12-11-2022, 12:54 PM
15. The most important short term thing to watch is how Taylor fills out his staff. My bottom line remains the same: when a program brings in a coach on the basis of that coach's prior success at lower levels, it's important not to micro-manage the new coach or hamstring his ability to form the staff he thinks puts him in the best position. Taylor succeeded spectacularly at Sacramento State and dancing with who brung ya isn't just a matter of loyalty but also pragmatism. The vast majority of his staff was with him all three years. The more he messes with the mix of his prior staff (or we force him to) the more variables that changes in the equation. Risky. That being said, nobody will have a better sense than Taylor of the crucial ingredients, relative laggards, and differences in how he wants to operate at Stanford as opposed to Sacramento State. I don't know whether he'll want the staff intact, mostly intact, partly intact, or drastically different. I would bet on mostly intact or partly intact but I don't know. Everything I say about coaching from here on out comes with the caveat that it needs to be up to Taylor and all observations/judgments I make are made provisionally with humility.
16. At Sacramento State he was allowed nine full assistants compared to the ten he'll get at Stanford. The move up gives him more flexibility and ability to be ambitious with his stuff. Notably, even with just nine spots he still was a man after my heart with two full defensive back coaches. As I've posted at length previously, this is a trend in college football among good coaches. Nickel is the base defense now and it arguably gives too much responsibility to one coach to lump safeties and corners together, not to mention the lack of specialization implied by the Stanford/Akina approach. At my last check, Saban, Day, Riley, Kelly, Swinney, Cristobal, Fisher, and Gundy all separate corners and safeties. This is a best practice I've been calling on Stanford to adopt for the last few years. That Taylor did it even with one less assistant overall really warms my heart. Hopefully better days ahead for the division of responsibilities on Stanford's staff. Here is how Taylor divided it this year: Kris Richardson (assistant head coach/offensive line), Andy Thompson (defensive coordinator/linebackers), Malcolm Agnew (running backs), Bobby Fresques (quarterbacks), Jeremy LaPan (special teams/tight ends), Tyler Osborne (wide receivers), Kraig Paulson (defensive line), Cherokee Valeria (defensive passing game coordinator/cornerbacks/pro liaison), Kodi Whitfield (safeties).
17. The first question for staff formation will be if anybody stays behind at Sacramento State. Taylor seems genuinely enamored with and loyal to Sacramento State and if there's an opportunity for one of his assistants to take over the program and any of the staff to rise into coordinator roles, I wouldn't be surprised if he welcomes that. From Sacramento State's perspective continuity with by far the best thing they've ever had going would seem to be attractive. There are several candidates, though they also have deep Taylor ties and Stanford would be more prestigious and higher paying. Richardson could step out of Taylor's shadows, but they were co-head coaches at Folsom and presumably pretty tight. Thompson has much less long-standing Taylor ties and is reportedly popular. Fresques is a Sacramento State legend as a former star QB, but also a Taylor loyalist as a former Folsom assistant.
18. Occam's Razor to me seems to be Thompson staying in Sacramento as he's got less Taylor tie and is in good standing there, while Taylor may face pressure to keep Lance Anderson on staff and/or bring in a defensive coordinator who answers a perceived relative weakness in Taylor's resume (though as I said above the Taylor/Thompson/et al partnership's defensive performance has been heavily instrumental in Sacramento State's success. For what it's worth, Thompson was previously the defensive coordinator at Northern Arizona for a decade. In that span his median scoring defenses were #60 and #69, though with a disturbing fall-off in his last four years. After he left the Lumberjack scoring defense medians have been #71 and #81. Coupling that experience with his much more impressive Sacramento State resume I think it is reasonable to think he's a competent coordinator. But he doesn't knock your socks off, and has never done it at the FBS level. Considering Taylor has been a Utah coordinator, the defensive coordinator situation is a much bigger question mark. It may make sense for Taylor to try to upgrade this position now that he's moving up.
19. Taylor does not list an offensive coordinator. He runs the offense. His top offensive assistant is right hand man Richardson, who spent 24 years at Folsom. Considering how closely intertwined the Folsom and Sacramento State careers of these men have been, presumably Heffernan should be looking for new work and Pritchard would only stay in a demotion. I continue to hope Pritchard gets a lower level head coaching opportunity elsewhere, but he is a candidate to stay for continuity and recruiting if Taylor wants that. I would be inclined toward complete house cleaning of the assistants.
20. Running back coach is a place where I see intrigue. Taylor and Gould were extremely close colleagues for four years on staff together as QB/RB coaches respectively for two years and TE/RB coaches the other two. USC RB coach Kiel McDonald is a very close Taylor associate from Eastern Washington and Utah days. RB coach is a logical place to put Pritchard if he stays. And Sacramento State's current RB coach, Agnew, has been spectacularly successful with his charges and has a nice pedigree having apprenticed under Mike Riley at Oregon State and Nebraska. Lots of directions Taylor could go. I badly hope it is McDonald or Agnew and not Gould. Please don't be Gould. We need more energy in recruiting (Agnew's youth/getting his first break makes him attractive to me) and whatever Gould has been doing in our RB room in recent years is toxic.
21. Alamar should probably be packing up as LaPan spent seven years at Utah largely working with special teams (though LaPan offers TE/OL versatility as well). Power Five experience will be at a premium for this new staff and the Whittingham coaching tree is attractive as we build out this staff. The big decision I see for Taylor is whether to keep LaPan's duties the same and use the extra assistant slot for something else (like a third front seven coach), or to use the extra spot for a dedicated special teams coach as Shaw has.
