Andrew Luck Still Focused on the Next Head Coach for Stanford Football

Coming off of a bye week after beating San José State, the Stanford Cardinal return to action this week when they hit the road to take on the SMU Mustangs. A College Football Playoff team last season, the Mustangs have been very successful in recent seasons and figure to be a very good test for an up and coming Stanford program.

Tuesday of each week, Stanford football general manager Andrew Luck goes on KNBR, the Bay Area's flagship radio station, to talk to Adam Copeland and Derek Papa about the current state of the Cardinal program, among many other topics. This week, Luck gave his thoughts on the upcoming game against SMU, as well as his overall outlook on the program.

Here are the top takeaways from Luck's appearance on the KNBR show, Dirty Work w/Copes & D-Pop.

The bye week came at a good time

Preparing to play the first game of a very tough three-game stretch, Luck knows that the Cardinal will be challenged immensely over the next few weeks and play in games that will truly test their grit.

And after gaining a massive momentum boost following their come-from-behind win over SJSU, the Cardinal got to enjoy a week off on top of it, using this bye week to rest, recover and regroup ahead of this stretch, while also making sure that they continued to take steps forward as a team.

"A bye week, what an opportunity to get better in so many ways," Luck said. "Certainly in college, it's a chance for our guys to bank on some sleep, get ahead of class in some ways but there is a healthy tension of staying in rhythm and not getting too far off the schedule. If I've learned anything playing football, being a part of this is we are like herd animals.

"We're creatures of habit...so I thought Frank and our strength staff did a great job of, we practiced Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The guys had their couple of days off to rest and recover and get healthy. We lifted, we got better at football, we took the opportunity to evaluate where we've been."

The Cardinal entered this season with minimal expectations, and currently possessing a 2-3 record despite a couple of bad losses, the program has looked very competitive for a majority of the season, and with this tough stretch coming up, Stanford will be locked in on proving that it has what it takes to hang with any opponent—especially the top ones in the ACC like SMU, Miami and Florida State.

Luck Has Kept Tabs on Finding a Long Term Coach

Stanford may be in the middle of a very competitive season under the guidance of interim head coach Frank Reich, but given the circumstances of the hire—with Reich expected to only stay for this season—Luck has kept finding a long term coach in the back of his mind, keeping tabs on potential candidates so that the offseason search goes smoothly.

"Of course my mind is on head coach," Luck said. "Of course my mind is on our roster and fundraising and recruiting and getting the right guys here. And our players now and what they need to grow and develop. Certainly head coach will be a big hire for us."

Reich has earned the support of his players and has certainly been a very good leader for this season's team. But knowing that he won't be there long term has Luck thinking about the future, and making sure that the next guy he brings in is the perfect embodiment of the Cardinal Way.

Impact of Not Having a Long-Term Head Coach on Recruiting

When former head coach Troy Taylor was fired and replaced by Reich, the Cardinal saw a number of players enter the portal, and had some key contributors from last season leave, putting Stanford in a tougher spot heading into the season.

And with recruiting being something that teams constantly take part in, Luck has been hard at work on recruiting players for the future to help Stanford return to the national spotlight. Despite the lack of a long term head coach, making recruiting harder, Luck is happy with the role that everyone is playing and is confident that Stanford will still be able to land high level talent.

"It's certainly an easy, cheap way to negatively recruit Stanford if you're out there," Luck said. "I know we're building a program and are doing incredible things now and things that young men want to be a part of. And it's why we have an amazing class.

"That's all I can say about recruiting per the rules but, we're chipping away, we're hustling. Our coaches are doing an amazing job, our current players are doing an amazing job in their role. Everybody is chipping in."

Finishing 3-9 in four straight seasons and hungrier than ever for improvement, Luck has done everything in his power to keep the appeal of Stanford football high. Even though the program has seen better days performance-wise, Luck's influence is clearly creating a culture that spews confidence for a successful future.

An Early Game Will Come With It's Challenges, But Nothing That Stanford Is Not Prepared For

Getting later kickoffs for most of the season, the Cardinal will play in their earliest game of the season so far when they face the Mustangs, kicking off at 11 a.m. local time (9 a.m. PT). And while early games can be difficult at times, the preparation that the Cardinal have gone through all offseason long has Luck confident that the program will have no trouble adjusting to the time change.

Growing up in Texas, Luck is also excited to return to his home state for this game and return to an environment that he is very familiar with.

"I could not be more excited," Luck said. "One, I love going back to the state of Texas, I grew up in Houston and went to high school there. I have a healthy disdain for Dallas-Fort Worth which will be heightened by a good adversary in the SMU Mustangs. Absolutely check it out, we are kicking off at 11a.m. there, 9 a.m. Pacific on The CW. Two comments on the body clock thing.

"One, we're built for this as a team. We kicked off training camp practices everyday for a month at 8 a.m., we meet early in the morning so our guys can get class in. We do little tweaks and adjustments to our schedule to make sure we're prepared. And I feel really good about our schedule."

"And then two, the call to action for our young men on the team, for our coaches, for all of us is 'what a privilege to play football. When the ball is ruled out, you let the beast go, you've got to let it out,'" Luck added.

"And I learned this playing in Europe for a game, being an East Coast NFL team, playing in college with late kickoffs, early kickoffs. Let it out, you've got to let the beast out, nobody wants to hear excuses after. We're gonna let the beast out and see what happens."

This week will be a big test for the Cardinal in a lot of ways, and if they can put together a good performance, it will go a long way towards helping them be competitive in the other tough games on their schedule.