Andrew Luck returning to Stanford to take on gigantic role in football program

It's fair to say Stanford football has seen better days. In fact, not since the era of quarterback Andrew Luck and running back Christian McCaffrey have the Cardinal been at the top of a conference.

But perhaps a folk hero of yesteryear could step in and turn things around with his expertise and relative youth. It was announced Saturday that Luck will join the program as the football general manager, a new position that will oversee coaches and manage recruiting plus other aspects.

"I'm excited," Luck told ESPN. "I think Stanford is taking an assertive and innovative step. We're undoubtedly the best athletic department in college sports. We have to re-prove it in football, and we're excited to be part of that challenge."

Could Andrew Luck return Stanford to its former glory?

The program has a 91-70 record since Luck left for the 2012 NFL Draft, which isn't terrible but it's not the legacy of Rose Bowls and Pac-12 championships Stanford are well known for.

Luck will look to change things as they currently are with his name brand and business skills, building a recruiting network in the new NIL era so that the program can compete with other West coast power houses.

He is, however, aware that he's not a one man fix-it-all. Luck wants to embrace the challenge "eyes wide open and aware of my strengths and my limitations."

Having a football general manager for a college team seems rather antithetical to the supposedly amateur sport, but in the new landscape of college football it's becoming more and more necessary.

In fact, other power conference schools are already embracing it like Oklahoma which hired Curtis Lofton as its football general manager. Lofton was a standout linebacker for the Sooners from 2005-07 and helped the program win two Big 12 championships.

Time (and a lot of it) will be needed to see if Luck's efforts will be enough to shift the culture and improve results at Stanford but it will be an interesting experiment to keep tabs on as the sport continues to evolve.