Greg McElroy explains challenges that Frank Reich faces at Stanford

Stanford just named Frank Reich the program’s interim football coach, following the dismissal of Troy Taylor. He will not inherit an easy situation.

Stanford has largely been stuck in the mud in recent years, unable to compete with the better teams on its schedule. It’s a far cry from a decade or so ago, when Stanford was near its height.

“I think it’s the toughest job, or at least one of the toughest jobs, because there was a time where Stanford had kind of carved out a nice little niche for themselves,” ESPN analyst Greg McElroy said on the Always College Football podcast. “This was during Jim Harbaugh‘s tenure and then that carried over obviously into a lot of successful seasons. They won a bunch of games, they won Rose Bowls. David Shaw did an amazing job after he replaced Jim Harbaugh after Jim Harbaugh left to go become the head coach at the San Francisco 49ers. So this has been a place that had won.

“But here’s the problem. Right now Stanford is competing in the ACC.”

The former Alabama quarterback broke down why that’s a problem for Stanford, mostly honing in on the challenges it creates with attendance. Producing quality home environments has become a real struggle.

“Stanford already has a very difficult time attracting fans to come to their games,” McElroy said. “We’ve seen pictures on social media. I mean I’ve seen the stadium where it honestly looked like a closed scrimmage within 20 minutes of when toe meets leather in one of their non-conference games.

“But you know what Stanford had going for them when they were at their peak? That was at the time that the Pac-12 was pretty darned good. Stanford was playing the likes of UCLA, they were playing ‘SC, they played Oregon, they played Washington. They, of course, played Cal, and they’ll continue to play Cal, but Stanford’s gotten away from their footprint so significantly that their fans don’t care about the teams they’re playing. How many people in Palo Alto are thinking, ‘Man, I cannot miss that game today at The Farm. I can’t miss that game when Georgia Tech‘s in town.’ They don’t care about that. They want to play ‘SC. They want to play UCLA. They want to go toe-to-toe with Oregon. The teams that they’re currently playing don’t move the meter.”

Given that the Stanford program is now having trouble attracting fans to games, there are some immediate questions that rise to the forefront. Namely, how in the world is Stanford going to recruit well enough to be competitive at the power conference level?

“I know that if the stands aren’t full, if you can’t convince people to come to the games, how are you going to be able to convince people to write checks for NIL?” McElroy said. “I also know that Stanford supports way more sports than just about any other college athletic department in the country. So, when they start looking at the House resolution that’s coming here rather soon and the $20 million that is going to be allocated to the pay-for-play model that the House is going to vote on or the House is passing, well, 75% of that $20 million is going to go to football, or at least in would in most cases.

“It might not at Stanford. And to make matters even more challenging, they’re receiving about a 30% share of the payout that the ACC is generating.”

Those are the hurdles Reich is up against. He’ll have to be nimble to clear them and get The Cardinal back on the right track in 2025.