22. Osborne is one of the more intriguing coaches for Sacramento State. I know we're all fond of Kennedy, but Sacramento State's passing game is, obviously, core to Taylor's identity and operation and the guy he's tagged for WRs is impressive. Osborne has done coaching apprenticeships under Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich, and Chris Petersen and has deep Pacific Northwest football ties. Like Agnew there's something appealing about getting some youth combined with Pac-12 experience.
16. At Sacramento State he was allowed nine full assistants compared to the ten he'll get at Stanford. The move up gives him more flexibility and ability to be ambitious with his stuff. Notably, even with just nine spots he still was a man after my heart with two full defensive back coaches. As I've posted at length previously, this is a trend in college football among good coaches. Nickel is the base defense now and it arguably gives too much responsibility to one coach to lump safeties and corners together, not to mention the lack of specialization implied by the Stanford/Akina approach. At my last check, Saban, Day, Riley, Kelly, Swinney, Cristobal, Fisher, and Gundy all separate corners and safeties. This is a best practice I've been calling on Stanford to adopt for the last few years. That Taylor did it even with one less assistant overall really warms my heart. Hopefully better days ahead for the division of responsibilities on Stanford's staff. Here is how Taylor divided it this year: Kris Richardson (assistant head coach/offensive line), Andy Thompson (defensive coordinator/linebackers), Malcolm Agnew (running backs), Bobby Fresques (quarterbacks), Jeremy LaPan (special teams/tight ends), Tyler Osborne (wide receivers), Kraig Paulson (defensive line), Cherokee Valeria (defensive passing game coordinator/cornerbacks/pro liaison), Kodi Whitfield (safeties).
17. The first question for staff formation will be if anybody stays behind at Sacramento State. Taylor seems genuinely enamored with and loyal to Sacramento State and if there's an opportunity for one of his assistants to take over the program and any of the staff to rise into coordinator roles, I wouldn't be surprised if he welcomes that. From Sacramento State's perspective continuity with by far the best thing they've ever had going would seem to be attractive. There are several candidates, though they also have deep Taylor ties and Stanford would be more prestigious and higher paying. Richardson could step out of Taylor's shadows, but they were co-head coaches at Folsom and presumably pretty tight. Thompson has much less long-standing Taylor ties and is reportedly popular. Fresques is a Sacramento State legend as a former star QB, but also a Taylor loyalist as a former Folsom assistant.
18. Occam's Razor to me seems to be Thompson staying in Sacramento as he's got less Taylor tie and is in good standing there, while Taylor may face pressure to keep Lance Anderson on staff and/or bring in a defensive coordinator who answers a perceived relative weakness in Taylor's resume (though as I said above the Taylor/Thompson/et al partnership's defensive performance has been heavily instrumental in Sacramento State's success. For what it's worth, Thompson was previously the defensive coordinator at Northern Arizona for a decade. In that span his median scoring defenses were #60 and #69, though with a disturbing fall-off in his last four years. After he left the Lumberjack scoring defense medians have been #71 and #81. Coupling that experience with his much more impressive Sacramento State resume I think it is reasonable to think he's a competent coordinator. But he doesn't knock your socks off, and has never done it at the FBS level. Considering Taylor has been a Utah coordinator, the defensive coordinator situation is a much bigger question mark. It may make sense for Taylor to try to upgrade this position now that he's moving up.
19. Taylor does not list an offensive coordinator. He runs the offense. His top offensive assistant is right hand man Richardson, who spent 24 years at Folsom. Considering how closely intertwined the Folsom and Sacramento State careers of these men have been, presumably Heffernan should be looking for new work and Pritchard would only stay in a demotion. I continue to hope Pritchard gets a lower level head coaching opportunity elsewhere, but he is a candidate to stay for continuity and recruiting if Taylor wants that. I would be inclined toward complete house cleaning of the assistants.
20. Running back coach is a place where I see intrigue. Taylor and Gould were extremely close colleagues for four years on staff together as QB/RB coaches respectively for two years and TE/RB coaches the other two. USC RB coach Kiel McDonald is a very close Taylor associate from Eastern Washington and Utah days. RB coach is a logical place to put Pritchard if he stays. And Sacramento State's current RB coach, Agnew, has been spectacularly successful with his charges and has a nice pedigree having apprenticed under Mike Riley at Oregon State and Nebraska. Lots of directions Taylor could go. I badly hope it is McDonald or Agnew and not Gould. Please don't be Gould. We need more energy in recruiting (Agnew's youth/getting his first break makes him attractive to me) and whatever Gould has been doing in our RB room in recent years is toxic.
21. Alamar should probably be packing up as LaPan spent seven years at Utah largely working with special teams (though LaPan offers TE/OL versatility as well). Power Five experience will be at a premium for this new staff and the Whittingham coaching tree is attractive as we build out this staff. The big decision I see for Taylor is whether to keep LaPan's duties the same and use the extra assistant slot for something else (like a third front seven coach), or to use the extra spot for a dedicated special teams coach as Shaw has.
22. Osborne is one of the more intriguing coaches for Sacramento State. I know we're all fond of Kennedy, but Sacramento State's passing game is, obviously, core to Taylor's identity and operation and the guy he's tagged for WRs is impressive. Osborne has done coaching apprenticeships under Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich, and Chris Petersen and has deep Pacific Northwest football ties. Like Agnew there's something appealing about getting some youth combined with Pac-12 experience.