Troy Taylor shares secret to navigating college football's current landscape

The landscape of college sports is rapidly changing and evolving. With the expansion of NIL and the transfer portal, some programs might find themselves at a serious disadvantage when it comes to maintaining their rosters.

That means programs must find and/or develop experts to help navigate these murky waters. And that is what brought newly hired head coach Troy Taylor to the Stanford Cardinal football program.

At the Pac-12 Football Media Day, the Cardinal headman spoke about how he plans on navigating the current college football landscape while admitting that the uniqueness of Sanford’s situation drew him to their head coaching position.

“It’s what drew me to the job. We are going to be the outlier of college football. I’m really comfortable. Some people see us as the underdog. I’m comfortable with that, too,” said Taylor.

Taylor was brought in over the offseason to replace former head coach Brian Shaw, who stepped down from the role. He spent the last four seasons as the head coach at Sacramento State.

There, Taylor developed the Hornets into a respectable football program, winning three Big Sky titles and two Big Sky Coach of the Year awards in the process. And now, he wants to bring that level of success to Stanford starting in 2023.

“We are not going to transition our roster, bringing in 30 transfers every year,” said Taylor. “We’re not going to live in that world. I don’t want to live in that world. We’ll bring in a few transfers. For the most part we’re going to do it with high school recruits. We’re going to bring ’em in, create an unbelievable team culture built on love, gratitude, being mindful, being really competitive. We’re going to develop those players over four to five years. You’re going to see a lot of those same names. We’re going to have fun doing it.”

Taylor’s method will focus more on playing the long game than instant gratification. He wants to develop his players over time, ensuring they work and fit the culture and mentality of the team he’s cultivating.

While some coaches are shooting for the win-now model, prioritizing the transfer portal, it is clear that Taylor wants Stanford to focus primarily on high school recruits. Now, the process might be challenging, but the Cardinal headman likes the opportunity given to him and will have some fun while achieving his goals.

“It will be a little bit different than all the other schools, but I like that.”