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Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - Printable Version

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RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - Austroturf - 12-13-2022

(12-13-2022, 03:46 AM)Langdude Wrote:  
(12-13-2022, 01:06 AM)yvonne Wrote:  
(12-13-2022, 12:06 AM)chrisk Wrote:  In the channel 2 story on the press conference tonight, the sports anchor called the AD "John Muir."

It's true. His closing pitch to Taylor was:

"The foothills are calling and you must go."

I'd be totally cool with Muir going to Yosemite and, like, staying there.

-m.

Or taking the AD job at Muir Woods.

RE: Sunday morning thoughts - Troy Taylor! - French Rage - 12-13-2022

(12-13-2022, 03:02 AM)Austroturf Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 09:06 PM)French Rage Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 01:39 PM)Austroturf Wrote:  I thought his statements about doing everything with "love" were a bit over-the-top.

Yeah I mean that guy graduated like 4 years ago, probably not a good idea to base the offense around him.

And I don't think he has any eligibility left!
(12-12-2022, 10:43 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 09:06 PM)French Rage Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 01:39 PM)Austroturf Wrote:  I thought his statements about doing everything with "love" were a bit over-the-top.

Yeah I mean that guy graduated like 4 years ago, probably not a good idea to base the offense around him.

funny.

At least he didn't say that he wanted to do everything with "luck"!

He said he wants his players To-be good Christians with a little bit of Love and Luck.

RE: Sunday morning thoughts - Troy Taylor! - cardcrimson - 12-13-2022

(12-13-2022, 01:28 PM)French Rage Wrote:  
(12-13-2022, 03:02 AM)Austroturf Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 09:06 PM)French Rage Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 01:39 PM)Austroturf Wrote:  I thought his statements about doing everything with "love" were a bit over-the-top.

Yeah I mean that guy graduated like 4 years ago, probably not a good idea to base the offense around him.

And I don't think he has any eligibility left!
(12-12-2022, 10:43 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 09:06 PM)French Rage Wrote:  
(12-12-2022, 01:39 PM)Austroturf Wrote:  I thought his statements about doing everything with "love" were a bit over-the-top.

Yeah I mean that guy graduated like 4 years ago, probably not a good idea to base the offense around him.

funny.

At least he didn't say that he wanted to do everything with "luck"!

He said he wants his players To-be good Christians with a little bit of Love and Luck.

Very nice!

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - jonnyss - 12-13-2022

i watched the video - thanks for posting!  i like him.

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - Goose - 12-13-2022

(12-13-2022, 09:41 AM)Austroturf Wrote:  
(12-13-2022, 03:46 AM)Langdude Wrote:  
(12-13-2022, 01:06 AM)yvonne Wrote:  
(12-13-2022, 12:06 AM)chrisk Wrote:  In the channel 2 story on the press conference tonight, the sports anchor called the AD "John Muir."

It's true. His closing pitch to Taylor was:

"The foothills are calling and you must go."

I'd be totally cool with Muir going to Yosemite and, like, staying there.

-m.

Or taking the AD job at Muir Woods.

That would be great! After a few years of his leadership we can probably get parking places without a reservation.

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - KartyFan - 12-13-2022

I also enjoyed the press conference, seems like a great guy and possibly a great fit for us.

Surprised nobody has brought up two statements TT made that I took as a commitment that he is a Stanford lifer. Here is the second:

"This use my final destination, the final chapter in my coaching life, and hopefully it will be for a very long time."

All coaches say they want to be at their current job for a long time, but this seems like a very bold statement. Thoughts?

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - StanfordMatt - 12-13-2022

(12-13-2022, 08:47 PM)KartyFan Wrote:  I also enjoyed the press conference, seems like a great guy and possibly a great fit for us.

Surprised nobody has brought up two statements TT made that I took as a commitment that he is a Stanford lifer. Here is the second:

"This use my final destination, the final chapter in my coaching life, and hopefully it will be for a very long time."

All coaches say they want to be at their current job for a long time, but this seems like a very bold statement. Thoughts?

