Jeffrey Michael Traylor (born May 9, 1968) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. He is the head football coach at the

University of Texas at San Antonio The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a public research university in San Antonio, Texas. With over 34,000 students across its four campuses spanning 758 acres, UTSA is the largest university in San Antonio and the eighth-largest by ...

(UTSA), a position he has held since the 2020 season.

Early life

Traylor attended

Gilmer High School Gilmer High School is located in North Georgia in the city of Ellijay, Georgia, United States. It serves Gilmer County. It was established in August 1956 and enrolls about 1182 students in grades 9-12. It is a public high school of the State of ...

and graduated in 1986. He attended Stephen F. Austin State University, where he was a

walk-on Walk On may refer to: Music * ''Walk On'', a 1994 album by Boston, and its title song Albums * ''Walk On'' (Boston album), 1994 * ''Walk On'' (John Hiatt album), 1995 * ''Walk On'' (Randy Johnston album), 1992 *''Walk On'', a 2007 album by ...

for the Lumberjacks football program. He earned both his undergraduate (1990) and graduate (2002) degrees in education.

Career

High school

Traylor began his coaching career at Big Sandy High School, where he spent four years as an assistant coach from 1989 to 1992. He was later hired as an assistant coach at Jacksonville High School from 1993 to 1999, where he served as passing coordinator, defensive backs coach, receivers coach and special teams coordinator. There, he helped coach future NFL quarterbacks

Josh McCown Joshua Treadwell McCown (born July 4, 1979) is an American football quarterback who is a free agent. He attended Jacksonville High School in Jacksonville, Texas, where he was named the East Texas Player of the Year and earned All-State honorabl ...

and

Luke McCown Lucas Patrick McCown (born July 12, 1981) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. He was drafte ...

and former

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

standout signal-caller

Randy McCown Peter Randolph McCown (born February 16, 1977) is a former quarterback for Texas A&M and the Houston Marshals of the Spring Football League. He is the son of Robin and Pat McCown of Jacksonville, Texas. His younger brothers, Josh and Luke, a ...

. Traylor then coached at

where he was named four-time Texas High School Coach of the Year for Class 4A, and posted a 175-26 record (.871 winning percentage). During his 15-year tenure, Traylor led the Buckeyes to appearances in five state championship games (2004, 2007, 2009, 2012, and 2014), winning three state titles (2004, 2009, and 2014) and 12 district crowns. In 2015, Gilmer renamed Buckeye Stadium to Jeff Traylor Stadium to honor Traylor's success. At Gilmer, Traylor coached future NFL players

Kenneth Pettway Kenneth Aaron Pettway (born November 13, 1982) is a former American gridiron football player. He played in the National Football League and the American Football League from 2005 to 2012. Pettway played college football for the Grambling State ...

Manuel Johnson Manuel Johnson (born October 14, 1986) is a former wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at the University of Oklahoma. Early years Johnson attended North Garland High School as ...

Curtis Brown Curtis Lee "Curt" Brown Jr. (born March 11, 1956) is a former NASA astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel. Background Colonel Brown was born March 11, 1956. He graduated from East Bladen High School in Elizabethtown, North Caroli ...

, David Snow,

G. J. Kinne Gary Joe "G. J." Kinne III (born December 1, 1988) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is currently the head coach at Texas State University (TXST) in San Marcos, Texas. He was signed by the New York Jets as an undrafted fr ...

, Gus Johnson,

Blake Lynch Blake Lynch (born February 14, 1997) is an American football linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Baylor Bears football, Baylor. College career Born in Gilmer, Texas, Lynch ...

, and

Kris Boyd Kris Boyd (born 18 August 1983) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a forward. Boyd grew up in the South Ayrshire village of Tarbolton and started his senior career with Kilmarnock. He transferred to Rangers in January ...

Texas

Traylor began his collegiate career in 2015 at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach under

Charlie Strong Charles Rene Strong (born August 2, 1960) is an American football coach who is currently the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at the University of Miami. He recently served as the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach ...

before becoming the Longhorns associate head coach for offense and wide receivers coach in 2016. While with the

Texas Longhorns football The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate team representing the University of Texas at Austin (variously Texas or UT) in the sport of American football. The Texas Longhorns, Longhorns compete in the NCAA Division I Football ...

program Traylor helped sign the No. 7-ranked recruiting class in the country in back-to-back years and was named

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...

Recruiter of the Year.

SMU

In 2017, Traylor became the associate head coach and running backs coach for

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

before joining the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot (ori ...

in the same role. Both of these jobs were under coach

Chad Morris Chad Allen Morris (born December 4, 1968) is an American football coach. He is currently an offensive analyst at South Florida. Morris served as the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 2015 to 2017 and the University ...

who had also previously been a Texas high school coach.

Arkansas

For the 2018 and 2019 football seasons, Traylor served as the associate head coach and running back coach at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

under head coach

UTSA

In December 2019, Traylor left the

Arkansas Razorbacks football The Arkansas Razorbacks football program represents the University of Arkansas in the sport of American football. The Razorbacks compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Weste ...

program to become the third head coach in program history at UTSA. Traylor tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on December 23, 2020, and missed the

2020 First Responder Bowl The 2020 First Responder Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 26, 2020, with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, EST (2:30 p.m. local Central Time Zone, CST) on ESPN College Football on ABC, ABC. It was the 11th e ...

as a result. In 2021, Traylor led the Roadrunners to their best start in program history for a season, winning their first eleven regular season games before finishing the regular season 11-1. The UTSA Roadrunners also secured their first conference championship, defeating Western Kentucky 49-41, followed by a bowl bid to the

2021 Frisco Bowl The 2021 Frisco Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 21, 2021, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. EST (6:30 p.m. local CST) on ESPN. It was the 4th edition of the Frisco Bowl (after the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the ...

, losing to San Diego State University by a score of 38-24, posting a final record for the year of 12-2.

Head coaching record

College

* Prior to the

, Jeff Traylor tested positive for COVID-19. Associate head coach

Barry Lunney Jr. Barry Lunney Jr. (born September 11, 1974) is an American football coach. He is the offensive coordinator at the University of Illinois. Lunney served as the interim head football coach at the University of Arkansas for the final two games of the ...

was UTSA's acting head coach for the game.

Personal life

Traylor married his wife, Cari, in 1992. They have three children: Jordan, Jake, and Jaci. Jordan played as a quarterback for Gilmer High School and the

Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M Aggies refers to the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname "Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also referred to as "A&M" or "Texas Aggi ...

, and is currently an offensive assistant for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

References

External links

UTSA profile

Arkansas profile

Texas profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Traylor, Jeff 1968 births Living people Arkansas Razorbacks football coaches SMU Mustangs football coaches Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks football players Texas Longhorns football coaches UTSA Roadrunners football coaches High school football coaches in Texas People from Gilmer, Texas Coaches of American football from Texas Players of American football from Texas