Unfortunately our season has been so catastrophic that now multiple threads discuss the pros and cons of retaining Taylor. Needless to say that is not where any of us thought or hoped we would be heading into this season. It's hard to envision Stanford moving on from Taylor after just two seasons so it says a lot that people are even discussing this. We've heard a few references to how rare or unfair such a move would be.
I will note that this century there have only been ten coaches who have been in the 90-110 range both of their first two seasons, as Taylor appears destined to be: Ron Zook at Illinois, Bobby Johnson at Vanderbilt, Randy Edsall at Maryland, Geoff Collins at Georgia Tech, Gerry DiNardo at Indiana, Ted Roof at Duke, Charlie Weis at Kansas, Gene Chizik at Iowa State, Chad Morris at Arkansas, and Jon Embree at Colorado. Among that group, three (Chizik, Morris, and Embree) were let go after just two years, so clearly it's not that unusual - thirty percent of the time when somebody fails as much as Taylor has. Among the rest, DiNardo and Weis were let go after the third year and the other five muddled through for more years yet. There were not a lot of good years in all the years these teams spun their wheels with these coaches. Vanderbilt in 2008 - Johnson's only winning season - and Zook a couple of times (Year 3 and Year 6 squeaked into being top 40 teams). Across Zook, Johnson, Edsall, Collins, DiNardo, Roof, and Weis, their post-Year 2 wheel spinning amounted to 20 seasons with, again, only three good ones. They were zombie coaches being kept on in the vain hope it would work out. The truth is that being a Power Four coach without being able to crack the top 90 in either of your first two seasons is profoundly damning. If you can't even belong on the field two years in it's really unlikely you are ever going to make it work. Ron Zook is the ceiling, at least this century.
Personally, I think that should be enough for us to be leaning pretty strongly to wanting to move on from Taylor. There have been other assertions about how rare it is to move on from a coach after just two years and how unlikely that is to work that I suppose I may interrogate this further in the coming weeks should things not start to look substantially up. For now, though, I will just make the point that the above history strongly reinforces the points made by @Alwayswithaudacity here and @Card Tricks here.
I will note that this century there have only been ten coaches who have been in the 90-110 range both of their first two seasons, as Taylor appears destined to be: Ron Zook at Illinois, Bobby Johnson at Vanderbilt, Randy Edsall at Maryland, Geoff Collins at Georgia Tech, Gerry DiNardo at Indiana, Ted Roof at Duke, Charlie Weis at Kansas, Gene Chizik at Iowa State, Chad Morris at Arkansas, and Jon Embree at Colorado. Among that group, three (Chizik, Morris, and Embree) were let go after just two years, so clearly it's not that unusual - thirty percent of the time when somebody fails as much as Taylor has. Among the rest, DiNardo and Weis were let go after the third year and the other five muddled through for more years yet. There were not a lot of good years in all the years these teams spun their wheels with these coaches. Vanderbilt in 2008 - Johnson's only winning season - and Zook a couple of times (Year 3 and Year 6 squeaked into being top 40 teams). Across Zook, Johnson, Edsall, Collins, DiNardo, Roof, and Weis, their post-Year 2 wheel spinning amounted to 20 seasons with, again, only three good ones. They were zombie coaches being kept on in the vain hope it would work out. The truth is that being a Power Four coach without being able to crack the top 90 in either of your first two seasons is profoundly damning. If you can't even belong on the field two years in it's really unlikely you are ever going to make it work. Ron Zook is the ceiling, at least this century.
Personally, I think that should be enough for us to be leaning pretty strongly to wanting to move on from Taylor. There have been other assertions about how rare it is to move on from a coach after just two years and how unlikely that is to work that I suppose I may interrogate this further in the coming weeks should things not start to look substantially up. For now, though, I will just make the point that the above history strongly reinforces the points made by @Alwayswithaudacity here and @Card Tricks here.
