Troy Taylor's Coaching Career: stats, notable records, key achievements and more

Troy Taylor is having a tough start to his tenure as the Stanford Cardinal football head coach. With just a win in five games, it’s easy to dismiss him as a coach who’s not worth his salt, but a look at his long coaching career says otherwise. Taylor is who you might call a late bloomer. He started his coaching journey close to three decades ago.

However, he only got his first head coaching role in a Division I program in 2019. This is not to make his previous roles seem less important, though. Taylor has taken up coaching roles in several high schools and colleges in a career that has steadily prepared him for the big stage.

Exploring Troy Taylor’s coaching career

His first coaching role was at Casa Roble High School in California, where he served as the offensive coordinator in 1994. He worked next at Colorado as a graduate assistant, training the wide receivers. He was in Colorado in 1995 and got a role at his alma mater, California, the following year as the wide receivers coach.

He held the role for a year before being made the quarterbacks coach for another two years. Then, from 1999 to 2000, he was the tight ends coach. Taylor left California in 2000 to return to coaching in high school. He was the assistant coach at Christian Brothers High School, California, from 2000 to 2002.

After his stint at Christian Brothers, Troy Taylor’s next job was his first head coaching role which he held at Folsom High School, California. He was at Folsom from 2002 to 2004. He left to venture briefly into broadcasting as a color analyst for the California Golden Bears’ radio. He returned to Folsom as co-head coach in 2012.

He led the school to a 58-3 record as head coach and won the section championship in four consecutive seasons, also winning a state title. Notably, he coached Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jake Browning at Folsom. He left Folsom again in 2015 to become the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, first at Eastern Washington and then at Utah.

Troy Taylor’s achievements as head coach

Taylor was appointed the head coach of the Sacramento States Hornets football in December 2018. He led the Hornets to three consecutive Big Sky conference titles. He left the job in 2022 with a 30-8 record (23-1 in conference play). He was awarded the Eddie Robinson Award in 2019. He also won the Big Sky Coach of the Year Award in 2019 and 2021.