THE TAYLOR FILE

PERSONAL

Hometown: Cuero, Texas
Education: Baylor, 1992
Wife: Evi
Children: Starr, Blaise

COACHING RESUME

1993: Baylor (Graduate Assistant/Administration)
1994: Baylor (Graduate Assistant/Defensive Backfield)
1995: Baylor (Wide Receivers)
1996: Baylor (Defensive Secondary)
1997: Baylor (Wide Receivers)
1998: New Mexico (Running Backs)
1999-03: Tulane (Wide Receivers)
2004-05: Tennessee (Running Backs)
2006-07: Tennessee (Wide Receivers)
2008: Oklahoma State (Co-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers)
2009-12: Auburn (Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers)
2013-15: Arkansas State (Cornerbacks)
2016-18: Arkansas State (Assistant Head Coach/Cornerbacks)
2019: Duke (Wide Receivers)
2020: Duke (Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers)
2021: Duke (Associate Head Coach/Cornerbacks)
2022-23: Duke (Associate Head Coach/Running Backs)
2024-: Texas A&M (Associate Head Coach, Offense/Running Backs)

POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE

1994: Baylor (Alamo)
2002: Tulane (Hawai'i)
2004: Tennessee (Cotton)
2006: Tennessee (Outback)
2007: Tennessee (Outback)
2008: Oklahoma State (Holiday)
2009: Auburn (Outback)
2010: Auburn (BCS National Championship)
2011: Auburn (Chick-fil-A)
2013: Arkansas State (GoDaddy)
2014: Arkansas State (GoDaddy)
2015: Arkansas State (New Orleans)
2016: Arkansas State (Cure)
2017: Arkansas State (Camellia)
2018: Arkansas State (Arizona)
2022: Duke (Military)
2023: Duke (Birmingham)
2024: Texas A&M (Las Vegas)

Trooper Taylor arrived in Aggieland as the associate head coach on offense and running backs coach in January of 2024. Taylor was on staff at Duke for five years, serving in the same role in each of head coach Mike Elko’s two seasons with the Blue Devils.

Taylor has over 30 years of coaching experience, including being on staff at Auburn for its 2010 BCS National Championship run, in which the Tigers went a perfect 14-0. In total, he has coached in 16 bowl games during a career that includes stints at Baylor, New Mexico, Tulane, Tennessee, Oklahoma State and Arkansas State. He has also been named one of the nation’s top-25 recruiters by Rivals.com on three occasions (2005, 2007 and 2010).

In his first season at Texas A&M, he helped guide the Aggies to an 8-5 record, including a program-best 5-0 start to SEC play, and an appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2024. Taylor's running back unit ranked second in the SEC and 26th in the country averaging 195.5 yards per game. The group was led by one of the most productive running back tandems in the league, All-SEC back Le'Veon Moss and Amari Daniels, who combined for 1,426 yards and 18 touchdowns.

Taylor joined the Duke staff as an assistant coach in January 2019 and was promoted to associate head coach in 2020. He worked with the wide receivers in his first two seasons and spent the 2021 season overseeing the cornerbacks before Coach Elko tabbed him as the running backs coach in 2022. Taylor closed out his time at Duke leading the Blue Devils to victory in the Birmingham Bowl as the interim head coach.

In 2022, Duke finished the season tied for second in the ACC in rushing touchdowns (31), third in rushing offense (184.15) and fourth in rushing yards (2,394). While with the wide receivers in 2020, Taylor’s wideout group accounted for 74-percent of Duke’s receiving yards and registered seven of the 11 aerial touchdowns on the year.

Taylor went to Durham after spending six seasons at Arkansas State (2013-18), where he helped the Red Wolves to 47 wins, six bowl game appearances and a pair of Sun Belt Conference championships in 2015 and 2016. Over his last three campaigns in Jonesboro, he served as the program’s assistant head coach.

Taylor coached the cornerbacks at Arkansas State, mentoring 11 All-Sun Belt selections including his son, Blaise, who was a four-time all-conference honoree as well as a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete. In addition, Taylor helped Arkansas State secure five consecutive signing classes that were ranked among the top three in the Sun Belt Conference by at least two of the major recruiting services.

As the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach at Auburn from 2009-12, Taylor helped the Tigers tally 33 victories, four postseason wins and the SEC and BCS titles in 2010. Auburn boasted a perfect 4-0 record in postseason contests in the four-year stretch.

During the national championship run in 2010, Auburn’s receivers helped the offense score a program single-season record 577 points while leading the SEC in scoring at 41.2 points per game as three wideouts topped the 500-yard plateau.

In 2009, he mentored Darvin Adams, who broke the Auburn single-season record for receptions with 60 for 997 yards, while ranking second in the SEC with 10 touchdown catches. Adams, who entered the season with just three career catches for 18 yards, was named the MVP of the Outback Bowl after catching 12 passes for 142 yards in the win over Northwestern.

The 2008 season marked Taylor’s lone campaign at Oklahoma State as the Cowboys went 9-4, played in the Holiday Bowl and closed the year ranked No. 16 in the final AP Poll. Serving as co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, Taylor was part of an offense that produced a pair of First Team All-Americans in wideout Dez Bryant and running back Kendall Hunter. That season, Oklahoma State ranked sixth nationally in total offense and ninth in scoring.

Taylor was at Tennessee from 2004-07 and coached both the running backs (2004-05) and wide receivers (2006-07). The four-year stint was highlighted by 34 victories, two 10-win seasons (2004 and 2007), two SEC Eastern Division Championships (2004 & 2007), three bowl games and three top-25 national finishes.

While with the Volunteers, Taylor coached Tennessee’s first pair of single-season 1,000-yard rushers in Gerald Riggs Jr. and Cedric Houston (2004) as well as future NFL All-Pro back Arian Foster. In addition, wideout Robert Meachem received All-America honors in 2006 under Taylor’s tutelage and was a first-round pick by the New Orleans Saints in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Prior to his time in Knoxville, Taylor spent five seasons coaching the wide receivers at Tulane from 1999-2003. Among his pupils were four individuals – Adrian Burnette, Kerwin Cook, Terrell Harris and Roydell Williams – who went on to careers in the NFL. Williams closed his collegiate career as Conference USA’s all-time leader in touchdown receptions with 35.

Taylor spent the 1998 season coaching the running backs at New Mexico after spending five seasons at Baylor (1993-97), his alma mater. He began as a graduate assistant coach, working with the administration and the defensive backfield in 1993 and 1994, respectively, before coaching the wide receivers (1995 and 1997) and defensive secondary (1996).

Taylor lettered four seasons (1989-90-91-92) as a defensive back at Baylor and helped the Bears to the Copper Bowl in his final campaign, while finishing his career as the school’s career leader in both kickoff returns (53) and return yardage (1,063). He graduated from Baylor with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 1992.

A native of Cuero, Texas, Taylor is married to the former Dr. Evi Crosby of Harbor City, California, and the couple has one daughter, Starr, and one son, Blaise.