23. Paulson is a long-time FCS and low-level FBS defensive coordinator. Based on his trajectory it seems his best days are behind him and/or water has found its level. On the one hand, the run defense has been good so the Thompson/Paulson duo brings something to the table. On the other hand, this seems a fairly obvious slot for us to keep Anderson if we're continuity-inclined in any respect.
24. Valeria has evidently done a very nice job with Hornets DBs and also has seven years at Eastern Washington, mostly under Beau Baldwin. It would be a big rise in level for him but maybe this is a guy whose competence will be rewarded. For the last year, our own Whitfield has been Robin to Valeria's Batman. As the newest member of the Sacramento State staff Whitfield may have less of a claim on being key to the secret sauce. Coverage grades were great in 2022 but they took a step back compared to last according to both PFF and pass efficiency defense (ticked down to #21 from #16). But he's a Stanford Man and that very well may be attractive to Taylor. Personally I think Terrence Brown (now at Cal) has a much more solid coaching resume, but Whitfield is certainly a plausible candidate and it would be kind of mean to leave the Stanford guy behind.
25. Speaking of which (kind of....not an alum, but a recent football office staffer), Garrett Wolfe gives us some palace intrigue. Our former assistant director of recruiting operations is a former Folsom player under Taylor who has spent the last four years under his mentor, first as the director of football operations and more recently as assistant athletic director for football administration. There seems to be a decent likelihood the apprentice will become the master (or outright replacement) for either Matt Doyle or Mike Eubanks.
26. The other aspect of the staff that bears mentioning is strength and conditioning. As one would expect, the training staff largely comes from UC Davis/Humboldt State type of pedigrees. However, quite notably the top dog, Ryan Deatrick, spent four years at Houston training the football and baseball programs, which means significant experience under Tom Herman and Major Applewhite. That's reassuringly big-time compared to what I was expecting from the S&C operation.
27. Everything in 15-26 is just musing/idle observations. A million permutations exist for how the staff gets fleshed out. It will be very interesting to watch how Taylor navigates this considering the dearth of Power Five experience and gravitas but the strong track record of a staff excelling together.
28. Many have and will continue to comment on Taylor coming to us as a Cal legend. It's obviously a notable and attention-drawing element of the story. Cal fans are going to be big mad for a long time. But this aspect of the story bores me. The Stanford football I love should aspire to much more than rivalry with Cal. Frankly, they are beneath the program we should be. They can be mad, embarrassed, jealous, whatever. I don't really care. I just want the best football coach possible. I don't think Taylor is the best coach Stanford should aspire to, but he's an awfully good one. He should bring more fun, energy, and hope to the program. That's what I wanted. If his Cal ties make him more likely to leave in a few years (I doubt it as any successes Taylor has will reinforce that Stanford is a stronger program), so be it. What I really want is a turnaround from the depths Shaw plunged us to. If Taylor can get us to 8+ wins and leaves us for greener pastures, either at home or at a bigger program, it's fine by me if that happens quickly. I want us to attract coaches who want even bigger things. Hopefully he succeeds such that he has those options.
29. While I really like the hire, it is very aggravating to me that Stanford reportedly (and evidently, judging by the finalists for the job) prioritized offensive coaches, as it has done for decades. As I've posted at length previously I think it reflects a crimped, un-strategic perspective to limit a candidate field to offensive coaches and may even be counterproductive in terms of de-emphasizing the side of the ball that historically holds Stanford back more and is often crucial to a winning ethos in college football. I'm thrilled by the Taylor hire but there are other candidates who would have been even better and I'm not sure we even took them seriously as possibilities (Dan Quinn, Dave Aranda, Chris Klieman), not to mention guys who would have been equally plausible as Taylor even if not as exciting as those three (Mike Elko, Jim Leonhard, etc.). That bums me out. The larger point is that Stanford's process of evidently prioritizing offensive coaches, candidates who proactively came to us, and candidates who fit within a smaller than Power Five standard budget narrowed the pool. I believe that when you fish in a smaller pool your odds of getting a great catch go down. Where we stand now, I'm happy with the Taylor catch but don't want to lose sight of the problems in process.
30. Although the bottom line is fun, energy, and hope, attention will turn to wins and losses soon enough. In the next few months we'll get a sense of the early returns on how this turning of the page revitalizes the program and, eventually, we'll get a sense of the baseline talent-wise he gets to operate from. Shaw left a ruined program and the 2023 roster will likely be horrifying, though Taylor now gets to go to work on whatever player retention, recruiting, and transfer portal machinations he can muster. We'll know more in the spring what we have to work with and what the expectations should be. But I feel confident in saying the expectations should not be immediate winning. Harbaugh went 4-8 his first year. PJ Fleck went 5-7. Matt Campbell went 3-9. Dave Clawson went 3-9. Art Briles went 4-8. Hopefully we can win 4+ games and take steady steps to build the kind of culture and organization that will be getting us to consistent winning seasons and regular top 25 seasons. But it won't happen overnight. In the meantime, I'm excited to see who Taylor hires, recruits, and retains. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!
