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The Stanford Athletic Department announced on Friday that it was bringing back former quarterback Tavita Pritchard as the new head coach of its football team.
As it did when it tapped Andrew Luck as the first general manager of the team, the university turned to a quarterback from its past to lead the team into the future. Pritchard is a 2009 graduate of Stanford, where he made 20 starts as quarterback.
After graduation, Pritchard had a lengthy stint as an assistant on the Cardinal bench. During that stretch, the Cardinal won nine straight Big Games against rivals from the University of California, Berkeley, and went to bowl games 10 straight years.
Pritchard is in the midst of his third year as quarterbacks coach of the NFL’s Washington Commanders. He replaces Frank Reich, who was named the team’s coach for the 2025 season only.
“Stanford is a place like no other and my family and I are full of gratitude to be returning home in every sense of the word,” said Pritchard in a prepared release from the university. Pritchard met his wife when the pair were Stanford undergrads. Three of his four children were born at Stanford Hospital, according to the release.
“I have a clear vision of the hard work, brotherhood and tenacity it will take to build a championship Stanford football program,” he said in the release. “I cannot wait to partner with Andrew and begin working with the best student-athletes in the world to achieve excellence on and off the field.”
Pritchard’s NFL colleagues were full of praise for Stanford’s new coach.
“If I had a son playing college football, I’d want him to play for Tavita Pritchard,” said Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury in a prepared release from Stanford. “Tavita has a unique ability to build relationships, and I’ve never seen a quarterback room as tight and unified as the one he has molded.”