Taylor is 54. Even in a best case scenario for him, he's in his late 50's by the time he turns the ship around and is in a position to be an attractive candidate to other schools. The trend these days is for top programs to hire HC's in their 30's, not ones approaching 60.

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - msqueri - 12-13-2022

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RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - msqueri - 12-13-2022



RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - msqueri - 12-13-2022

*If we're being honest about that, he explicitly telegraphed in this press conference that he'll have an over-riding focus on soft Stanford goals (graduation, providing a good college experience) rather than the big-time college football aspects of his job. That's what I'm hoping is PR and an artifact of the head space he had to get into to get the job. Somewhat assuaging my concern is that when he spoke about providing a good college experience he brought that point home by saying winning is a big part of what makes a college football player's experience good. YES! For all the Stanford mission boilerplate, the other essential part of the coach we just hired came through time and again in this interview when he talked about his "point of departure": making sure the players know you care about them and love them, giving them the tools they need and the belief in you that you can lead them and make them better, and then sprinkle in some competency and creativity. Numerous aspects of this formula broke down in recent years for Stanford and I think Taylor gets it, so I am going to focus on that until he gives us reason to believe it's empty.

* Previous profiles on Taylor and his road less traveled (e.g., winding/unorthodox career path, proclivity to take jobs for reasons that have nothing to do with money or prestige, etc.) give a better glimpse into the man than I can do here, but it's interesting to hear from the horses mouth his self-conception of what drives him. He pushed back on the idea he had a path in mind from Folsom High to Power Five, noting the unorthodox path and saying he's driven by working with student-athletes, coaching football, and competing. Some of this may be self mythology. It's hard to distinguish between seeking head coaching jobs because they're moves up the ladder and seeking them for the competitive challenge. The way he lit up talking about the opportunity Beau Baldwin provided at Eastern Washington to be an offensive coordinator drove home for me how much Taylor relished the opportunity to prove himself on a bigger stage than Folsom. I don't think he's motivated by money, but I do think he's motivated by pride and striving, and I like that.

* I'm sure the vast majority of Stanford fans will view Taylor's offensive philosophy as music to the ears - being dynamic, finding space, creating space, and different ways of doing it. "We're not fear-based, we're going to attack." He didn't get into scheme but hinted there's a lot he throws at defense. He also noted part of it is "enjoyment" (which I took to refer to the players but could also refer to fans). In all these ways this is the other major pendulum swing/corrective to Shaw. Just a night and day difference in all these ways.

* Also notable that he emphasized the flexibility to adjust to what you have. Many have questioned whether Stanford has the personnel to run Taylor's offense. To hear Taylor talk that misses what he does. Sacramento State relied a lot on a tight end this year because he was one of their best players, but that's not set in stone. Some years he's had more dual threat kind of QBs and some more pocket passers. In his self-conception at least this flexibility is foundational, deserving of mention alongside all the talk about being dynamic and creating space. The immediacy of his results at Eastern Washington and Sacramento State supports this. I have pretty high confidence he'll take what the Stanford roster offers and come up with uses for players to create space. Over time he may recruit different kinds of players, but it does seem plausible that this offense isn't as much about personnel as some assume.

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - msqueri - 12-13-2022

* I like optimists so I I liked the line about going into every situation thinking it's going to work and then adapting when it doesn't work. Shaw talked about this too, but I think the players and fans stopped believing it long ago. I think a big part of the bump horrible teams can often get with a move like this is you start giving players permission to believe again. In some sense Taylor and Shaw can say the same things but the guy who hasn't driven the program into the ground will have a chance of getting people to believe, and that belief is a really big part of winning. And then of course if Taylor really can walk the walk in terms of adapting effectively when things aren't working that will be key to success.

* I don't want to get too carried away in praising his savvy on question on his Cal ties as that was the most obvious one in the world to have to answer and thus one he probably thought a lot about, but there was something slick and disarming about how he tackled that question. In essence, he praised Cal for forging him and made no apologies/defenses of himself for essentially no longer being a Bear. He's got a way of speaking that sounds (for all I know totally is) very genuine and grounded without falling into traps or seeming naive. I'm sure he'll fall in traps in press conferences to come, but this one was deftly handled.

