The Legacy Of Stanford Head Coach Troy Taylor by Johnathan Manning

The Playing Years

Like most coaches, Troy Taylor started as a player.

In 1986 quarterback Troy Taylor was named the starter for the California Berkeley Golden Bears.

Throughout Taylor's tenure with the Golden Bears, he threw for 8,126 yards, 51 touchdowns, and 46 interceptions in 4 years.

After Taylors' college career, the New York Jets drafted him with the 84th (3rd pick in the 4th round) pick in the 1990 NFL draft.

However, his NFL career was short-lived, with him only playing in 7 games in 2 seasons throwing for 125 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception.

The Start of COACH TAYLOR

Once Troy Taylor retired from the NFL, he started his coaching career.

In 1994 Coach Taylor was hired as an assistant coach for Casa Roble High School in Orangevale, California.

With only a single season under his belt the Colorado Buffaloes called Coach Taylor up and offered him to come over and be a graduate assistant and take control of the wide receivers.

When the 1995 season ended, return Coach Taylor was offered to return to his alma mater and take the role of receivers, quarterbacks, tight ends, and recruiting coordination. This was the first time he was stuck with coaching for any team.

After spending the last ended seasons with the golden bears three, back down to the high school level and accepted an assistant coaching opportunity at Christian Brothers High School.

Finally, Taylor decided to go in 2002. The first head coaching opportunity came as Folsom High School named Coach Taylor the Co-Head Coach, where in 2004, he split his win total, going 5-5.

Taylor found a home at Folsom High School and stayed as the Co-HC until 2016allowed when he was to make it back to the collegiate level.

The Eastern Washington Eagles hired Taylor as the Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach. This year the Eagles went on to a 12-2 season, and Taylor QB, Gage Gubrid, threw for 48 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, with Cooper Kupp and Shaq Hill each catching 19 touchdowns.

Now for the 4th time in his coaching career, Coach Taylor is out the door before a 2nd season. In 2017Inn, he is officially off to do the same job in the Power 5 for the Utah Utes.

In the first season running the Utes offense Taylor had current QB at the time, Tyler Huntley, as the 8th QB in passing yards in the Pac 12, Zack Moss 7th in rushing yards in the Pac, In and Darren Carrington 4th in receiving yards in the Pac as they finished 5th in the South division.

Coach, 2nd season was better overallTaylor, helping the Utes finish the season, and only 4th in Sacramento did not let up. However, the offensive stats were not as pretty… Once again, Tyler Huntley did not live up to his expectations and finished in the bottom half of the Pac in passing yards at only 9th.

Luckily Zack Moss felt like balling out for over the 1,000-yard mark, finishing 6th in rushing yards in the conference.

Unfortunately, the expansive receiver room never heated up and was incapable of putting anyone in the top 15 of receiving yards, as the best receiver, Britain Covey, ranked 20th…

Leading The Swarm

On December 17th, 2018, the Sacramento State Hornets hired Troy Taylor as Head Coach for the first time in his college coaching career.

For his first head coaching opportunity, Taylor led the Hornets to a 9-4 season with a loss in the playoffs to Austin Peay. Just a reminder, before Coach Taylor was hired the Hornets had a disastrous season, only going 2-8.

For the 2020 season, the FCS did not have a season to protect the players and families from Covid, but when football came back in 2021. Once again, the Hornets finished the season with Statenine wins and a close 24-19 loss to the FCS runners-up South Dakota State Jackrabbits.

Coach Taylor saved his best season for his last as he led the Hornets to a 12-1 record, only losing to Incarnate Word in a 66-63 shootout in the quarterfinals. This was enough for the Stanford Cardinals to offer him a job as their next head coach.

The Start of The Rebuild

After 12 years of David Shaw leading the Cardinals, he decided to step away after back-to-back 3-9 seasons and 0 winning seasons (excluding Covid season, where they went 4-2) since 2018 when they went 9-4.

Under Shaw, the Cardinals usually hung right around the 20th ranking in the country for recruiting in the last few years, which isn't terrible until you see what Coach Taylor is already doing. As of 2023, 247 sports have Stanford ranked 14 nationally.

Now will Coach Taylor be able to obtain a top-15 class will each unit? That's still in the air, but it is ?a perfect As in the 2023 rankings, Stanford is ranked 45th because of the uncertainty of who oach this season.

In this age of college football, you can see teams go from a 4-8 team to an 11-3 willunit (with the help of the transfer portal), as USC did with the hire of Lincoln Riley. That is if you use the portal freely… which Stanford does not.

Even though the Pac-12 is a tough conference, I believe this was a home run hire, and every Stanford fan should be excited for what's to come in the future.