24. Valeria has evidently done a very nice job with Hornets DBs and also has seven years at Eastern Washington, mostly under Beau Baldwin. It would be a big rise in level for him but maybe this is a guy whose competence will be rewarded. For the last year, our own Whitfield has been Robin to Valeria's Batman. As the newest member of the Sacramento State staff Whitfield may have less of a claim on being key to the secret sauce. Coverage grades were great in 2022 but they took a step back compared to last according to both PFF and pass efficiency defense (ticked down to #21 from #16). But he's a Stanford Man and that very well may be attractive to Taylor. Personally I think Terrence Brown (now at Cal) has a much more solid coaching resume, but Whitfield is certainly a plausible candidate and it would be kind of mean to leave the Stanford guy behind.
25. Speaking of which (kind of....not an alum, but a recent football office staffer), Garrett Wolfe gives us some palace intrigue. Our former assistant director of recruiting operations is a former Folsom player under Taylor who has spent the last four years under his mentor, first as the director of football operations and more recently as assistant athletic director for football administration. There seems to be a decent likelihood the apprentice will become the master (or outright replacement) for either Matt Doyle or Mike Eubanks.
26. The other aspect of the staff that bears mentioning is strength and conditioning. As one would expect, the training staff largely comes from UC Davis/Humboldt State type of pedigrees. However, quite notably the top dog, Ryan Deatrick, spent four years at Houston training the football and baseball programs, which means significant experience under Tom Herman and Major Applewhite. That's reassuringly big-time compared to what I was expecting from the S&C operation.
27. Everything in 15-26 is just musing/idle observations. A million permutations exist for how the staff gets fleshed out. It will be very interesting to watch how Taylor navigates this considering the dearth of Power Five experience and gravitas but the strong track record of a staff excelling together.
28. Many have and will continue to comment on Taylor coming to us as a Cal legend. It's obviously a notable and attention-drawing element of the story. Cal fans are going to be big mad for a long time. But this aspect of the story bores me. The Stanford football I love should aspire to much more than rivalry with Cal. Frankly, they are beneath the program we should be. They can be mad, embarrassed, jealous, whatever. I don't really care. I just want the best football coach possible. I don't think Taylor is the best coach Stanford should aspire to, but he's an awfully good one. He should bring more fun, energy, and hope to the program. That's what I wanted. If his Cal ties make him more likely to leave in a few years (I doubt it as any successes Taylor has will reinforce that Stanford is a stronger program), so be it. What I really want is a turnaround from the depths Shaw plunged us to. If Taylor can get us to 8+ wins and leaves us for greener pastures, either at home or at a bigger program, it's fine by me if that happens quickly. I want us to attract coaches who want even bigger things. Hopefully he succeeds such that he has those options.
29. While I really like the hire, it is very aggravating to me that Stanford reportedly (and evidently, judging by the finalists for the job) prioritized offensive coaches, as it has done for decades. As I've posted at length previously I think it reflects a crimped, un-strategic perspective to limit a candidate field to offensive coaches and may even be counterproductive in terms of de-emphasizing the side of the ball that historically holds Stanford back more and is often crucial to a winning ethos in college football. I'm thrilled by the Taylor hire but there are other candidates who would have been even better and I'm not sure we even took them seriously as possibilities (Dan Quinn, Dave Aranda, Chris Klieman), not to mention guys who would have been equally plausible as Taylor even if not as exciting as those three (Mike Elko, Jim Leonhard, etc.). That bums me out. The larger point is that Stanford's process of evidently prioritizing offensive coaches, candidates who proactively came to us, and candidates who fit within a smaller than Power Five standard budget narrowed the pool. I believe that when you fish in a smaller pool your odds of getting a great catch go down. Where we stand now, I'm happy with the Taylor catch but don't want to lose sight of the problems in process.
30. Although the bottom line is fun, energy, and hope, attention will turn to wins and losses soon enough. In the next few months we'll get a sense of the early returns on how this turning of the page revitalizes the program and, eventually, we'll get a sense of the baseline talent-wise he gets to operate from. Shaw left a ruined program and the 2023 roster will likely be horrifying, though Taylor now gets to go to work on whatever player retention, recruiting, and transfer portal machinations he can muster. We'll know more in the spring what we have to work with and what the expectations should be. But I feel confident in saying the expectations should not be immediate winning. Harbaugh went 4-8 his first year. PJ Fleck went 5-7. Matt Campbell went 3-9. Dave Clawson went 3-9. Art Briles went 4-8. Hopefully we can win 4+ games and take steady steps to build the kind of culture and organization that will be getting us to consistent winning seasons and regular top 25 seasons. But it won't happen overnight. In the meantime, I'm excited to see who Taylor hires, recruits, and retains. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!