Taylor attended Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova, California. He led his team to a perfect 14-0 record and section championship also being named northern Californiaplayer of the year. Taylor played college football at California as starting quarterback from 1986–89 and was the team MVP 1987-89. He led the Pac-10 conference in total offense in 1989. He finished his collegiate career as Cal's all-time leading passer and total offense leader, records that stood until they were broken by Jared Goff in 2015. His 51 career touchdown passes stood as a school record until surpassed by Pat Barnes in 1996. Taylor was drafted by the Jets in the 4th round in the 1990 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. In his career, Taylor saw action in seven games and threw for 2 touchdown passes.
Coaching career
In 1994, Taylor served as offensive coordinator at Casa Roble High School in Sacramento, California. He served one year on Rick Neuheisel's staff at the University of Colorado as a graduate assistant in 1995 primarily working with wide receivers. He was hired by Steve Mariucci as Cal's wide receivers coach in 1996 and later served 2 years as a QB coach and 1 year as a tight-ends coach under Tom Holmoe. From 2000 to 2002, Taylor served as an assistant athletic director and coach for Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento. From 2002 to 2004, Taylor served as the Co-head coach of football at Folsom High School. He left that position in 2005 to serve as color analyst for the California Golden Bears' radio broadcast. In 2012, he returned to Folsom High as co-head coach of football, during the 4-year period he was there the bulldogs went 58-3 winning 4 consecutive section championships and a state title. Taylor coached Washington quarterback Jake Browning since he was in 5th grade up until his senior year in high school where he set the national touchdown record in a career with 229 TD passes while also tying a record of 91 touchdown passes in a single season all while going 16-0 with 16 running clocks and a D1 state championship. His offense at Folsom broke the state in passing for 4 straight years and set a state record for most points scored in a season, a record that still stands today. On February 18, 2016, Taylor was announced as the Passing Game Coordinator, Quarterbacks coach and play caller for Eastern Washington. At EWU Taylor called plays and took an already stellar offense to new heights as they set 2 all-time FCS records for passing yards and total offense in a season. Taylor was instrumental in helping former walk on quarterback Gage Gubrud into a record setting QB who broke the all-time single season FCS passing record and broke the all-time record in total offense. Gubrud also won FCS player of the year from numerous sites along with Big Sky Conference co-MVP and also having the only team to have 3 wide receivers over 1,000 yards in the season. Gubrud also set 16 school records, 7 Big sky records and 2 FCS records all while getting the Big Sky conference championship and going undefeated in conference play. They improved in almost every offensive statistical category in his first year. A notable win came in the first game of the season against Washington State where they won 45-42 and set a school record for total offense. On December 17, 2018, Taylor accepted the head coaching position at Sacramento State after spending the previous two years as the Offensive Coordinator at Utah. On August 31, 2019, Taylor debuted in his first collegiate game as head coach, in which his Sacramento State team defeated Southern Oregon 77-19. On November 23, 2019, Taylor and his Sacramento State football team clinched the schools' first-ever share of the Big Sky Conference Championship in a 27-17 victory over the UC Davis Aggies football team in the 2019 Causeway Classic game. This win served as Sacramento States' first Big Sky Conference Championship win since the team's induction into the Big Sky Conference in 1996. Sacramento State also won the 2019 Causeway Carriage as a result of this victory over the UC Davis Aggies football team.
