Xfinity race in Rockingham, North Carolina, last Saturday. Legge was good enough to make the field on speed but was bumped off the starting grid because of ownership points. Ultimately, she was able to take J.J. Yeley’s seat in the No. 53 car for Joey Gase Motorsports, which had to scramble at the last minute to prepare the car for her.
Legge was well off the pace as the leaders were lapping her, and when she entered Turn 1, William Sawalich got into the back of her car. That sent Legge spinning, and Kahne had nowhere to go, running into her along the bottom of the track.
“I gave [Sawalich] a lane and the reason the closing pace looks so high isn’t because I braked midcorner. I didn’t. I stayed on my line, stayed doing my speed, which obviously isn’t the speed of the leaders because they’re passing me,” Legge said. “He charged in a bit too hard, which is the speed difference you see. He understeered up a lane and into me, which spun me around.”
The 44-year-old Legge has experience in a variety of cars across numerous series. She made seven IndyCar starts for Dale Coyne Racing last year, and she has raced for several teams over more than a decade in the IMSA SportsCar series.
She has dabbled in NASCAR in the past, too, starting four Xfinity races during the 2018 season and another two years ago.
“I have earned my seat on that race track,” Legge said. “I’ve worked just as hard as any of the other drivers out there, and I’ve been racing professionally for the last 20 years. I’m 100 percent sure that … the teams that employed me — without me bringing any sponsorship money for the majority of those 20 years — did not do so as a DEI hire, or a gimmick, or anything else. It’s because I can drive a race car.”
Legge believes the vitriol she has received on social media is indicative of a larger issue with women in motorsports.
“Luckily,” she said, “I have been in tougher battles than you guys in the comment sections.”
Legge has received plenty of support from those in the racing community. IndyCar driver Marco Andretti clapped back at one critic on social media who called Legge “unproven” in response to a post about her history at the Indy 500.
“It’s wild to me how many grown men talk badly about badass girls like this,” Andretti wrote on X. “Does it make them feel more manly from the couch or something?”
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