FARMINGTON, Utah (Nov. 24, 2021) – After leading his team to another conference title, Sacramento State’s Troy Taylor has been named the Big Sky Football Coach of the Year, as voted on by the league’s head coaches.
This marks the second time that Taylor has been named the Big Sky Football Coach of the Year by his peers, having won the award in 2019 when he led the Hornets to their first conference title in his first season as a college head coach. Taylor also won the Eddie Robinson Award that season, which he is a finalist for this year. Overall, this is Sacramento State’s third Coach of the Year honor for the football program, after Jody Sears won the award in 2017.
Taylor’s Hornets are 9-2 overall on the year and finished conference play a perfect 8-0 to win the program’s second Big Sky football title. The Hornets won their final eight games of the season, marking the longest win streak in school history. Taylor, who won the same award in 2019, has earned an 18-6 record overall in his first two seasons at Sac State after taking over a program that finished 2-8 overall and 0-7 in conference play in 2018 prior to his arrival. Taylor is 16-1 against Big Sky opponents as the Hornets played Northern Colorado in a non-conference game in 2019, winning 50-0.
The Hornets earned a No. 4 national seed for the 2021 FCS Playoffs, with Sacramento State receiving a first-round bye. The Hornets will face the winner of UC Davis and South Dakota State on Saturday, Dec. 4.
Five Big Sky teams will continue play in 2021, as a league-record was selected for the 2021 FCS Playoffs. Eastern Washington and UC Davis will be in action this Saturday, while national seeds Sacramento State, Montana and Montana State await their opponents in the second round that starts next weekend.
