Stanford coach Troy Taylor has a tricked-out golf cart and a date with Sacramento State
Troy Taylor tools out of his driveway at around 6 every morning to for a three-minute trek across campus.
The first-year Stanford football coach with deep Sacramento roots parks outside the athletic offices and settles in for a full day of coach-and-player meetings, film breakdowns, repeat — Taylor in his element.
He doesn’t garage his ride. You don’t house something this cool. It’s a six-seater golf cart that Taylor snagged from a previous Cardinal coach. For a man who for years drove a weather-beaten, late-model Toyota while coaching at Folsom High School — right on down to his kids’ melted crayons and french fries wedged between the seats — the golf cart isn’t so much of a step up. It’s a stand for convenience.
“The cart is a little too tricked out,” Taylor said with a laugh during a phone conversation with The Sacramento Bee. “It’s a little embarrassing, really. You’d be surprised. Mag wheels, a little lifted like a truck. If I have to hit a couple of pedestrians to be on time, I’ll do it.”
No, not really, Taylor said. He was in good spirits because his is a fantasy coaching life come true. A boy who wanted to play big-time college football, who then became a man who wanted to coach big-time college football. He has accomplished his goals through his ability to read a defense and shred it as a player, his sheer will and drive as a coach, his exceptional football insight, his ability to manage a game and his unique leadership skills.
The next page of Taylor’s story is Saturday night’s 5 p.m. home opener against his best friends — the Sacramento State coaches who will take the Hornets to face their former head coach. It’s a plot twist no one saw coming when the contest was scheduled four years ago.
No one dared fathom then that Taylor would end up as the opposing coach for the Hornets for a September 2023 game. But here we are. After leading Sacramento State to three consecutive Big Sky Conference championships and a program-defining 12-1 showing last season, Taylor was blown away and flattered to be approached so intently by Stanford. Never mind that he was a Cal guy, a record-setting quarterback for the Bears as a four-year starter in the late 1980s.
Taylor hit the ground running at Stanford, taking over hours after Sacramento State was eliminated in the FCS playoffs.
“It’s been great, so much fun,” Taylor said of his role. “Bill Walton says he’s the luckiest guy in the world (in an ESPN documentary on the Hall of Fame basketball great). I’m the second luckiest guy. We’re having a good time here. I had a great time coaching at Folsom and at Sac State. Being able to compete, to find ways to get better, to build a program, it’s a great challenge.”
The coach added: “I went from that last game at Sac State, waking up early and meeting the Stanford players, putting a staff together, continuing the recruiting of players. It was a sprint for about four months.”
Pac-12 collapse
Taylor last winter bounced across the country to meet with Stanford boosters, alumni and donors, some of them on the East Coast. He said Stanford’s entry starting next fall in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the ACC, is a “good thing, because we recruit all over. We cast a wide net.”
He added: “The Pac-12 right now is unbelievable, the best it’s been in 20 years. It’ disappointing (that it broke apart) and it didn’t have to be that way. I understand why people want us to be on the West Coast (in a conference). College football has changed and we have to adapt. We’re fortunate to be in the ACC, excited.”
Taylor said he’s been wowed by the scholars he coaches, guys who aspire to be doctors and lawyers and chemists and engineers.
“I knew they’d be impressive people and they outdid my expectations,” Taylor said. “They inspire me. These guys are so caring, so competitive, so hard working. They want to make a dent in the universe. Part of my job is to ease their anxiety. If there’s a setback (such as losing to USC last week, 56-10), I’ve got to be the one moving forward. They’re used to being successful in most aspects of their lives. If we lose a game, if we fail, it doesn’t define you. It’s one game.”
Taylor, his wife, Tracey, their two sons, Aaron and Noah, and daughter Ella spent a week in Hawaii early in the summer. When the plane landed in the Bay Area, Taylor hit the ground running again. He was in fast-forward mode to implement his offensive schemes, his leadership — with a theme of loving each other and the game — and recruiting. He and sons live in a house on campus, the three amigos living the bachelor life.
“I don’t cook,” Taylor said, laughing. “I’m terrible at that, but we eat.”
Tracey and Ella are in Sacramento for the time being, but they visit and attend games on weekends.
‘Incredible people and coaches’
Taylor offered his coaching trio anchors from Sacramento State positions at Stanford, doing so because he views his great friends as “incredible people and coaches.”
Andy Thompson, the former Hornets defensive coordinator hired by Taylor, instead accepted the Sacramento State head coaching job. Kris Richardson, the co-coach with Taylor during those magical Folsom High years who headed the Bulldogs after Taylor left for an offensive coordinator post at Eastern Washington, remained in his preferred role as assistant head coach and offensive line coach with the Hornets.
Bobby Fresques, a coaching rock at Folsom and Sacramento State with Taylor, moved from Hornets quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. Thompson, Richardson and Fresques wanted to maintain the momentum with the Hornets. Fresques all those years ago introduced Taylor to the girl who would become his wife.
This week isn’t the time to chat it up between old friends over the phone or by text. The interaction will happen on the field before kickoff and surely some genuine hugs afterward. Sacramento State athletic director Mark Orr, the man who hired Taylor away from his offensive coordinator role with the Utah Utes before the 2019 season, knew he wouldn’t be able to keep the star coach for long.
“But it’s worked out great for Troy and for us here,” said Orr, a longtime friend of Taylor’s. “Andy and the guys have done a great job and Troy will do great things at Stanford.”
Taylor isn’t used to losing, having won all there is to win at Folsom High and losing just once in Big Sky play with Sacramento State. He used to agonize after setbacks, losing sleep, losing the color in his face. He’s gotten better with it over the years, but anyone as driven as Taylor still feels the sting of a setback, including powerhouse USC with its lineup of NFL-ready stars racing up and down the Memorial Coliseum turf.
“It all starts with me,” Taylor said of the loss. “We talk about being mindful. You look at the tape and own your part. Shoot, I’m the biggest part of it. I’m in charge. Whether we win or lose, we have got to move on. The waiting for the next game is the hard part. There’s only way way to approach it — attack it each day in practice.”
He added: “It’s great that we have a home game against a really, really good football team, coaches and players I know, my first home game as head coach at Stanford. It’s really pretty cool.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 5:00 AM.