Recapping Stanford's first Pac-12 media day of the Troy Taylor era

The program is headed in a new direction with high hopes for the new regime

 As has been the trend lately, it was a scorching hot day in Las Vegas on Friday. Temperatures were getting as high as 113 degrees outside, but that didn’t stop the usual daily pool parties that take place along the Strip. The bass of hip-hop music was blaring from the Ayu Dayclub, part of the Resorts World hotel complex which is the first hotel to be built on the famous Vegas Strip in the last decade. However, the real action took place right next door.

Zouk Nightclub was transformed to host Pac-12’s football media day. All 12 teams were represented by two players and their head coach, except for Colorado with Coach Prime missing the event due to medical reasons. While there was a lot of buzz and interest leading into the week of what sound bites the 1st-year Colorado head coach would bring, there was another first-year head coach who impressed.

Since being named the new Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football last December, Troy Taylor has been transforming the Stanford Football program into his own image. The main focus of that image is one word: love.

“I feel like they bought into it,” Coach Taylor said about the players on the team receiving that message. In all, Coach Taylor took about three days to meet with every player on the team, with meetings ranging anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. “They really embraced it. They connected with it. That was a great feeling.”

Much was made in Coach Taylor’s first few months about the players that left the program. Whether it was in the transfer portal or draft-eligible players going into the draft, there was a lot of talent and production that left the Cardinal program. One of those players who decided to stay was Tristan Sinclair, a fifth-year linebacker. Sinclair was joined by John Humphreys as the two player representatives for Stanford at media day, but there is another bond they share as well. The fathers of the two players were also teammates at Stanford. Talk about having “love” for the program since birth.

The call that Coach Taylor got from Sinclair informing him that he was coming back is still a big moment that he remembers fondly. “Okay, what's going on here?” Coach Taylor remembers thinking when Tristan’s name pops up on the caller ID. “I pick up the phone…’Coach, hey, I want to let you know I'm staying, I'm here, I'm going to help build this with you.’ I still get chills up my spine, always remember that.”

Humphreys, the senior receiver from Newport Beach, echoed the same sentiments that Taylor said Sinclair did on the phone at media day. There is an urge and want to be a part of revitalizing a program that won three Pac-12 championships and had five New Years Six bowl appearances from 2011 to 2016, but has seen one Pac-12 championship appearance and three bowl game appearances since.

“I think we realize the opportunity that we have to be the first stepping stone in this era,” Humphreys explained to the club room full of media members. “It's an incredible opportunity. I'm more than excited for that.”

The next steppingstone will be bringing in the talent to continuously compete at a high level, and Troy Taylor has already had an incendiary start with that on the recruiting trail. In June alone, Stanford brought in more than 20 commits for their 2024 recruiting class. As of now, they have 28 commits total and are ranked as high as 12th in the country (2nd in the Pac-12; only Oregon is higher) for the class by Rivals.com.

“Honestly, when you have a product like Stanford, it's not easy, but it certainly is a strength,” Coach Taylor said of the recruiting trails. “When you can talk with a student-athlete, their family, sincerely tell them this is a life-changing experience if you come to Stanford…if you get the right student-athlete, we feel like it's an easy sell, if it's the right one. The right ones are drawn to Stanford University. You get them on campus, they see how magical the place is, how amazing it is, I don't know how you don't have great recruiting classes, to be honest with you.”

Before that class officially steps foot on campus, work will go towards setting new standards and expectations within the locker room. When it comes to building a standard, the typical program will rely on the upperclassmen to hold everyone in the locker room accountable to what the coaching staff expects, seeing that they’ve usually been with that staff for three to four years already. That isn’t the case at Stanford, as the upperclassmen such as Sinclair and Humphreys are not only trying to hold the locker room to a standard, but they are also learning what that standard is themselves.

“It's not easy being an old guy, you're expected to know what to do and how to play,” Sinclair said of the opportunity in front of him. With a new scheme comes new terminology, concepts, and so much more to where everyone involved is learning at a rapid pace. What is fortunate for Stanford is that they have a lot of experience on the coaching staff to make that process as smooth as possible. Both players agreed that while they are still learning, they are still able to pick up certain things faster than some of the younger players, so they are still able to help them out. “There are so many new coaching points, so much new that these great minds bring together,” Humphreys said. “It's been really cool to just be a sponge and soak up as much knowledge as possible.”

One of the new, and probably the most drastic, changes coming to the style of play in the program will be the pace. Stanford has been known for the last decade-plus to have a methodical, grind-it-out approach. Coach Taylor is bringing a new up-tempo offense to The Farm that’ll feature a lot of no-huddle. Not only has the offense had to adjust to the schematic change, but the defense did as well during spring practice. “We weren’t in as good of shape as we thought we were,” Sinclair joked about going against the pace during the spring session. Stanford defenses in the 2010s were accustomed to going up against high tempo offenses with Chip Kelly’s Oregon teams and the offenses Steve Sarkisian ran at Washington at USC. Now, they will be the ones wearing out defenses and causing mistakes by speeding up.

Training camp for Stanford starts in just over a week with the first game at Hawai’i on September 1st getting closer and closer. There aren’t many expectations outside of the program for Stanford this year, as they are projected to finish last in the conference this year by the media. However, if you were to ask the three at media day, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“I think right where we want to be. We had a great spring, opportunity to get to know our guys, the things they do well, the things we need to improve,” Coach Taylor said about the state of his program. “Our guys are working their tails off this summer…it’s been great.”

“I'm excited,” Sinclair mentioned with an intensity in his eyes. “Whatever happens this year happens. I think we're going to be fast, aggressive. It's going to be a really fun year.”

“You're going to see a lot of hungry guys out there just playing fast, physical and for the guy next to them,” Humphreys added. “I think it's going to come out on Saturdays.”