Troy Taylor expresses confidence and belief in Stanford players ahead of his first season

Stanford is one of the most prestigious universities in the world academically, and they also happen to be extremely good at virtually every sport.

Their men's basketball team has had some down years, but so has their football program which at one point was one of the more prominent programs in the country under David Shaw. The heir to Jim Harbaugh, Shaw led the Cardinal to heights that they had never seen before but the magic and luster that the program once had has seemingly faded.

Shaw and the Cardinal finished below .500 in three of the last four years, with the 2022 season being the final straw for Shaw who stepped down after the last game. The program that was once the pride and joy of the Pac-12 has now drawn comparisons to being the Vanderbilt of the West.

All of these notions and doubts are exactly why the Cardinal hired Sacramento State head coach Troy Taylor. The offensive guru has been tabbed as the guy to lead this program back to the prominence it was experiencing just a mere five years ago despite it feeling like a decade. However, in doing so it will prove to be quite the challenge as the Cardinal return just six starters from a year ago and were not the deepest team by any means last season.

Something he is working to do throughout spring ball as he explained in an interview with Sirius XM's Guy Haberman and ESPN's Adam Rittenberg.

New @StanfordFball Head Coach @TroyTaylorStanU tells @GuyHaberman & @ESPNRittenberg why he's excited about the team he has heading into his first year in Palo Alto!#GoStanford | #BackThePac pic.twitter.com/ZGvkqvEPnN
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) May 1, 2023

Taylor is extremely familiar with what it takes to rebuild a program, as he took Sacramento State from a program people were willing to disband to a FSC power. He led the team to three Big Sky Conference titles and even an FCS quarterfinal appearance in last year’s playoffs.

Stanford's offense will be modernized by Taylor, and off the field there are more efforts being put in by donors in terms of NIL deals. It won't be a quick fix due to the nature that Shaw left the program in, but confidence is high in Taylor.