Auburn’s Trooper Taylor makes football a family experience

Trooper Taylor’s office in the Auburn Athletic Complex serves as a gathering place for the masses.

The door remains open at all times, and it’s rare that Taylor, one of 16 children, is left alone for any stretch of time.

Whether it’s coaches, players, secretaries, reporters or recruiting aides, the couch by Taylor’s door rarely remains vacant.

“If you come into my house, and I consider this my home, where I work, it’s important to me that I can be comfortable with someone and am going to be a positive influence ...” Taylor said. “Those things are important to me and that makes a difference.”

Opelika-Auburn News Auburn beat reporter Andrew Gribble took Taylor up on that recently and sat down with him in that office. Here are some excerpts from the interview.

Opelika-Auburn News: Do you and the rest of Auburn coaches want to be known for thinking outside the box in terms of recruiting?

Trooper Taylor: We want to be known for championships. As far as recruiting is considered, obviously, it’s hard work. That’s the kind of the motto we have as far as recruiting and coaching. (Gene Chizik) told us on the first day that this state was built on that. People worked hard and they are hard-working people. He wanted us to remember that.

We’ll always be working hard to find new and innovative ways to relate and keep up with young people. If you get so set in your ways and you say you’re old school; old school will get you beat. There are some old school things that guys stand for as far as morals and standards and values that will never change. But as far as having an open mind to reach out to young people, to get them to reach back to you, I’m always open to that.

OAN: You’re considered one of the best recruiters in the country. Why is that?

TT: I try to be honest with them about everything. I think sometimes parents are shocked that I’m as up front about things. I don’t try to sugarcoat it. I try to do it as if it’s my son sitting there.

Honestly, I’m out to get good players, but I want to get good people. If you come into my house, and I consider this my home, where I work, it’s important to me that I can be comfortable with someone and am going to be a positive influence on them. Those things are important to me and that makes a difference. It all goes back to relationships.

OAN: How much does coming from a big family have to do with it?

TT: I learned a long time ago, in order to appreciate things, say what you mean and mean what you say. If I tell you tomorrow is Thanksgiving, you should be able to buy a turkey. No question, because you should know I’m shooting you straight.

My father passed away when I was 12, so the men who were put in my life were coaches. It taught me discipline. These were men that tried to get me to do the right thing and treated me like family and weren’t the same color as me. But they treated me like family. They brought me to their home on holidays. Some times when I didn’t have lunch money, they provided it for me. They thought, ‘what if they didn’t give it to me, how would I have gotten it?’ You don’t have to have the same last name to be family.

OAN: Does being young help?

TT: Everybody is different. I think that kids know when somebody is being fake. If you try to go be enthusiastic and chest-bump and high-five, and that’s not really you, they’ll know. They’ll be like ‘Get out of here.’

One thing about kids is they’re honest. They might not tell you what you want to hear, but they’ll tell you the truth. I think that helps. I talk to the family and their players. I want every parent to feel like if it’s 2 a.m., and they have a question about their son, they can pick up the phone and call me because if it was my son or daughter, that’s what I would do. It doesn’t matter if it’s a trainer, a manager, one of our hostesses that’s helping us with recruiting or a secretary, give me a phone call.

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