The Tavita Pritchard era ends in DC on Sunday night…and begins in Palo Alto on Tuesday.
Stanford University announced over the weekend that they have hired Pritchard, the Commanders’ quarterbacks coach, as their next head football coach, and Pritchard will leave the Commanders following Sunday Night Football against Denver.
The announcement was made by Andrew Luck, who, like Pritchard, is a former Stanford QB but now also serves as the general manager of the Cardinal’s football program.
“Winning in college football today requires a leader of men who can build and motivate teams, recruit future stars, and develop and connect with talent,” Luck said in a statement. “Tavita Pritchard is exactly the right head coach at the right time to help us build on the foundation of this season and lead Stanford football to its next great era.”
Pritchard succeeds Frank Reich, whom Luck brought in this past spring to replace the hastily fired Troy Taylor following allegations of misconduct.
Reich, who was Luck’s head coach in Indianapolis in Luck’s final NFL season, went 4-8 in his lone season in Palo Alto, but that was an improvement over Taylor, who was 3-9 in both of his seasons as the Cardinal transitioned from the Pac-12 to the ACC.
“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,” Pritchard said in a release. “I have a clear vision of the hard work, brotherhood and tenacity it will take to build a championship Stanford football program. 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 had been the QB coach in DC since 2023, but that hiring followed 13 seasons as a positional assistant and eventually offensive coordinator at his alma mater. The 38-year-old went into coaching as a graduate assistant in 2010 right after finishing a playing career that saw him, ironically, replaced as a senior in 2009 by then-redshirt freshman Luck, only to make his final collegiate start in the 2009 Sun Bowl after Luck was injured late in the season.
"Tavita will be a fantastic head coach, and I believe he will be especially effective at Stanford,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, who kept Pritchard on after the dismissal of much of Ron Rivera’s previous staff, said in a statement. “Players gravitate to him, and he quickly earned their respect and mine. Tavita is smart, collaborative, diligent and he brings people together. He is the perfect coach to build a winning program in today’s college football landscape."
The Commanders have not made any official moves to replace Pritchard on their coaching staff, but they do have former NFL signal-caller David Blough on staff as assistant QB coach.