STANFORD, Calif. >> Andrew Luck is returning to Stanford in hopes of turning around a struggling football program that he once helped become a national power.

Athletic director Bernard Muir announced Saturday that Luck has been hired as the general manager of the Stanford football team, tasked with overseeing all aspects of the program that just finished a 3-9 season under coach Troy Taylor.

Luck has kept a low profile since his surprise retirement from the NFL at age 29 when he announced in August 2019 that he was leaving the Indianapolis Colts and pro football.

In his new role, Luck will work with Taylor on recruiting and roster management, and with athletic department and university leadership on fundraising, alumni relations, sponsorships, student-athlete support and stadium experience. Luck was one of the players who helped elevate Stanford into a West Coast powerhouse for several years. He helped end a seven-year bowl drought in his first season as starting quarterback in 2009 under coach Jim Harbaugh and led the Cardinal to back-to-back BCS bowl berths his final two seasons, when he was the Heisman Trophy runner-up both seasons.

That was part of a seven-year stretch in which Stanford posted the fourth-best record in the nation at 76-18 under Harbaugh and David Shaw.