The Daily O’Collegian

Experience is mankind’s greatest teacher.

At least that’s Trooper Taylor’s motto, and it would be hard to disagree with where it has gotten him thus far.

OSU’s new co-offensive coordinator is regarded as one of the nation’s top recruiters, and he carries the ability to light up a room during a recruiting visit.

Recruiting is not an easy part of a coach’s job, but Taylor will be the first to tell you — experience is the greatest teacher of all.

Taylor was hired onto the OSU coaching staff Dec. 19 as co-offensive coordinator, and he will also maintain his previous job as wide receivers coach, the title he held at the University of Tennessee.

Many, including coach Mike Gundy, regard Taylor as a prized addition to the OSU coaching staff, but there is more to Taylor than one can read on the message boards.

Taylor grew up in Cuero, Texas, and was one of 16 children who lived in a small three-bedroom, one-bathroom house with their parents.

The family consists of eight boys and eight girls; Trooper was No. 10.

“Our house was not big at all,” Taylor said. “We used to joke that you could walk in the front door, take three steps and end up in the backyard.”

Taylor shared one bedroom with his seven brothers. His father built their beds out of wood pallets along the sides of the room, and they were stacked so close to the ceiling Taylor said, “You had to squeeze your way out and fall to the floor to get out.”

School mornings proved to be a tricky endeavor for the Taylor family, as well.

With only one bathroom, and eight sisters, Taylor said it was a lost cause trying to get in.

He and his brothers, more often than not, would head out to the backyard to relieve themselves before they caught the bus.

The bathroom, though, proved to be no contest when compared with the dinner table.

The dinner table is only one area where his mother, Gloria Taylor, proved to be a guiding light and shining example in Taylor’s life.

“Organized chaos,” Taylor said. “My mother did a great job presenting meals even though we often had nothing. She was definitely a glass half-full type of woman. Some nights all we had was bacon bits; we would dip our bread into them and pretend we had meat.

“She was always upbeat. One of our favorite meals that she would prepare was ‘Cowboy Stew,’ which was actually just leftovers in water, but she made everything special and good for us.”

Gloria said it was tough raising 16 children with limited income, but they always believed in God to get them through whatever situation arose and God always provided for them no matter how hard things were.

“I had to feed a lot of kids,” Gloria said. “I had to cut things up and make sure there was enough food to go around; I couldn’t put steaks on the table for the children every night. God provided us with exactly what we needed to get by.

“Troops was always funny at the dinner table, too; he would run around and eat some of the other kids stuff if they weren’t paying attention or home yet. Then he would sit down and eat his own, he was always taken care of. He was a very funny and ornery kid, but a great kid.”

The Taylor children grew up understanding they were special, Taylor said, because they got to have a meal that nobody else had. They had brunch; Taylor said it was a point of pride because it was something different, special that no one else they knew had. It wasn’t until college Taylor found out he was missing a meal because the family did not have enough money to put three meals a day on the table.

“Attitude is the difference in anything you do in life,” Taylor said. “And my mother’s attitude was something special. My mom was phenomenal, I didn’t know I was poor; as far as I knew everybody lived that way.”

She was not only great at making the best of every situation; she also instilled discipline in Trooper and his siblings. She always told her children not to let others lead them but to become leaders themselves.

“Troops was always a very good kid, very obedient,” Gloria said. “He was a little prankster, though; he always had the other kids laughing, but he has definitely become the man I knew he could be.

“I feel wonderful and very proud with all of my kids, and I know that the kids up there are getting the best he has to offer them.”

Like any house in Texas, football becomes a part of life at an early age.

“I guess I started playing when I was 3 years old,” Taylor said. “I was getting pillows thrown at me running down the hall from my brothers.

“I didn’t play organized football until junior high. Coming from my family, though, organized football was easy.”

However, football was about to play a much bigger role in Trooper’s life.

Taylor’s father died when Trooper was 12.

Bonnie Taylor Jr. died at 42 of a heart attack that, Taylor said he believes, was stemmed from the constant stress of trying to provide for his family in 1982.

