Stanford Football: Breaking Down Andrew Luck's Radio Appearance After Week 0 Loss

Stanford football season is in full swing. Taking the field for the first time in 2025 last week, the Cardinal hit the road and traveled to Honolulu for a Week Zero matchup against Hawaii. Falling 23-20, the Cardinal came up short of a win and fell to 0-1 to start the Andrew Luck-Frank Reich era.

Despite the loss, a lot of hype still surrounds this year's Stanford team as it looks to bounce back from another 3-9 campaign.

Each and every week, Luck takes to the local radio waves when he appears on the KNBR show 'Dirty Work with Copes and D Pop' each and every Tuesday at 3:50 p.m. (PT). This week, Luck went on the show to discuss Stanford's loss to Hawaii.

Even though Luck made it clear that the loss was not good, he expressed confidence and optimism that the Cardinal will improve for the rest of the season.

One area that Luck commented on was the offense/passing game. The Cardinal struggled mightily to get going in the passing game, with starting quarterback Ben Gulbranson only completing 15 out of his 30 passes for 109 yards and an interception and having a hard time moving the ball when it mattered most--especially late in the game.

Luck's comments suggested that while the passing game was lackluster and needs to improve, the team will use to bye week to work out all the kinks so that they can come out firing against BYU.

Gulbranson remains the starter for now, and while it does still appear that he could start against BYU for the time being, a lot can happen between now and game time. But Luck did praise Reich's offense and said that it was very reminiscent of the one that he played in while being coached by Reich on the Colts in 2018.

The show's fill-in host Kerry Crowley asked Luck about the offensive formations during the game--which consisted a lot of 'I' formation and double tight-end sets. An NFL style formation that is not very common at the college level, Luck made it sound like Stanford will run a lot of plays out of those formation styles, confirming the pro-style attack that the Cardinal plan to run this season.

If that is the case, the growing pains shown in Week 0 make a lot more sense and justify some of the struggles out of the gate. That makes this bye week that much more pivotal leading up to the BYU game.

But overall, Luck did give off a sense of urgency for Stanford to lock-in for the rest of the season and improve on the mistakes from the Hawaii game. BYU, an opponent that features former Stanford players in Tiger and Bear Bachmeier will be tough test.

After that, the Cardinal begin conference play with games against Boston College and Virginia. Starting hot in ACC play will be crucial this season if the Cardinal stand any chance of competing in the loaded conference.

Stanford's matchup against BYU will take place on the road in Provo. Kickoff is set for 7:15 p.m. and will air on ESPN.