Greg McElroy sets expectations for Stanford under Frank Reich as interim

Stanford has consistently struggled over the past six seasons through two coaching tenures. Greg McElroy thinks that’ll now continue into their upcoming interim one this fall under Frank Reich.

McElroy tiered the Atlantic Coast Conference in an episode of ‘Always College Football’ last week. The Cardinals found themselves in the fifth and final, ‘work to do’ tier, alongside California and Wake Forest, despite McElroy liking the hire of Reich as the interim considering what he can bring to their program, even if only on a one-year basis.

“They’ve had four consecutive 3-9 campaigns. New coaching change,” said McElroy. “Program is in a complete rebuild but there are some changes that have me feeling a little optimistic.”

“I love the interim head coach, Frank Reich, after Troy Taylor’s departure,” McElroy said. “You have a former NFL head coach, an experienced head coach that’s going to take over in the interim role here in 2025. Got some NFL experience. That should be helpful.”

Reich, who was hired in March after the dismissal of Taylor, does have six seasons of experience as a head coach and eight in various other roles in the NFL. That said, especially in an interim role, that may not be enough for a one-year turnaround of a program that is 20-46 (.303) since 2019 considering how many questions need answers at Stanford.

“You don’t even know yet who your quarterback is going to be. Is it going to be redshirt freshman Elijah Brown, former four-star recruit? Got to feel decent about the possibility of that. Is it going to be Dylan Rizk from UCF who transferred over?” McElroy thought out. “You got a bunch of transfer portal additions at wide receiver. That’s a big question mark. You do have a great piece at tight end in Sam Roush. He should be one of the breakout players in the conference, one of the best ACC tight ends this year.”

“The roster turnover, the struggles they’ve had along the offensive line? Some of the weaknesses we’ve seen on defense the last couple years?…And they just haven’t been consistent at any point in the last few years,” McElroy continued.

Again, for a single year, those issues then aren’t helped by the slate for the Cardinal in 2025. Stanford will play at home against Florida State and Notre Dame in the finale with road games at Hawaii in the opener, BYU, SMU, Miami, and North Carolina, with four of those six teams either making or being in contention for the playoff last season, to make up a schedule that McElroy believes will be too much for them by season’s end.

“They host Notre Dame. They also have Florida State that comes to them. They’re at Miami, they’re at SMU, they’re at BYU, they’re at Hawaii, they’re at North Carolina. You notice how many games that I just listed that were at…Those are big challenges to go on the road to those places…Boston College comes to them, they’re at Virginia,” said McElroy. “Right now, I think the schedule is just too tough for Stanford to carve out their place in the postseason out of the ACC.”

Considering the changes for the program just since the end of the spring in March, one could excuse yet another poor season from Stanford. That’s what McElroy is expecting too as it doesn’t look to him like they’ll be in a bowl again coming out of what could be their lone year under Reich.

“It’s hard for me to envision them getting to six wins,” stated McElroy.