His father worked two full-time jobs to support his family. He worked at a Texas cotton mill and spent the rest of his day at a feed mill to put food on the table.

“Bonnie and I always had a dream of raising our kids to be good citizens and productive people in society,” Gloria said. “I kept that dream going as a testament to him after he died.”

Bonnie Taylor always had his priorities in the right place and would constantly try to do everything he could to put his children in a position for success he never had.

“He always talked about education,” Taylor said. “The better education you have, the more opportunities you will have. Nothing came before God, family and education in our family. My parents instilled in us that we need to do our best no matter what. It was a constant competition, but a good-natured one, with my other siblings. We always tried to bring home the best grades. It just became a way of life.

“I knew that if I got a degree I could really do something.”

Taylor immersed himself in football as his escape to help cope with his father’s death.

This decision proved to lead the way to the future and opportunities his father always wanted for him.

“Coaches looked out for me after my father died,” Taylor said. “I learned lessons along with everything I did in life; at home with my mother, at school with my teachers and on the field with my coaches. The coaches did not have the same last name as me. Actually, more often than not, were not the same color as me, but I was treated like family. We established relationships for a lifetime, not just the four years they coached me.

“That is something I will always seek to accomplish with my players.”

Taylor excelled on the field and accepted a full scholarship to play football at nearby Baylor.

“There is no better teacher than experience,” Taylor said. “[Growing up in] a big family allowed me to appreciate things.

“College was the first time I ever slept in a bed without getting kicked in the face.”

Taylor continued to succeed on the field in college playing defensive back and returning kicks for the Bears, but this proved to be the opportunity for Taylor to pursue what he wanted to do, become a coach.

After his football eligibility ended, Taylor joined the Bears’ coaching staff as a graduate assistant for two years before being named a full-time assistant coach in 1994.

Before the 1996 season, the Bears added another former college football player who was pursuing a career in coaching to their staff, Gundy.

Gundy and Taylor became fast friends. Their careers took different paths before being reunited in Stillwater in January.

“I’m here to make sure Gundy’s the best coach in America,” Taylor said. “The other coaches goals ought to be the same.

“I came in here to win championships.”

This is another example of Taylor’s motto, “Experience is the best teacher.” Taylor said he feels this job is the best opportunity he has had to reach his goal of becoming a head coach.

“You have to draw upon your experiences,” Taylor said. “Take the good, leave the bad. This is definitely a good opportunity.”

Drawing on his experiences has proven to successful for Taylor, particularly in recruiting.

During Taylor’s time at Tennessee from 2004-07, Rivals.com named him one of the top-25 recruiters in the nation on two occasions, and has built a stellar reputation with recruits, parents and coaches during the process.

“Coach Taylor is excellent,” Waco high school coach Johnny Tusa said. “He is a great coach and a great person.”

Taylor recruited Waco safety Victor Johnson this winter.

Since his days as a player and coach at Baylor, Taylor has known Tusa.

“I look forward to getting out there with Troop,” Gundy said. “He brings a lot to the table. He gets stereotyped a lot as a recruiter because he does a really nice job and he has a great history of recruiting, but he brings a lot to the table as a person.

“He coaches hard and takes a lot of pride in making sure his players perform on and off the field.”

Taylor says that recruiting is all about relationships, and the experiences he had with coaches after the passing of his father has led him to appreciate these relationships on a different level.

For Taylor, these are relationships that will span a lifetime.

“Some coaches treat every recruit the same way,” Taylor said. “That doesn’t make sense to me. These are all kids from different backgrounds; kids with different life experiences. You have to tune into the person, not the football player to establish a long-term relationship.”

Taylor understands these student-athletes will look to him for leadership, not only on the field and at practice, but also in every walk of life.

Taylor takes this realization not as a burden, but as an opportunity to help his players reach their own lifelong goals, just as Taylor’s coaches had done for him.

“Coaching is a calling, not just a job,” Taylor said. “You spend more time with these kids in college than their parents. It is a special gift; a gift I will never take for granted.”