Huskies Reportedly Pursuing Taylor Mays as Safeties Coach

The son of a former UW and NFL defensive tackle passed on the program as a player.
Taylor Mays is surrounded by reporters as a San Francisco 49ers safety.
Taylor Mays is surrounded by reporters as a San Francisco 49ers safety. / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

Once described as the perfect football player, Taylor Mays became this Seattle kid who passed on the University of Washington football team nearly two full decades ago to play for USC and Pete Carroll.

On Wednesday, according to multiple news outlets, with ESPN's Pete Thamel at the forefront, are reporting that Mays is being courted to come home from his Trojans analyst job, coach the Husky safeties for Jedd Fisch and share a coaching staff with Carroll's son, Brennan.

Funny how all that works.

Mays is the son of former UW and NFL defensive tackle Stafford Mays, a Tacoma native who played in 1978 and 1979 for the legendary Don James. The younger Mays similarly is named Stafford, but prefers to answer to his middle name, Taylor.

Eighteen years ago, Taylor Mays emerged from Seattle's O'Dea High School and became a freshman starter at safety for Pete Carroll, a three-time All-America selection and a second-round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers. He wore No. 2 because he admired both Deion Sanders and Charles Woodson as defensive backs.

"He's the fastest, biggest, strongest and jumpingest guy in our program," Carroll said of the 6-foot-4, 230-pound defensive back.

Mays chose USC over Michigan and Washington. The Huskies, with a program headed up by Tyrone Willingham, were in decline and never had a shot at keeping him home.

Of three elite Northwest players back then, quarterback Jake Locker from Ferndale High signed with the UW, offensive lineman Steve Schilling from Bellevue High chose Michigan and Mays turned to the Trojans. Imagine if all three had played together in Montlake.

Mays would play six years and 80 games in the NFL and has been trying to work his way up the Trojans coaching staff since 2022.

The Huskies have been looking for a safeties coach since former NFL and Alabama safety Vinnie Sunseri left Fisch's staff after the Sun Bowl to become the Jacksonville State defensive coordinator.

Now Mays appears to have a chance to come home, join the Huskies once and for all and really launch his coaching career.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington


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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.