Stanford Hires Troy Taylor as Head Coach
Stanford Hires Troy Taylor as Head Coach
Yes......it's happening
After much speculation and even a refuting that Troy Taylor would not be leaving Sacramento State, the news has finally broken. Stanford has tabbed Taylor to replace David Shaw as the head coach on the farm. The Cardinal are banking on Taylor’s creative offensive mind to re-elevate their program, as they turtled to a combined 10-26 record in their last three full seasons under Shaw.
Taylor notably, is a Cal alum and was the Bears quarterback from 1986-1989. He was then selected in the 4th round of the 1990 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, where he saw action in 7 games before turning towards coaching. He made his name as the head coach of Folsom High School, just outside of Sacramento where he coached the likes of former Washington quarterback Jake Browning and whose teams broke all sorts of California state passing records.
He eventually came to be the offensive coordinator at Utah, where he received mixed reviews from Utes fans over his two seasons at the helm. Taylor then came home, named the Sacramento State head coach in late 2018. The Hornets were a middling program that couldn’t find their way and Taylor injected life into it, garnering a head coaching record of 30-8, 3 Big Sky championships, and an undefeated 12-0 2022 regular season before a quarterfinal loss to Incarnate Word in the FCS playoffs.
For Cal fans, some may be wrestling with themselves at the thought of Taylor wearing red during the Big Game. Other Cal fans may wait and see just what Taylor can do at a program that has more constraints than others, combined with no prior FBS head coaching experience. Regardless, it’s one hire that will divide Cal fans right down the middle, especially when its Big Game week.
Let’s hear your thoughts.
GoBears49, can you just give us one big “I told you so” right now and then never again? Because you did, you DID tell us so and I suspect this hire is gonna bite us in the ass. Good for Taylor!
It probably would have worked out if TT was hired by Cal, but the timing of the extension and "all-in" gesture on Wilcox prevented a serious discussion other than Taylor for OC which obviously was too much of a lateral move for him even with a 4x salary bump. He went for the big $$. But who can blame him. Maybe Stanford will have an ex-Cal braintrust just like ours is purely Oregon.