Tavita Pritchard on Stanford’s New Era, Andrew Luck & QB Competition | Sports Illustrated

Brian Fisher here for Sports Illustrated at ACC Media Day joined by the, the rookies of the bunch, Davita Pritchard.

Does it feel like you're a rookie going through this experience?

Uh, yeah, it does.

It does.

First time through , and, uh, no, grateful to be here though.

Thanks for having me on.

How, how special has it been just these last couple of months getting used to being the head coach now?

Yeah , incredible, you know, especially just getting to.

Uh, kind of implement and realize the vision, um, with Andrew, my old teammate, um, kind of put a, put a team of people, a system of people, um, around our players, uh, has been really fun to get to imagine and dream up and now, uh, put into place.

And as we, as we kind of forge ahead, Looking forward to the work that lies ahead and the preparation that we're gonna have ahead of the season.

How is Andrew Luck, the boss?

Andrew Luck, the boss.

What's, what's, what's beautiful is, I think something that sticks out about leaders is when they are the boss, so to speak, um, it doesn't feel like they're the boss because it very much feels like a partnership and that we're teammates and that he is there to support me.

Um, which he has, he has shown every step of the way that he is there in support of me and to help, um, me and our team, uh, be at our best every day because that's what we hope to then trickle down to our players, our staff and our players is that they feel supported in their endeavors and their journey to be the best football players they can be and for us to be the best program that we can be.

Is this something that you, you, when it came, when the job came up and you said, you know what, I, I'm gonna consider it.

I'm gonna put my name in the hat, or, or is this something that kind of , kind of came to you naturally?

Yeah, I'd be lying if when the job came open, I didn't, I didn't look at it and go, being the head coach at my alma mater, a place that's meant so much to me, that means so much to me, uh, would be special.

Obviously, there's, there's a long road that happens between that initial thought and, Eventually taking the job.

But, you know, through so many of those conversations with Andrew, uh, and, and the, and the committee and the team of people at Stanford, uh, what became abundantly clear was, uh, my love and belief in Stanford, uh, the, the shared vision that Andrew and I have, uh, and the belief of, um, the fact that we can do it.

And that we can be successful and build a championship program at our alma mater.

Well, it's not only one of the more unique jobs in college football, but obviously here in the ACC being on the opposite coast, how do you look at the kind of the challenges that come with being the Stanford head coach right now?

Yeah, like anything, we will be really strategic and intentional when it comes to the uniquenesses of being on the opposite coast to many of our opponents.

Obviously, travel is the big one, you know, making sure that we're, um, giving our guys every opportunity to play their best on game day.

So, it's really about making sure that we do our research and we have, uh, great, um, resources within our building.

Ryan Dietrich is our head strength and conditioning, uh, coach, and he heads up a lot of, uh, some of those initiatives on, hey, what is the best way to travel along with our nutritionist, our sports psychologist.

Different people that, that kind of touch our program and our players, uh, but we want to make sure that, that we're, like I said, leaving no stone unturned when it comes to that.

Best advice you got being a head coach?

What, what, what is it?

Be yourself, be yourself.

I think it's, it's really easy because of all the different things that are thrown onto your plate to, uh, I think, lose sight of who you are and lose sight of, um, What helped you get to this position.

And, uh, you know, I want to make sure that I am very intentional about reminding myself and approaching this role with gratitude on the people that helped me get here and, and the things inside of me that helped me get here.

And so, um, I think being authentic, being genuine, I'm approaching this with, uh, humility, you know, knowing that like as I continue to connect with our staff and connect with our players, uh, it is about humans first , and it's about making sure that those people feel equipped.

Um, every day to go be their best self and that they're excited and that we build an environment that they're excited to come to, that they, uh, we build the best environment in college football.

When it comes to your guys, you probably get lucked out in terms of there only being one transfer portal window as, as you take over, uh, there, but, uh, getting through the entire spring ball, who, who kind of caught your eye?

Where, where do you feel most confident in your team at?

You know, I, I, I'll start here.

The way that our team approached, the energy, the way that we competed every day was, was, was awesome.

You know, we got, it wasn't perfect every day, but our approach to it, if, if we had a day that was, was lesser than the next, the next practice we came out and we're ready to go.

I was really, really pleased with the way that the defense approached the spring.

I think early on in a new system, it, it, it makes sense that there was some hesitation.

You know, with some of our guys, and, and I saw that early on, especially on the defensive side, and some guys who, you know, were maybe thinking their way through some reps and maybe slower on some of the adjustments.

When we started to hit practice 9, 1011 of 15, you start that, you saw that light bulb start to turn on and guys really started to play and move with a purpose.

Um, I was really excited about, I am really excited about our two inside linebackers, Matt Rose, Josiah Galvan.

