Troy Taylor’s latest challenge is turning Stanford football around

STANFORD, Calif. — It isn’t arduous for Troy Taylor to check a parallel universe by which he can be dwelling, outdoors of Sacramento, a highschool instructor having fun with summer season break. He would in all probability be scribbling performs in a yellow pocket book, getting ready for Folsom Excessive’s upcoming soccer season and life can be good.

That was his actuality seven years in the past. He was the co-head coach at some of the dominant soccer applications within the state and the architect of some of the explosive offenses ever seen at the highschool degree.

“I might have been very joyful being at Folsom Excessive College for the remainder of my life,” Taylor mentioned.

A record-breaking quarterback at Cal who spent two years with the New York Jets after being picked within the fourth spherical of the 1990 NFL draft, Taylor spent 5 seasons as an assistant at his alma mater earlier than deciding to go the highschool route. On the time, the thought of bouncing round, making an attempt to climb the school teaching ladder did not mesh effectively along with his concept of tips on how to be a superb father and husband.

Folsom grew to become his laboratory. One season the group by no means punted. In one other, his quarterback, present Cincinnati Bengals backup Jake Browningtied the single-season nationwide document with 91 touchdowns. After 14 years, on and off, there was a particular physique of labor, however lastly it hit him: “I would like a brand new problem.”

Taylor had developed a relationship with then-Washington coach Chris Petersen — initially via Browning’s recruiting course of — and after the 2015 season he advised Petersen he was flirting with the thought of getting again into faculty teaching. The dialog started a collection of occasions that led to Taylor being named Stanford soccer coach in December.

He is tasked with turning round a program that’s only a few years faraway from essentially the most profitable interval in its 130-year historical past however is coming off a dismal two-year run by which it received simply three convention video games. Stanford faces vital short- and long-term challenges within the face of the altering world of faculty soccer.

SOMETIME AFTER TAYLOR let Petersen find out about his faculty teaching ambitions, his cellphone rang. On the opposite finish was then-Eastern Washington head coach Beau Baldwin, who was out there for a brand new offensive coordinator.

“He advised me, ‘Hey, Coach Pete mentioned I ought to interview you and when Coach Pete tells me to do one thing, I pay attention,'” Taylor mentioned.

Petersen had developed an immense quantity of respect for Taylor through the years and that was relayed to Baldwin.

Plus, Petersen knew Taylor and Baldwin had related kinds and thought they’d make a superb match. He was proper.

On his manner again from the nationwide teaching conference, Baldwin stopped in Sacramento to fulfill with Taylor. They mentioned soccer ideas and idea, and the dialog ended with Baldwin providing Taylor the job. From a soccer standpoint, it was the precise kind of gig he was in search of: a possibility to use his offensive concoction at the next degree and see the place it’d go.

From a household and life standpoint, although, this was not a no brainer. The $63,000 wage was a pay minimize from his educating job (which included a $2,000 stipend he received to educate soccer) and meant he and his spouse, Tracey, must uproot their three children — then ages 7, 10 and 15 — to Cheney, Washington.

“If my spouse would have mentioned no, that may have been it,” Taylor mentioned. “It was completely in her palms. However she’s like, ‘All proper. I imagine in you. Let’s do it.'”

Taylor did not plan to stay a coordinator for lengthy. He wished to be a head coach. As a lot as he obsessed over X’s and O’s, having the ability to set the tradition of a group was simply as essential and he knew it will by no means occur from the OC chair.

“I used to be going to provide myself 5 years to develop into a head coach on the faculty degree,” he mentioned. “I did not need to journey everywhere in the nation for the remainder of this deal, however let’s give it 5 years. I might all the time come again and I’ve received my educating credential and all that.

“Folks had been questioning if the offense was going to work on the faculty degree. So was I. So, let’s give it a shot.”

YES, THE OFFENSE labored. At Jap Washington, quarterback Gage Gubrud set the FCS single-season passing document (5,160 yards), the Eagles went 12-2, ranked second nationally in whole offense and third in scoring. Having future Tremendous Bowl MVP Cooper Coup at receiver actually helped, however any doable doubt about Taylor’s transition from highschool was gone.

After the season, he was named the offensive coordinator at Utah and this time when he leveled up, it got here with roughly a half-million-dollar increase.

