Mario Cristobal: Adding Jason Taylor to Miami's staff was an 'easy' decision

Miami has a pretty big name at the head of their defensive ends room heading into the 2023 football season. After adding him as a defensive analyst ahead of 2022, Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal is now promoting Jason Taylor to defensive ends coach. Cristobal joined On3’s JD PicKell on Tuesday to discuss what he says was a pretty easy decision for the staff opening.

Here was Cristobal’s answer when PicKell asked why Taylor was ultimately the choice for DEs coach:

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Mario Cristobal on Jason Taylor’s promotion to DE coach

“It’s an easy decision, you know. He’s another guy, imagine that, a guy that’s earned a gold jacket as an NFL Hall-of-Famer, who really has nothing to prove, but shows up every single day as if he has everything to prove,” said Coach Cristobal. “He is, again, another guy who, as a human being and as a teacher, is as good as it gets. And his energy, I mean, it’s like when he was a player. He brings that same energy every single day, and hopefully we can maybe slip a uniform on him and sneak him in there for a couple plays and no one will notice.”

You would think and hope college referees would notice a 49-year-old Hall of Fame NFL player playing in a college game, even with the pads on. But jokes aside, Mario Cristobal seems ecstatic about the new and bigger role for Jason Taylor in the ‘Canes program. He emphasized several times to PicKell that Taylor has such great energy. Obviously, he played with a high motor in the NFL — and now, that mindset seems to be transferring over to his coaching, where he helps keep the team upbeat every day.

Prior to his time at Miami, Taylor’s only other coaching experience was with high school teams, where he started and spent his entire time at that level with the prestigious Saint Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida — a top high school athletics program in the country. Taylor coached defensive line there for a few seasons and then was promoted to defensive coordinator for a couple years before Miami poached him for an analyst role. One year into that job, he got another promotion, this time to DE coach.

The Hall of Fame defensive lineman is climbing up the coaching ladder rapidly.