* The way he talks about his time at Utah under Whittingham is somewhat more reserved than how he talks about some of his other experiences, which makes sense as that period was famously less of a success than all his others, but there's nonetheless a confidence in how he talks about that time being "invaluable" for him in getting Pac-12 game planning experience. My views haven't changed on how to think about that time (a relatively less positive mark on his resume but still one that provides some confidence as he was at least mediocre as a Pac-12 coordinator and presumably has grown since then). What's most notable and part of what I mean by reserved on this aspect is how quick he is to note how important all his stops were. Clearly he doesn't see Utah as the big formative stop in his journey.

* What he does seem to see as the big formative stop in his journey is the time in high school. He dwelled on two things here I found notable. First, he noted it's where he became a coach because he had to learn how to coach at different levels. That's an interesting way to think about it, and I think a refreshingly humble thing for somebody to say that he didn't really "coach" until the high school experience. Recall that he was a multi-year college position coach before that. This is a nice insight into what I was talking about earlier that we shouldn't necessarily turn our nose up at the benefits a high school perspective/experience can provide. Maybe somebody who's coached high school can scheme to utilize marginal athletes or get more out of a backup better than somebody with a more conventional background.

* The second thing he credited high school with doing for him was teaching him how to build a culture. This ("this game is all about culture") was the highlight of the press conference for me. I'm a broken record on this but I think it's what all of this comes down to. He'll succeed or fail based on the culture he builds. That he's so attentive to it inspires confidence. He defines culture as relationships, building a belief in yourself and your teammates, and going out with a great deal of confidence. If I had to boil down why I have more faith in Taylor going forward than I had in Shaw, this is it. Shaw was too aloof for me to believe in the relationships part and too accustomed to failure by the end for me to believe anybody in the program truly believed in themselves or their teammates. Taylor is a turning of the page and that alone is worth its weight in gold, but crucially he appears to believe in his culture-building philosophy and we've seen evidence we should believe too.

* Just as another data point on culture, his affection for his senior class at Sacramento State largely owes to how they "changed the climate." That this is his takeaway further reinforces how intentional and central culture building is for him. We're now going to want to hope past is prologue and that Taylor will be able to bring along current youngsters in the Stanford program to really change our climate. Even though he didn't recruit them, it's the current true freshman class and the incoming 2023 class that will define Taylor's culture building. Things to watch in the coming weeks, I think, are whether we can keep all the current freshmen in the fold (others are aggressively courting Bailey I'm sure) and whether we can add some volume to the 2023 class. Provided they're not scrubs, I'm all for adding more players to the 2023 class so that more people can come in with Taylor and be on the ground floor of the culture building. Think what Skattebo meant for Taylor at Sacramento State, or what Marecic and Masifilo meant for Harbaugh in the class he came in with.

* Ok, another culture data point (spoiler alert, I'm not going to stop talking about this for a long time): Taylor turned the question about adapting to the new transfer portal/NIL landscape as being about relationships and creating a culture. YES! He understands that the fundamental feature of the new system is choice and autonomy for student-athletes and that's not an inherently bad thing. His job is to make them want to stay. Yes, yes, yes. We can talk all we want about Stanford becoming more permissive of transfers, but what will really be pivotal to Stanford competing in this environment is being a program people want to play at. We're not that anymore. What Taylor understands and will strive to do is making us that kind of program. Culture. It's all about culture.

* The specific way Taylor says he wants to create culture - making players feel like a family because they feel valued, accepted, and challenged for who they are as individuals (read: different for different players) and being authentic in how you do that - will take relationships and emotional intelligence. It's not just pretty words in a press conference or team meeting. I don't know the man and can't comment on his ability to do that (other than to say it seems like he did it at Folsom and Sacramento State) but I'm getting good vibes.

