UCLA Football Preview: Troy Taylor Now Leads Stanford Program
Taylor has just three years of experience as a head coach.
After last season, David Shaw stepped down as the head coach at Stanford. As a result of that, UCLA got a commitment from now-freshman wide receiver Carter Shaw, the son of the former “Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football,” who would have played for the Cardinal if his dad were still coaching there.
Of course, all the Cardinal players got themselves an entirely new coaching staff.
Stanford’s new “Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football,” aka head coach is Troy Taylor. Taylor was an out-of-the-box hire for Stanford due to the fact that he has no FBS head coaching experience. In fact, he has just three years of experience as a head coach at all, and all of those came at Sacramento State, which is an FCS program.
At Sacramento State, Taylor inherited a team which had finished 2018 with a 2-8 record and he turned them into a team which went 9-4 in his first season. The Hornets also made the FCS Playoffs and won their first playoff game in school history. After the 2020 season was wiped out by COVID, Taylor led the Hornets to a 9-3 record in 2021 and another FCS first round playoff win. Last season, Sacramento State went 12-1 and made the FCS quarterfinals. So, Taylor represents the definition of an up-and-coming coach, even if he hasn’t been a head coach very long or at the FBS level.
Taylor isn’t completely without FBS experience. He served as the offensive coordinator at Utah from the 2017 and 2018 seasons before leaving to take the helm at Sac State. He was also an assistant at his alma mater UC Berkeley from 1996 to 1999.
So far at Stanford, Taylor is 2-4. They began the season with a win over Hawai’i. Then, the Cardinal went on a four-game skid, losing to Southern Cal, Sac State, Arizona, and Oregon. But then, last week, they went into Boulder and came out with a double overtime win over Coach Prime and the Buffs.
In addition to his head coaching duties, Taylor also serves as Stanford’s “Andrew Luck Director of Offense” and “Kevin M. Hogan Quarterbacks Coach.”
Meanwhile, Bobby April is the team’s “Willie Shaw Director of Defense/Outside Linebackers” aka Defensive Coordinator and Outside Linebackers coach. April joins the Cardinal after coaching outside linebackers at Wisconsin for the past five seasons. Prior to joining the Badgers, he was the linebackers coach for the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets. This is his first season as a defensive coordinator.
Let’s look at the Cardinal special teams.
Special Teams
Senior Joshua Karty will handle all of Stanford’s placekicking duties tomorrow. He has made 13 of 16 field goal attempts this season as well as all 13 of his PAT attempts. Karty’s career longest field goal came last year against UC Berkeley when he made a 61-yarder. His longest this season has been 53 yards. Two of the three field goal attempts he’s missed came from more than 50 yards out while the third was between 30 and 39 yards.
Karty has also handled all of Stanford’s kickoffs this season and 25 of his 30 kickoffs have gone for touchbacks.
While Karty is the only kicker to see action for the Cardinal this season, Stanford has used a platoon at punter. Junior punter Connor Weselman has been the team’s punter for 17 of 23 punts this season. Just three of Weselman’s 17 punts have been touchbacks while another three have been fair caught. He has had six of his punts go for more than 50 yards each while only had one punt landed inside the 20.
Stanford’s other punter has a name which should be familiar to Bruin fans. His name is Aidan Flintoft. He is the brother of former UCLA punter Collin Flintoft and the cousin of Stefan Flintoft, another former Bruin punter. So far, the younger Flintoft has punted six times, of which two have been fair caught, three have landed inside the 20-yard line and two have gone for more than 50 yards.
Senior Bryce Farrell will be the team’s primary kick returner. He’s returned nine of the teams 10 kickoffs so far this season. His longest so far is just 29 yards. E.J. Smith has taken the remaining one for 12 yards. Of course, E.J stands for “Emmitt Junior” and he is the son of Dallas Cowbors great Emmitt Smith.
Senior running back Casey Filkins has both of Stanford’s punt returns this season. He has returned one for 14 yards and the other for none.
Go Bruins!!!
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