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

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coach at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. Taylor was formerly an assistant coach at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

from January 2009 until December 2012 where he served as

assistant head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

and

wide receivers coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the Offensive coordinator, offensive and Defensive c ...

under former head coach

Gene Chizik Eugene C. Chizik Jr. (born December 28, 1961) is an American football coach who is currently the Assistant Head Coach for Defense at North Carolina. A veteran of the coaching ranks, Chizik previously was UNC's defensive coordinator for the 2015 ...

. Prior to joining Auburn, Taylor served as co-

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

for

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. He has spent over a decade coaching wide receivers, primarily in the

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

and

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 ...

conferences.

Personal life

Taylor grew up in

Cuero, Texas Cuero ( ) is a city in and the county seat of DeWitt County, Texas, DeWitt County, Texas, United States. Its population was 8,128 at the 2020 census. History The city of Cuero had its start in the mid-19th century as a stopping point on the Chisho ...

and was raised in a family of 16. He earned his bachelor's degree from

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

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 Floyd Casey Stadium was a stadium in Waco, Texas. The stadium was used for 64 seasons before being replaced by McLane Stadium in 2014. It was primarily used for football, and was the home field of the Baylor Bears. The stadium, located about ...

and have two children: a son, Blaise, and a daughter, Starr.

Football 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 two private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior to j ...

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 The 1991 Copper Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on December 31, 1991, at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Arizona. The game featured the Indiana Hoosiers and the Baylor Bears. In the first quarter, Indiana quarterback Trent Gr ...

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 respons ...

for two years before being named

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 ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. In 1999, head coach

Chris Scelfo Christopher Joseph Scelfo (born September 30, 1963) is an American football coach. He was most recently the offensive line coach for the DC Defenders of the XFL. He was the offensive line coach and run-game coordinator for the Arizona Hotshots o ...

lured Taylor to his staff at Tulane as the wide receivers coach. Taylor spent five years with the

Green Wave A green wave occurs when a series of traffic lights (usually three or more) are coordinated to allow continuous traffic flow over several intersections in one main direction. Any vehicle traveling along with the green wave (at an approximate spe ...

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 state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. Taylor served as running backs coach before being promoted to

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 David Nelson Cutcliffe (born September 16, 1954) is the Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Football Relations at the Southeastern Conference and former college football coach, most recently head coach of the Duke University Blue Devils. ...

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 Michael Ray Gundy (born August 12, 1967) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Oklahoma State University. Gundy played college football at Oklahoma State, where he played quarterback from 1986 to 1989. ...

, 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

hired Taylor to serve as

and

at Auburn. Coach Taylor has been recognized as a top-25 national recruiter on six occasions (2005 and 2007 by

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

, 2009 by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, 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 The 2008 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 30, 2008, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Oregon Ducks, and was part of the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS foo ...

, 2010 Outback Bowl, the

2011 BCS National Championship Game The 2011 Tostitos BCS National Championship Game was a college football bowl game to determine the national champion of the 2010 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) season. The finale of the 2010–2011 Bowl Championship Series was p ...

, and the 2011 Chick-fil-A Bowl.

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 Roydell Williams (born March 14, 1981) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He played college football at Tulane Green ...

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. 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 Robert Emery Meachem (born September 28, 1984) is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football at Tennessee and was drafted by the New Orleans Saints 27th overall in the 2007 NFL draft. Meachem also played one season ...

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

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 Desmond Demond Bryant (born November 4, 1988) is an American football wide receiver who is a free agent. He played college football at Oklahoma State, where he earned All-American honors in 2008. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the fir ...

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.

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 New Mexico Lobos football coaches Oklahoma State Cowboys football coaches Tennessee Volunteers football coaches Tulane Green Wave football coaches People from Cuero, Texas Coaches of American football from Texas Players of American football from Texas African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American sportspeople