The Troy Taylor era at Stanford will start Friday at Hawaii with uncertainty, not only because of the Cardinal’s potential move to the ACC, but because the new coach will not announce his starting quarterback before the game.
With former starter Tanner McKee now in the NFL, Taylor is deciding between early enrollee Myles Jackson, Ari Patu, Ashton Daniels and Syracuse transfer Justin Lamson.
“I’m not gonna announce anything,” Taylor said Monday. “I think it’s become more and more clear for us, but I won’t make any announcement. Everybody will know right when the game starts.”
Taylor, a former quarterback at California, Stanford’s chief rival, starts his career with the Cardinal after compiling a 30-8 record in three seasons at FCS Sacramento State.
He may be coaching in the ACC starting next season, with that conference reportedly voting soon to add Stanford and California, two of the four remaining Pac-12 schools after this academic year.
None of his four quarterbacks has more than 16 passing attempts in a season in college.
Hawaii (0-1) is coming off a 35-28 loss at Vanderbilt last week, falling short after rallying in the fourth quarter with a couple of touchdowns.
The Rainbow Warriors have an established quarterback, Brayden Schager, a junior who made his 10th consecutive start last week.
He completed his first eight passes engineering Timmy Chang’s run-and-shoot offense against Vanderbilt.
He finished 27-of-35 passing for a career-high 351 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. His 27 completions and three touchdowns were also career-high totals.
Hawaii outgained Vanderbilt in total yards, 391-297.
With one less day to prepare for Stanford, with the game landing on Friday, Hawaii’s coaches reviewed and graded film of the Vanderbilt game during the charter flight back to Honolulu. After arriving home early Sunday morning, they went straight to their offices.
Chang also prepared for Vanderbilt and Stanford during fall camp.
“We jumped ahead,” Chang said. “That was part of the plan.”
