Inside The Huskies

After Passing on UW as a Player, Mays Accepts Huskies Safeties Job

He'll fill the vacancy on Jedd Fischs' coaching staff left by Vinnie Sunseri.
Dan Raley|
Taylor Mays in 2009 as a hulking USC safety.
Taylor Mays in 2009 as a hulking USC safety. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Google maps say the distance between O'Dea High School and Husky Stadium is 4.3 miles, but nearly two decades ago the University of Washington football team couldn't bridge that gap and land one of the most highly regarded recruits anywhere.

The Huskies were una ble reel in safety Taylor Mays, even though his father and his uncle both played at the UW as defensive tackles for the legendary Don James.

They couldn't get Mays to pull on a purple and gold uniform, let alone even take a recruiting visit to Montlake, no matter how hard they pushed, and he ultimately chose USC over Michigan and the Huskies.

"I don't think it allowed me the best opportunity," Mays told me following a Rose Bowl practice in 2006, standing in the sunshine in Los Angeles.

On Thursday, the prodigal son, some 19 years after saying no to the UW as a player, agreed to become the Huskies safeties coach for Jedd Fisch.

Mays can share all sort of life lessons with them about becoming the perfect college football player once he arrived at USC from O'Dea, of how he was one of those guys who stepped in and showed he could play immediately, of how people only had wondrous things to say about him.

"I'm thrilled to be bringing one of the state of Washington's greatest football players back home," Fisch said in a school release "Taylor Mays' experience in college and in the NFL will bring tremendous value to the 'Be a Pro' philosophy of the Husky Football program."

He was 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds as a freshman starting safety for Pete Carroll. He could bench press more than 400 pounds. Carroll swore Mays once ran 4.25 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

He become a starter in the second game of his USC career when veteran Josh Pinkard was lost in the opener against Arkansas with a season-ending injury and he was ready all along.

"It's just being prepared mentally," Mays said back then. "It's the guys who separate themselves mentally who succeed. I'm very fortunate to be in the position I'm in."

He comes to a UW football team to willingly take part in a local rebuild this time under Fisch, something he wouldn't do during his own recruitment. He passed on the Huskies after they went 2-9 in Tyrone Willingham's first season as coach in Montlake. While he had grown up with the Huskies, it was simply too daunting to him to play there

"The program wasn't doing well and he lost interest," said Stafford Mays, his father, a nine-year NFL player for the Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Cardinals.

Taylor Mays, who also is named Stafford but prefers his middle name, was a three-time All-America selection and a second-round draft pick. Yet for all the great things he did, he had his fair shore of testing moments.

He wasn't an all-everything NFL safety. He had to be more than a little disappointed when Carroll, as the new Seahawks coach in 2010, chose safety Earl Thomas from Texas with the 14th overall pick over him in the draft. Mays slipped to the second round, going to the San Francisco 49ers as the 49th selection overall.

Football became more of a challenge for him in the pros with the 49ers, Oakland Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals rather than an entitlement. He was released multiple times by NFL teams. Twice, he was suspended for using banned substances. Finally, he was cut for the last time in 2018 in the CFL.

Taylor Mays shown as USC's defensive analyst earlier this season.
Taylor Mays shown as USC's defensive analyst earlier this season. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

He has gone from the perfect player to possibly becoming an effective college coach based on his football experiences alone. He replaces Vinnie Sunseri, who left as UW safeties coach to become the Jacksonville State defensive coordinator.

Mays can tell his prospective Husky safeties the good and the bad about being a can't-miss player and remind them that no one really gets a free pass as a football player at any time.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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