Carl "Trooper" Taylor (born February 20, 1970) is an American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

coach at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

. He is currently serving as associate head coach and running backs coach following Mike Elko, who left Duke University to return to

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

as head coach. Taylor was formerly an assistant coach at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

from January 2009 until December 2012 where he served as assistant head coach and wide receivers coach under former head coach Gene Chizik. Prior to joining Auburn, Taylor served as co-

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

for Oklahoma State. He has spent over a decade coaching wide receivers, primarily in the Southeastern and Big 12 conferences.

Personal life

Taylor grew up in Cuero, Texas, and was raised in a family of 16. He earned his bachelor's degree from

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

in 1992 and is married to Evi Crosby-Taylor, who was a track and field scholarship athlete at Baylor. The couple were wed in 1993 on the field at Baylor's Floyd Casey Stadium and have two children: a son, Blaise, and a daughter, Starr.

Coaching career

Taylor played

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

for the

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

from 1988 to 1991 and finished his playing career as the school's leader in kickoff returns and return yardage. After helping the Bears to the 1991 Copper Bowl and completing his degree, Taylor joined the coaching staff at his alma mater as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research resp ...

for two years before being named wide receivers coach in 1994. After coaching the secondary for two years, Taylor returned to coaching receivers before leaving Baylor to take the position coaching running backs at

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. In 1999, head coach Chris Scelfo lured Taylor to his staff at Tulane as the wide receivers coach. Taylor spent five years with the Green Wave before joining

Phillip Fulmer Phillip Edward Fulmer Sr. (born September 1, 1950) is a former American football player, coach, and athletic director at the University of Tennessee. He served as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers football team from 1992 to 2008, compiling ...

's staff at

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. Taylor served as running backs coach before being promoted to assistant head coach of player development in 2005, which called on him to manage the academic and social direction and development of student-athletes in conjunction with their position coaches and the coordinators. In 2006, Taylor coached the wide receivers, helping the Vols to a 12th ranked pass offense. Following the 2007 season when offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe took the head coaching position at Duke (taking the OL and RB coaches with him), Taylor was considered a candidate to take over the position full-time. Fulmer instead chose Dave Clawson and Taylor left UT to take a job as co-

and wide receivers coach at Oklahoma State under Mike Gundy, with whom he had previously coached at Baylor in 1996. With the help of Taylor's receivers, the 2008 Cowboys ranked 6th in the nation in offensive production. On January 5, 2009, new head coach Gene Chizik hired Taylor to serve as assistant head coach and wide receivers coach at Auburn. Coach Taylor has been recognized as a top-25 national recruiter on six occasions (2005 and 2007 by Rivals.com, 2009 by

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, 2010 by Rivals.com and 2011 by 247Sports.com, ESPN and Rivals.com and 2012 by Rivals.com). He has experience coaching in 9 bowl games including the 1994 Alamo Bowl, 2002 Hawaii Bowl, 2005 Cotton Bowl Classic, 2007 Outback Bowl, 2008 Outback Bowl, 2008 Holiday Bowl, 2010 Outback Bowl, the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, and the 2011 Chick-fil-A Bowl. He took over as interim head coach for Duke following Elko's departure.

Players coached

Taylor has served as position coach for a number of prominent players over his career. At Tulane, he coached four wideouts into the NFL, including Roydell Williams of the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

. He also coached the nation's top receiving trio in 2001: Adrian Burnette, Kerwin Cook, and Terrell Harris, who combined to lead the country with 2,384 receiving yards on 185 catches. During his time in Knoxville, he coached NFL backs Cedric Houston and Gerald Riggs Jr., who became Tennessee's only pair of 1,000-yard rushers in the same season in 2004. He also coached future NFL wide receiver Robert Meachem to

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

honors in 2006. Meachem was part of a trio of Vols receivers including Jayson Swain and Bret Smith that caught a combined 159 receptions for 2,439 yards and 22 touchdowns. With all three players gone in 2007, Taylor mentored the new pass-catching trio of Lucas Taylor, Austin Rogers and Josh Briscoe to a combined 175 catches for 2,130 yards and 14 touchdowns. In 2008, Taylor coached Oklahoma State's

n receiver Dez Bryant into the 3rd leading receiver in the nation with catches totaling nearly 114 yards per game. Bryant was part of a potent Cowboys attack that ended ranked as the nation's 6th leading offense.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Duke profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Trooper 1970 births Living people American football defensive backs Arkansas State Red Wolves football coaches Auburn Tigers football coaches Baylor Bears football players Baylor Bears football coaches Duke Blue Devils football coaches Texas A&M Aggies football coaches New Mexico Lobos football coaches Oklahoma State Cowboys football coaches Tennessee Volunteers football coaches Tulane Green Wave football coaches Sportspeople from Cuero, Texas Coaches of American football from Texas Players of American football from DeWitt County, Texas African-American coaches of American football 20th-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen