After Toby Gerhart left, the hopes of the Stanford Cardinals have been on the shoulders of talented quarterback, Andrew Luck.

Andrew’s father, himself was a football professional. Oliver Luck was a quarterback playing with the West Virginia Mountaineers. Much later, he was drafted and joined the Houston Oilers as NFL quarterback. In high school Andrew had been a favorite of recruiters from all over the region but his final decision was to play with Stanford. His freshman year was impressive and he got to play starting quarterback as early as that. He was picked over Tavita Pritchard and is the second Stanford athlete to be so distinguished. A precedent had been set in 1996 by Chad Hutchinson.

Due to his NFL stock, he may very well be drafted after 2010. However, Coach Jim Harbaugh is reluctant to have him leave the team and insists that the NFL may not necessarily Andrew’s best option for next year. They are going to talk the matter over carefully after this season’s games and the coach is confident he can work out a compromise between Andrew’s career and the team’s interest.

Luck had been the one who spearheaded the the Cardinals’ victories over USC and Oregon in 2009. The team had earned a shot at the championships. However, due to an accident involving his hand, Luck couldn’t play in that game which the team lost.

In 2009 he had managed to throw 2,575 yards and he succeeded in completing 162 of his 288 attempts at passing while only 4 were intercepted. In spite of that record, Andrew is still working to improve himself in that as well as in all other aspects of the game. His time playing with and under Toby Gerhart taught him a lot about leadership and developing a style.

His own unique playing style is gradually realizing itself. In the absence of Gerhart who switched to the Minnesota Vikings, Andrew has proven himself of being capable to lead the team. Being a perfectionist, he would much rather hear criticism than praise and he spends much time identifying his wrong moves after every game is over.

Andrew is a unique combination of everything that it needs to lead the team. He has a strong arm, he has the speed, the style, the intelligence and the leadership potential that his team needed in last year’s games. The experience he gained has developed in him the stance of a professional. His playing was faster, more powerful and more perceptive at the end of last year. He is still working on improving his power and speed as well as his knack for making good game decisions when and where these are needed.

Although his spring training game was not exactly a perfect one, he had improved markedly over last year. Coach Jim Harbaugh, like all the rest of the Cardinals are banking on Andrew to do what he did for the team last year once more for 2010. The coach is quick to call him the best quarterback in the country and it seems Andrew is about to join the ranks of the team’s best quarterbacks ever.

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