STANFORD, Calif. — It’s not hard for Troy Taylor to envision a parallel universe in which he would be home, outside of Sacramento, a high school teacher enjoying summer break. He would probably be scribbling plays in a yellow notebook, preparing for Folsom High’s upcoming football season and life would be good.
That was his reality seven years ago. He was the co-head coach at one of the most dominant football programs in the state and the architect of one of the most explosive offenses ever seen at the high school level.
“I could have been very happy being at Folsom High School for the rest of my life,” Taylor said.
A record-breaking quarterback at Cal who spent two years with the New York Jets after being picked in the fourth round of the 1990 NFL draft, Taylor spent five seasons as an assistant at his alma mater before deciding to go the high school route. At the time, the idea of bouncing around, trying to climb the college coaching ladder didn’t mesh well with his idea of how to be a good father and husband.
Folsom became his laboratory. One season the team never punted. In another, his quarterback, current Cincinnati Bengals backup Jake Browning, tied the single-season national record with 91 touchdowns. After 14 years, off and on, there was a special body of work, but finally it hit him: “I need a new challenge.”
Taylor had developed a relationship with then-Washington coach Chris Petersen — initially through Browning’s recruiting process — and after the 2015 season he told Petersen he was flirting with the idea of getting back into college coaching. The conversation began a series of events that led to Taylor being named Stanford football coach in December.
He’s tasked with turning around a program that is just a few years removed from the most successful period in its 130-year history but is coming off a dismal two-year run in which it won just three conference games. Stanford faces significant short- and long-term challenges in the face of the changing world of college football.
SOMETIME AFTER TAYLOR let Petersen know about his college coaching ambitions, his phone rang. On the other end was then-Eastern Washington head coach Beau Baldwin, who was in the market for a new offensive coordinator.
“He told me, ‘Hey, Coach Pete said I should interview you and when Coach Pete tells me to do something, I listen,'” Taylor said.
Petersen had developed an immense amount of respect for Taylor over the years and that was relayed to Baldwin.
Plus, Petersen knew Taylor and Baldwin had similar styles and thought they would make a good match. He was right.
On his way back from the national coaching convention, Baldwin stopped in Sacramento to meet with Taylor. They discussed football concepts and theory, and the conversation ended with Baldwin offering Taylor the job. From a football standpoint, it was the exact type of gig he was looking for: an opportunity to apply his offensive concoction at a higher level and see where it might go.
From a family and life standpoint, though, this was not a no-brainer. The $63,000 salary was a pay cut from his teaching job (which included a $2,000 stipend he got to coach football) and meant he and his wife, Tracey, would have to uproot their three kids — then ages 7, 10 and 15 — to Cheney, Washington.
“If my wife would have said no, that would have been it,” Taylor said. “It was totally in her hands. But she’s like, ‘All right. I believe in you. Let’s do it.'”
Taylor didn’t plan to remain a coordinator for long. He wanted to be a head coach. As much as he obsessed over X’s and O’s, being able to set the culture of a team was just as important and he knew it would never happen from the OC chair.
“I was going to give myself five years to become a head coach at the college level,” he said. “I didn’t want to travel all over the country for the rest of this deal, but let’s give it five years. I could always come back and I’ve got my teaching credential and all that.
“People were wondering if the offense was going to work at the college level. So was I. So, let’s give it a shot.”
YES, THE OFFENSE worked. At Eastern Washington, quarterback Gage Gubrud set the FCS single-season passing record (5,160 yards), the Eagles went 12-2, ranked second nationally in total offense and third in scoring. Having future Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp at receiver certainly helped, but any possible doubt about Taylor’s transition from high school was gone.
After the season, he was named the offensive coordinator at Utah and this time when he leveled up, it came with roughly a half-million-dollar raise.
The results were mixed. Utah won its first Pac-12 division title in his second season (2018), but the Utes ranked in the bottom half of the conference offensively in his two years in Salt Lake City. Taylor’s pass-heavy offense clashed with what Utah had done traditionally and has done since.