The outcomes had been blended. Utah received its first Pac-12 division title in his second season (2018), however the Utes ranked within the backside half of the convention offensively in his two years in Salt Lake Metropolis. Taylor’s pass-heavy offense clashed with what Utah had executed historically and has executed since.

Nonetheless, the three years in faculty soccer had been validating and led Sacramento State to supply Taylor its head teaching gig after the 2018 season. It meant one other pay minimize — this time measured in a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} — however for Taylor, that was however a footnote. He was doing precisely what he got down to do: develop into a head coach in faculty soccer and do it in his hometown.

“Folks had been shocked after I left Utah,” Taylor mentioned. “‘What’s he doing? Why would he go away for much less cash and go to Sacramento State to be the top coach?’ … And I mentioned, ‘This is not about cash. That is about operating a program.'”

“As an offensive coordinator, you can also make some huge cash, however you are by no means going to have the ability to actually drive the tradition.”

Like Stanford is now, Sac State was in a troublesome spot. In 2018, it went winless within the Huge Sky Convention (0-7) and was 2-8 total. Going into Taylor’s first season, the Hornets had been picked to return in twelfth place within the 13-team league.

The turnaround was instant. Sac State went 9-4 total and 7-1 within the convention and earned two historic firsts: a share of the Huge Sky soccer championship and a berth within the FCS playoffs. After not taking part in within the 2020 Covid season, Taylor took the Hornets to new heights. They went undefeated in convention play in 2021 and 2022, rose to as excessive as No. 2 within the FCS rankings and received their first-ever playoff sport.

The day after Sac State was eradicated from the FCS playoffs in December, Taylor was formally named Stanford’s head coach.

STANFORD ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Bernard Muir will not be anticipating the identical sort of immediate revival on the Farm. Not in what has the potential to be a really robust yr within the Pac-12 and never with what Stanford has been via.

“I do know it will take a while to get us again to the place we need to be simply because our numbers are a bit down, however he isn’t making excuses and he is making an attempt to get higher daily,” Muir mentioned. “And that is precisely the vitality and enthusiasm we’ll want.”

A bit down sells issues a bit brief.

The Cardinal misplaced 12 starters and 17 gamers to the switch portal and the varsity’s stringent admission and switch necessities precluded the potential of utilizing the portal to utterly replenish the roster for this season in the way in which most different faculties might have. Taylor mentioned he expects to have about 75 of the allotted 85 scholarship gamers this season.

These departures mixed with Stanford’s downturn are why the Cardinal had been picked to complete in final place by the media in a ballot launched at Pac-12 media day Friday. Muir and Taylor each theorized, nonetheless, that the mass exodus was extra a product of surprising circumstances — additional yr of Covid eligibility, employees change, lack of success, and so on. — than one thing they anticipate to show right into a pattern.

“This present day the place faculties herald 30 new transfers, we’re not going to reside in that world,” Taylor mentioned. “I do not need to reside in that world. I need to construct tradition and also you solely construct tradition when you may have folks for a period. You possibly can’t herald new gamers yearly and assume you are going to develop a fantastic tradition.

“I like the thought of constructing it with highschool athletes after which in the event you’re good sufficient to decide on Stanford, you are in all probability good sufficient to remain at school till you get your undergraduate diploma.”

Of the 17 gamers who left, 16 did so with levels. The additional season of eligibility from Covid resulted in additional graduates with remaining eligibility than will normally be the case.

It is almost unimaginable to measure progress whereas a brand new coach is 0-0, however three gamers who spoke with ESPN final week had been enthusiastic in regards to the job Taylor has executed injecting new vitality and perception into this system.

“He is all the things we heard about him instances 10,” tight finish Benjamin Yurosek mentioned. “He is aggressive, he is intense, he loves the sport of soccer.”

“Coach Taylor’s large philosophy is love and that is clearly been prevalent in Stanford, however simply understanding what meaning, not that golden retriever kind of affection or something, however loving your brother sufficient to inform him what he would not need to hear or push him in all these kinds of methods.”

What Yurosek laid out displays the sort of tradition Taylor has all the time felt was very important to constructing a profitable soccer program. It was that manner in Folsom, simply because it was at Sac State. In each locations, unprecedented success adopted. At Stanford, that is a more durable bar to clear.