The Cal 100: No. 77 -- Troy Taylor
We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.
No. 77: Troy Taylor
Cal Sports Connection: Taylor was a four-year starting quarterback at Cal from 1986 through 1989, and was a Cal assistant coach for five years.
Claim to Fame: He is second in Cal history in career passing yardage, was the national FCS coach of the year at Sacramento State in 2022, and he was named Stanford’s head coach in December 2023.
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Troy Taylor’s remarkable success as an FCS head coach suggests he will do well at the FBS level as Stanford’s head coach despite the significant challenges he faces at The Farm.
Time will tell, but he’s used to challenges.
He was Cal’s starting quarterback for four seasons, from 1986 to 1989, and he had little talent around him and virtually no running game to support his passing. Nonetheless, after taking over as Cal’s starting quarterback in the fifth game of his true freshman season Taylor eventually set the Cal record for career passing yardage, a mark that stood until Jared Goff broke it in 2015. He also set the school record for career touchdown passes with 51, which was broken by Pat Barnes seven years later.
He led the Pac-10 in total offense as a senior in 1989, but the Bears never had a winning record in his four seasons as a starter, and he was overshadowed during his college career by USC’s Rodney Peete and UCLA’s Troy Aikman, who finished second and third, respectively, in the 1988 Heisman Trophy voting. Taylor was harried nearly every time he dropped back to pass, and he suffered a broken jaw during his freshman season.
Taylor played just seven games in his two seasons with the New York Jets after being taken in the fourth round of the 1990 NFL draft.
However, he then established a reputation as a topflight coach.
He was a Cal assistant coach for five seasons (1996-2000), and in his one season as Eastern Washington’s co offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Taylor helped walk-on quarterback Gage Gubrud win an FCS national player of the year award in 2016 and helped Cooper Kupp become a pro prospect. Gubrud's numbers declined significantly in his two seasons after Taylor's departure.
His impact as a head coach became evident at Sacramento State.
Troy Taylor. Photo by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports
In 2018, the year before Taylor took over, the Hornets went 2-8, including 0-7 in the Big Sky Conference. But in Taylor’s three seasons as head coach (2019, 2021, 2022), Sacramento State won the Big Sky Conference title every year. The Big Sky is one of the top FCS conferences in the country, and the Hornets went 23-1 in conference play under Taylor, including 16-0 the final two years.
He was named the Big Sky coach of the year all three seasons, and after Sacramento State went 12-0 during the 2022 regular season, Taylor won the Eddie Robinson Award as the FCS national coach of the year.
He was then named head coach at Stanford, Cal’s archrival. The Cardinal went 3-9 the past two seasons, and with the growing reliance on the transfer portal to build a roster, Stanford is at a distinct disadvantage, since few players can qualify to transfer to Stanford. The Cardinal is expected to finish last in the Pac-12 in 2023, so we’ll see if Taylor can usher in the same turnaround in the Pac-12 that he did in the Big Sky.
The Cal 100: No. 78 -- Kirk Everist
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Cover photo of Troy Taylor by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports
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