Troy Taylor’s newest obstacle is turning Stanford football around

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• Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Personnel WriterJul 24, 2023, 07:00 AM ET Close Covers the Pac-12. Joined ESPN in 2014.
• Attended Washington State University.STANFORD, Calif.– It

‘s not tough for Troy Taylor to imagine a parallel universe in which he would be home, beyond Sacramento, a high school teacher enjoying summer season break. He would probably be scribbling plays in a yellow notebook, preparing for Folsom High’s upcoming football season and life would be good.That was his truth 7 years ago. He was the co-head coach at one of the most dominant football programs in the state and the designer of one of the most explosive offenses ever seen at the high school level.

“I could have been really delighted being at Folsom High School for the rest of my life,” Taylor said.A record-breaking quarterback at Cal who invested two years with the New york city Jets after being selected in the 4th round of the 1990 NFL draft, Taylor invested 5 seasons as an assistant at his alma mater prior to deciding to go the high school path. At the time, the idea of bouncing around, trying to climb up the college coaching ladder didn’t mesh well with his idea of how to be a good dad and husband.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Folsom became his lab

. One season the team never ever punted. In another, his quarterback, present Cincinnati Bengals backup Jake Browning, tied the single-season nationwide record with 91 goals. After 14 years, on and off, there was an unique body of work, but lastly it hit him: “I require a new obstacle. “Taylor had established a relationship with then-Washington coach Chris Petersen– at first through Browning’s recruiting procedure– and after the 2015 season he informed Petersen he was flirting with the concept of returning into college coaching. The discussion began a series of events that resulted in Taylor being called Stanford football coach in December.He’s tasked with reversing a program that is simply a few years eliminated from the most successful duration in its 130-year history but is coming off a disappointing two-year run in which it won just three conference games. Stanford deals with considerable short-and long-lasting difficulties in the face of the altering world of college football. Sac State went 9-4 overall and 7-1 in conference play in Troy Taylor’s first season as head coach. Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire

SOMETIME AFTER TAYLOR let Petersen learn about his college training aspirations, his phone rang. On the other end was then-Eastern Washington head coach Beau Baldwin, who was in the market for a brand-new offensive planner.

“He told me, ‘Hey, Coach Pete said I should interview you and when Coach Pete tells me to do something, I listen,'” Taylor said.Petersen had actually established an immense quantity of respect for Taylor over the years which was passed on to Baldwin.Plus, Petersen knew Taylor and Baldwin had comparable designs and believed they would make a great match. He was right.On his method back from the national coaching convention, Baldwin stopped in

Sacramento to meet Taylor. They went over football concepts and theory, and the conversation ended with Baldwin using Taylor the task. From a football standpoint, it was the specific kind of gig he was searching for: an opportunity to apply his offending concoction at a higher level and see where it might go.From a household and life viewpoint, however, this was not a no-brainer.

The$ 63,000 wage was a pay cut from his teaching task(which included a$2,000 stipend he got to coach football)and suggested he and his wife, Tracey, would need to uproot their three kids– then ages 7, 10 and 15– to Cheney, Washington.”If my spouse would have stated no, that would have been it,” Taylor stated.”It was totally in her hands. But she resembles,’All right. I believe in you. Let’s do it.’ “Taylor didn’t strategy to stay an organizer for long. He wanted to be a head coach. As much as he obsessed over X’s and O’s, being able to set the culture of a group was just as essential and he knew it would never ever happen from the OC chair.

“I was going to offer myself 5 years to end up being a head coach at the college level,” he said. “I didn’t want to travel all over the country for the rest of this deal, but let’s offer it 5 years. I could always come back and I’ve got my mentor credential and all that.

“People were wondering if the offense was going to work at the college level. So was I. So, let’s provide it a shot.”