I'm excited about Jay Green who's here with us at Media Day, um, all the way up front, you know, we have, we have so much experience, you know, Zach Rowell, uh, Braden Marcelinka, uh, Teva Tefiti, Ernest Cooper, like our defensive front, I believe can be a strength for us, um, and will be, especially with some of these returners and guys who have played a lot of football for us, really excited about, uh, the defensive side of the ball.

Uh, well, that's, that's interesting being, Given your background and given some of your assistant coaching, uh, positions focused so much on the quarterback position, do you feel yourself trying to almost get away from that a little bit and leave it be?

Yeah, no, I don't think I'm trying to get away from it.

I am trying to do a good job of making sure that I'm empowering our coaches and our staff to, uh, own, own their role.

And so, um, part of the role, Brian Lindgren is our quarterback coach who's got, uh, a great track record as an offensive play caller.

Uh, in power 4 football at Michigan State, at Oregon State, and Colorado.

And so I, I trusted him a lot to develop our quarterbacks.

At the same point in time, he took that role knowing my background, knowing that we would work in conjunction with each other, um, making sure that philosophically, we were seeing eye to eye on how we're being taught, whether, whether it's footwork or eye, eye progression, what have you.

And so, Uh, while I'm not actively trying to step back, I, I just know, um, organically, I'm pulled in a lot of different directions.

But, you know, that's why I hired a Brian Lindgren, you know, a guy who I trust immensely in the development of our quarterbacks, and I'm really excited about not just him, but the rest of our staff to own their role as well.

Do you feel comfortable about that position though moving forward?

I do.

I do, absolutely.

You know, especially because like I, I have so much belief in competition.

And I know we have a competition ahead of us.

You know, Davis Warren is here today, but Mike Mitchell, true freshman incoming, Charlie Meyer and Dylan Risk, who are upperclassmen who will, they'll all compete for the position.

Obviously, the, the, the reps will start to bear out as they do, um, over the course of camp, but really excited about all those guys having an opportunity to show what they've, what the work that they've put in, not just in spring.

Ball, but over the course of the summer to give them an opportunity to be the guy with Davis in particular, how, how, how nice is it to have a veteran, you know, that's somebody that's played at the high level.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, and, and, well, let's just talk about him as just a leader in our locker room first, which of course is part of the mantle you take on as being the quarterback, right?

And he stepped on from, from, stepped on campus day one, and immediately.

I think connected with our locker room and immediately connected and, and, and was proving himself as a leader and as a person, um, and as a worker.

And, you know, obviously, a guy with on-field experience, a guy who was part of a national championship team, and so had a lot of credibility in that way.

Um, but I think Davis has hit all the right notes when it comes to what it takes to be a leader on the team.

Now, whether that results in him ultimately being the starting quarterback, That's gonna be proven on the field, um, but we're really excited about the steps he's taken up to this point.

Going into fall camp, is there something that keeps you up at night, a position group, uh, you know, any, anybody in, in particular that is, is saying, I, we, we gotta get this settled.

I know, I know that we have, I know that, that for us to be the team and program we want to be, we have to be right up front.

So the offensive line, the defensive line.

We have to make sure that those rooms are right.

We have to make sure that those competitions are played out so that we find the 5 best offensive linemen and the 4 best defensive linemen to, to, to go reinforce those fronts, uh, where the game starts.

And so, uh, I wouldn't say I stay up at night.

I'm a pretty good sleeper.

Um, but when I do think about, hey, what are those position groups that I know we need to nail, Um, I think about, uh, the game upfront.

How different is it for you just knowing that, you know what, there's, there's numbers attached to my roster and maybe, maybe your NFL background, uh, certainly helps with that.

But how, how different is that for you as a head coach?

Yeah, I think I, I think, thank God I went to the NFL and came back because of that fact, you know, and that I was able to, you know, I coached the #2 overall pick who, um, not is just making a good chunk of change now, but he's gonna, he's gonna end up making a lot in his 2nd contract, and, and I, I would, I'm grateful for having that opportunity because it allowed me to do that on that level and understand that it's still people.

You're still coaching people, and regardless of, of the money they make or what helped get them there or the mindset that they have, like, everything is about understanding the human being.

And And coaching the person.

And so, I know that full well.

I, I know, um, that regardless of how our roster is constructed from that standpoint, that I need to make sure that I capture, we capture the hearts and minds of our team.

And that's what we have to make sure that we bring together, uh, in service of.

Achieving our goal.

How would you define success in year one for you?

Success looks like.

Us playing Really, really tough physical football with high, high energy and doing it together.

Like, uh, if you turn on the film and you see a team that plays for each other, that plays with their hair on fire, that's competitive, and you watch and you go, holy crap, like just the way that those guys compete jumps off the screen, we will be successful.

Oh, awesome stuff.

Uh, we'll be certainly following along there for, uh, year one on the farm.

Tavita, thank you so much for stopping by here at ACC Media Days with Sports Illustrated.