Getty Image / Kevin Abele
It’s the start of a new era for Stanford football.
It has been reported that they have made their decision on a new head coach.
According to a report from Sacramento Magazine’s Joe Davidson, Troy Taylor will be leaving Sacramento State after 3 seasons to take over as the head coach at Stanford.
Confirmed from the coach: Troy Taylor is off to Stanford for new challenges after 3 magical seasons at Sacramento State.
ALSO: We list several logical replacements – in house? Out of house? @BigSkyConf @NCAA_FCS @SamHerderFCS @cameronsalerno1 https://t.co/n6U9ChCq4I— Joe Davidson (@SacBee_JoeD) December 10, 2022
Taylor was recently named as one of the two finalists for the job with former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett being the other candidate. It appears an impressive 3 seasons at Sacramento State were enough to convince Stanford to pick Taylor over the former NFL coach.
Taylor completely turned Sacramento State’s football program around when he took over. The season before he became their coach, the Hornets went 2-8. In his 3 seasons in charge, the team has won at least 9 games and made it to the FCS playoffs every year.
This year, they went 12-1 with the lone loss coming in the quarterfinals against Incarnate Word.
Stanford will be hoping he can bring them similar results. The football program has struggled recently, finishing 3 of the last 4 seasons well below .500. The struggles led to Stanford bringing an end to David Shaw’s time as their head coach after 11 seasons.
Before the struggles, they had experienced 7 years of success under David Shaw where he led the team to 3 PAC-12 titles and 4 New Year’s 6 bowl game appearances.
Taylor has some familiarity with PAC-12 competition as he spent 2 years as the offensive coordinator and QB coach for Utah before he took the Sacramento State job. His 2nd season with Utah saw them make an appearance in the PAC-12 Championship Game.
Stanford will hope that experience can help him return to the upper echelon of college football programs.