Still, the three years in college football were validating and led Sacramento State to offer Taylor its head coaching gig after the 2018 season. It meant another pay cut — this time measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars — but for Taylor, that was but a footnote. He was doing exactly what he set out to do: become a head coach in college football and do it in his hometown.
“People were shocked when I left Utah,” Taylor said. “‘What’s he doing? Why would he leave for less money and go to Sacramento State to be the head coach?’ … And I said, ‘This isn’t about money. This is about running a program.'”
“As an offensive coordinator, you can make a lot of money, but you’re never going to be able to really drive the culture.”
Like Stanford is now, Sac State was in a tough spot. In 2018, it went winless in the Big Sky Conference (0-7) and was 2-8 overall. Going into Taylor’s first season, the Hornets were picked to come in 12th place in the 13-team league.
The turnaround was immediate. Sac State went 9-4 overall and 7-1 in the conference and earned two historic firsts: a share of the Big Sky football championship and a berth in the FCS playoffs. After not playing in the 2020 Covid season, Taylor took the Hornets to new heights. They went undefeated in conference play in 2021 and 2022, rose to as high as No. 2 in the FCS rankings and won their first-ever playoff game.
The day after Sac State was eliminated from the FCS playoffs in December, Taylor was officially named Stanford’s head coach.
STANFORD ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Bernard Muir is not expecting the same kind of instant revival on the Farm. Not in what has the potential to be a very strong year in the Pac-12 and not with what Stanford has been through.
“I know it’s going to take some time to get us back to where we want to be just because our numbers are a bit down, but he’s not making excuses and he’s trying to get better every day,” Muir said. “And that’s exactly the energy and enthusiasm we’re going to need.”
A bit down sells things a bit short.
The Cardinal lost 12 starters and 17 players to the transfer portal and the school’s stringent admission and transfer requirements precluded the possibility of using the portal to completely replenish the roster for this season in the way most other schools could have. Taylor said he expects to have about 75 of the allotted 85 scholarship players this season.
Those departures combined with Stanford’s downturn are why the Cardinal were picked to finish in last place by the media in a poll released at Pac-12 media day Friday. Muir and Taylor both theorized, however, that the mass exodus was more a product of unusual circumstances — extra year of Covid eligibility, staff change, lack of success, etc. — than something they expect to turn into a trend.
“In this day and age where schools bring in 30 new transfers, we’re not going to live in that world,” Taylor said. “I don’t want to live in that world. I want to build culture and you only build culture when you have people for a duration. You can’t bring in new players every year and think you’re going to develop a great culture.
“I like the idea of building it with high school athletes and then if you’re smart enough to choose Stanford, you’re probably smart enough to stay in school until you get your undergraduate degree.”
Of the 17 players who left, 16 did so with degrees. The extra season of eligibility from Covid resulted in more graduates with remaining eligibility than will usually be the case.
It’s nearly impossible to measure progress while a new coach is 0-0, but three players who spoke with ESPN last week were enthusiastic about the job Taylor has done injecting new energy and belief into the program.
“He’s everything we heard about him times 10,” tight end Benjamin Yurosek said. “He’s competitive, he’s intense, he loves the game of football.”
“Coach Taylor’s big philosophy is love and that’s obviously been prevalent in Stanford, but just understanding what that means, not that golden retriever type of love or anything, but loving your brother enough to tell him what he doesn’t want to hear or push him in all those types of ways.”
What Yurosek laid out reflects the kind of culture Taylor has always felt was vital to building a successful football program. It was that way in Folsom, just as it was at Sac State. In both places, unprecedented success followed. At Stanford, that’s a tougher bar to clear.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.
Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.
“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”
Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”
He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.
“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”
While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.
Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.
Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.
“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”
Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.
“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.
“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”
As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.
“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.
It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.
“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”
In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.
“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”
The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.
“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”
Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.
“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”
Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.
The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.
Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.
Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).
The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.
Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.
Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.
Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.