* Proof will be in the pudding but I love that he said he wants players to complete their athletic careers at Stanford. This was in direct response to the question on navigating the transfer portal dynamics. I am hoping (and encouraged by this answer) that he gets that the mentality of so many Stanford people that it's only natural for players to transfer out to get grad degrees elsewhere is a loser's mentality when you're talking about players the football team actually needs.

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - msqueri - 12-13-2022



RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - msqueri - 12-13-2022

* On conference affiliation, "I trust our leadership, wherever that is" sounded to me like Stanford's future in the college football firmament was part of his conversations with university leadership and either we don't know where it's headed or there's a good chance it's not the Pac-12. The main clue here is how fully he leaned in to a frame of argument that minimized the importance of conference and emphasized that Stanford is Stanford and will remain Stanford. It's also possible he's just slickly pivoting to the good PR message, but it caught my attention. The wishful thinker in me continues to hear comments like this and hope Stanford football's future can be brighter joining USC in the Big 10. There's another way to read this that Taylor has reason to believe Stanford is going independent or contemplating dropping down (to the extent he's minimizing the importance of conference affiliation). What does seem clear to me is that it seems unlikely Taylor would have answered this way if status quo writing was on the wall.

* The media love the Patu/Folsom angle. Fair enough. It's interesting. Taylor is an offensive-minded coach whose QB just left for the NFL and whose heir apparent went (can't really say played!) at the high school at which Taylor became a legend. Yeah, it's a story. But I always judge spontaneous comments as more meaningful than politic answers to leading questions. Just not sure what, if anything, we can read into the answer on Patu. Good that Taylor emphasized competition, but what else was he going to do? Based on track record, a role for both Patu and Daniels very plausibly could be in the cards, but it's also the case that based on the new landscape in college football the whole thing could be shuffled by an incoming transfer. My general posture is it's too early right now to talk authoritatively about Stanford's 2023 position competitions and a reporter asking Taylor about Patu doesn't change that.

* I'm going to try to wait for more data points before assessing how I feel about Taylor's orientation toward self-selectors and the types of players he'll recruit to Stanford. That's been my two decade long obsession and I'll surely be paying attention to how Taylor talks and acts in this regard. At first blush the way he talked about the draw recruits have to Stanford resonated with me, but it's quite possible (probably really) I'm still on an anybody but Shaw high. Basically, I don't know if I'm in the frame of mind to objectively evaluate some of these comments.

* I watched a lot of David Shaw over the last 15 years. A lot. My psycho-analyzing was therefore based on a lot of data points and a lot of comparing rhetoric versus reality. I don't have any of that with Troy Taylor. I'm sure some of my attempts at observations are bogus at this early stage. But it's fun to try to get to know this new coach and assess whether he might fix what ails us. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - SkiBum80 - 12-14-2022

Thanks as usual msqueri so many excellent insights.
Couple quick things I'm liking about Taylor as a hire;
First to be a slight contrarian, I think getting someone already with a certain experience is a bit overrated.
Better is to get someone with the needed skills and talent but who has not yet achieved that experience.
Taylor has never been FBS head coach, never led a Pac 12 team, never won a Pac-12 championship, etc.
So all of that will be blazing new ground for him, and I think can make him more hungry and determined to get there than some other who's already been there, done that.
Second, I like where I read somewhere that he's likely chopping the Stanford play book way down.
Perhaps throwing out and starting from scratch.
This is welcome news. 
So many of our plays in recent years have seen our offense look confused, bewildered, and worst of all, slow to develop.
It seemed like we were trying to confuse the defense but only ended up dillydallying and confusing ourselves more so, as their DL made a jail break to party in our backfield.
The slow mesh was the ultimate nadir of this sad development.
Sounds like Taylor will go complete opposite of this with fast tempo and fast developing plays.

RE: Troy Taylor's introductory press conference this am - Spiny_Norman - 12-14-2022

Coach Taylor said that he recognizes that he will have to adapt his approach to the talent on the team. It will be interesting to see what he can do with a fast offense run by slow players. That has to be a recruiting priority for years to come - increase team speed on both sides of the ball.