Eagles Today

Former Eagles OC Headed To College Ranks

Former NFL head coach and Eagles Super Bowl LII-winning OC is set to coach Stanford for the 2025 season.
John McMullen|
Former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich on the sidelines during the game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
Former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich on the sidelines during the game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. | Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images

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Philadelphia Eagles

Veteran NFL coach and former Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich is returning to college for the first time since he was an undergrad at Maryland in the mid-1980s.

Reich, 63, is taking a one-year job with Stanford as the team’s new head coach, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

According to Thamel, both sides have agreed this will be a one-season agreement, and Stanford will then launch a national search, presumably for a longer-term answer.

Stanford later confirmed the deal.

Reich parlayed a highly successful stint as Doug Pederson’s OC in 2016-2017, which culminated with a Super Bowl LII championship, into a pair of head-coaching opportunities with Indianapolis and Carolina.

With the Colts, Reich hired current Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni as his OC, a position that springboarded Sirianni to Philadelphia for the 2021 season.

Sirianni, who has piloted his Eagles team sto four consecutive playoff berths, two Super Bowl appearances, and a Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl LIX in February, still considers Reich as his top professional mentor. 

Reich was a third-round pick by Buffalo in 1985 after starring as a quarterback at Maryland, and spent 14 seasons in the league as a player and his entire coaching career in the NFL.

Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian called Reich “the greatest backup quarterback in NFL history” with a playing career highlighted by what was the largest comeback in history for many years during the 1993 Wild Card Round. The then-Houston Oilers led the Bills 35–3 early in the third quarter before Reich led a comeback resulting in a 41–38 overtime victory. 

The rally from a 32-point deficit remained the largest comeback in NFL history for almost three decades until the Minnesota Vikings had a 33-point comeback against the Indianapolis Colts on December 17, 2022, ironically just over a month after Reich was fired as the Colts' head coach. 

Reich has spent his entire 18-year coaching career in the NFL.

Stanford was in the market for a new head coach after firing Troy Taylor due to troubling allegations over his workplace behavior of bullying female athletic staffers. 

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John McMullen
JOHN MCMULLEN

John McMullen is a veteran reporter who has covered the NFL for over two decades. The current NFL insider for JAKIB Media, John is the former NFL Editor for The Sports Network where his syndicated column was featured in over 200 outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Miami Herald. He was also the national NFL columnist for Today's Pigskin as well as FanRag Sports. McMullen has covered the Eagles on a daily basis since 2016, first for ESPN South Jersey and now for Eagles Today on SI.com's FanNation. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey and part of 6ABC.com's live postgame show after every Eagles game. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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