Stanford won just three conference games in the previous 2 seasons. Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports YES, THE OFFENSE worked. At Eastern Washington, quarterback Gage Gubrud set the FCS single-season death record (5,160 yards), the Eagles went 12-2, ranked 2nd nationally in total offense and third in scoring. Having future Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp at receiver definitely assisted, however any possible doubt about Taylor’s shift from high school was gone.After the season

, he was called the offending coordinator at Utah and this time when he leveled up, it included approximately a half-million-dollar raise.The outcomes were blended. Utah won its first Pac-12 department title in his second season(2018), but the Utes ranked in the bottom half of the conference offensively in his 2 years in Salt Lake City. Taylor’s pass-heavy offense encountered what Utah had actually done traditionally and has done since.Still, the three years in college football were verifying and led Sacramento State

to provide Taylor its head training gig after the 2018 season. It meant another pay cut– this time measured in numerous countless dollars– however for Taylor, that was however a footnote. He was doing exactly what he set out to do: end up being a head coach in college football and do it in his hometown. “Individuals were shocked when I left Utah, “Taylor stated.”‘What’s he doing? Why would he leave for less money and go to Sacramento State to be the head coach?’… And I stated,’This isn’t about cash. This is about running a program. ‘””As an offensive organizer, you can make a great deal of cash, but you’re never going to have the ability to really drive the culture.”Like Stanford is now, Sac State remained in a difficult spot. In 2018, it went winless in the Huge Sky Conference(0-7 )and was 2-8 total. Going

into Taylor’s first season, the Hornets were chosen to come in 12th location in the 13-team league.The turnaround was immediate. Sac State went 9-4 overall and 7-1 in the conference and earned two historic firsts: a share of the Big Sky football champion and a berth in the FCS playoffs. After not playing in the 2020 Covid season, Taylor took the Hornets to brand-new heights. They went unbeaten in conference play in 2021 and 2022, rose to as high as No. 2 in the FCS rankings and won their first-ever playoff game.The day after Sac State was eliminated from the FCS playoffs in December, Taylor was officially named Stanford’s head coach. Troy Taylor is eager to develop a brand-new culture at Stanford. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports STANFORD ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Bernard Muir is not expecting the same sort of instant revival on the Farm. Not in what has the possible to be an extremely strong year in the Pac-12 and not with what Stanford has been through.”I understand it’s going to take some time to get us back to where we want to be just because our numbers are a bit down, however he’s not making reasons and he’s attempting to improve every day,”Muir stated.”And that’s exactly the energy and enthusiasm we’re going

to need.”A bit down offers things a bit short.The Cardinal lost 12 beginners and 17 players to the transfer website and the school’s stringent admission and transfer requirements precluded the possibility of using the website to completely replenish the lineup for this season in the method most other

schools could have. Taylor said he expects to have about 75 of the allotted 85 scholarship players this season.Those departures combined with Stanford’s recession are why the Cardinal were selected to end up in last location by the media in a survey released at Pac-12 media day Friday. Muir and Taylor both theorized, however, that the mass exodus was more an item of uncommon situations– extra year of Covid eligibility, staff change, absence of

success, etc– than something they anticipate to become a trend. “In this day and age where schools bring in 30 brand-new transfers, we’re not going to reside in that world,”Taylor stated.”I do not want to live in that world. I wish to build culture and you only build culture when you have people for a duration. You can’t bring in brand-new players every year and think you’re going to develop a terrific culture.”I like the concept of building it with high school professional athletes and then if you’re smart sufficient to pick Stanford, you’re most likely clever adequate to remain in school up until you get your bachelor’s degree. “Of the 17 players who left, 16 did so with degrees. The additional season of eligibility from Covid resulted in more graduates with staying eligibility than will usually be the case.It’s nearly impossible

to determine development while a brand-new coach is 0-0, but 3 players who spoke with ESPN last week were passionate about the job Taylor has actually done injecting new energy and belief into the program.”He’s whatever we heard about him times 10,

“tight end Benjamin Yurosek stated. “He’s competitive, he’s extreme, he loves the game of football.” “Coach Taylor’s big approach is love and that’s certainly been prevalent in Stanford, however just understanding what that implies, not that golden retriever kind of love or anything, however loving your sibling enough to tell him what he doesn’t want to hear or press him in all those kinds of ways.”What Yurosek laid out shows the type of culture Taylor has constantly felt was vital to building a successful football program. It was that method in Folsom, just as it was at Sac State. In both locations, unprecedented success followed. At Stanford, that’s a harder bar to clear.