After ‘roadway less taken a trip,’ Taylor lands at Stanford
STANFORD, Calif.– The last time Stanford’s football program was looking for a coach to get it out of a rut, tapping the FCS ranks shown to be the ideal path.Sixteen years
after Jim Harbaugh arrived and helped develop the Cardinal from a one-win group into a national power, Troy Taylor will try to do the same.Stanford formally presented Taylor as the replacement for David Shaw on Monday, hoping an innovative offending coach with contagious energy can restore a program coming off back-to-back nine-loss seasons for the first time in school history.”The capacity here at Stanford is substantial,
“Taylor stated.”They’ve done it. They’ve had terrific success here. I believe you got to adapt and adjust.” 1 Related The job for Taylor is possibly more difficult than the one Harbaugh dealt with when he took over for the 2007 season.After a six-year run under Harbaugh and Shaw from 2010-15 that included three Rose Bowl trips and two other major bowl quotes, the Cardinal have fallen off dramatically.Stanford went 4-8 in 2019 and then had back-to-back 3-9 records the last 2 years after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.The recent downfall coincides with the loosening of transfer rules across major college football. The elite scholastic school has not been able to add to its lineup through transfers as
quickly as most of its competitors in the Pac-12 and nationally.Taylor stated he’s been provided assurances that Stanford will loosen its constraints on transfers and he will have the ability to supplement his roster with a handful of transfers each season as long as they are academically qualified.”There’s players out there that fit that bill,” Taylor said.”You just got to connect a little bit further and travel a bit more miles and all those things. I have actually been ensured that they’re open to bringing players in
through the transfer website as long as they fit the identity of Stanford. “Taylor spent the last four seasons as head coach at Sacramento State, leading the Hornets to the FCS playoffs three times. Sacramento State did not field a team during 2020 because of the pandemic.Sacramento State went 30-8 with a 23-1 record in a tough Huge Sky Conference under Taylor. The Hornets lost a wild quarterfinal playoff game Friday night, 66-63 against Incarnate Word.Athletic director Bernard Muir referenced the success of Harbaugh and Expense Walsh as past great Stanford coaches without a pedigree of high-level head training success when they took over.He believes Taylor has the attributes to forge a similar course.”His name kept turning up, “Muir said.”The more research you did
and then when you really got the possibility to get in front of them, you realize his enthusiasm and his energy is exactly what we required in order to take the program, ideally back to where we when were and hopefully even beyond.” Taylor was provided the task late recently but didn’t want
it announced till after Sacramento State’s FCS playoff game on Friday night.He then said goodbye to his Hornets players on Saturday early morning before taking over that day at Stanford, where he spent most of the previous two days meeting the remaining players and assistants.Now it’s off to recruiting prior to the early finalizing period next week.
Taylor said he already told every player on the group and recruit who had actually verbally committed to Stanford that they have a place on the roster.
“It’s been a whirlwind, “he said.”It’s been among those things that you get a little bit of sleep and after that you get up and I’m getting ready to go right as my eyes open up. I can’t wait to get to work.” Taylor had a short NFL profession
in the early 1990s and coached as an assistant at Cal from 1996-99 prior to going back to the high school ranks near Sacramento. He was at Folsom High School when Beau Baldwin offered him the co-offensive organizer task at FCS power Eastern Washington in 2016. It’s been a rapid increase from there, with Taylor spending one season at Eastern Washington prior to ending up being offending planner at Utah for two years and then taking over Sacramento State in 2019. Now he
has his very first chance at a Power Five head coaching task at age 54.”It’s absolutely been the road less traveled,”he stated.”If you take a look at sort of where I have actually been, it’s pretty clear it had nothing to do with money or contracts. That’s pretty clear. I have actually never ever chased that. For me, it’s been following my happiness. I enjoy dealing with student-athletes. I enjoy coaching football. I enjoy completing.”