Auburn University is expected to name current NC State associate head coach Gary Taylor as the Tigers’ new head coach, according to sources close to the program. That will fill the vacancy left by Brett Hawke, the Australian Olympian who resigned after ten years as Auburn’s head coach.
Update: the move has now been announced on both Taylor’s and Auburn’s Twitter accounts
THANK YOU to @AuburnPrez @AGreeneIV and @AuburnTigers for this tremendous opportunity! @AuburnSwimDive will do this University, athletic department, and community PROUD. I’m so EXCITED to be a part of this. #Official #WDE ? https://t.co/RQRRBnuDpN
— Gary Taylor (@AUBCoachTaylor) April 30, 2018
Gary Taylor named Auburn swimming and diving head coach https://t.co/1268tdEmPR
— Auburn Swim & Dive (@AuburnSwimDive) April 29, 2018
Taylor will come to Auburn after six years at NC State, the past two of which he spent as the associate head coach. At NC State, Taylor worked primarily with the distance crew, including Anton Ipsen, the 2018 men’s NCAA champion in the mile. Taylor’s distance background contrasts with Auburn’s longstanding reputation as a sprint factory.
He’ll be taking over a program that has struggled, relatively speaking, the past couple of seasons, with the men’s team finishing out of the top ten at NCAAs the past two years, and the women’s team finishing 16th last season. Taylor will still have plenty of talent on the roster, including American sprinter Zach Apple and World Juniors champ Hugo Gonzalez of Spain.
Before his time at NC State, Taylor coached for four years at Florida State, and before that coached for Dynamo Swim Club in Georgia and the Twin Cities Swim team in Minnesota. He is a 2001 graduate of the University of Minnesota.
Taylor’s expected hiring comes a little over a week after Wisconsin hired Cal assistant Yuri Suguiyama to fill the vacancy left by Whitney Hite’s departure, and TCU hired James Winchester after a tumultuous few months for that program. Meanwhile, a number of major Division I vacancies remain, most notably Florida and Virginia Tech.
We didn’t initially list Taylor when we looked at some of the buzz surrounding possible candidates for the Auburn gig, focusing on experienced head coaches. But, NC State head coach Braden Holloway publicly removed himself from the running pretty quickly, and Cal head coach Dave Durden, who had previously been an assistant at Auburn, signed a new contract just few days ago.
However, Taylor’s hiring makes plenty of sense, especially after another former NC State coach, Todd DeSorbo, had quite the successful first season as head coach at the University of Virginia.
There’s no word yet on the status of Auburn’s current assistants, including Sergio Lopez.
Fake news. Ya heard it here first.
This is a super confusing comment, given that Gary Taylor, Braden Holloway, and Auburn all announced that he’s been hired over 2-and-a-half hours ago.
Interesting, they are paying him 20K less than the top assistant last year and cut $100 K from the assistant coaching salaries. This makes sense as to why many alumni and others would not even consider. Looks like the AD’s last act as AD at Buffalo was to cut swimming and his first as AD of AU was to fire swimming coach. I’m getting the feeling he can’t swim. Also top swimmer transferring out
How do you know this?
Sam B would be a great hire for sprint coach. He’s been at Auburn before, has coached against, Gary. What more could you ask for?
Sergio to VA TECH….https://t.co/jJSGTL1XTi
Watch zac Apple transfer to IU
LOL
NCSU to hire Mark Bernardino to replace Gary.
Would not be overly excited if I were an Auburn fan. Not going to win anything or improve standings if they become a distance focused team. Interested to see who he brings in for the sprint program.
Gary is a coach who happened to coach distance. He’s smart. This sounds like an armchair quarterback. You don’t get to where Gary is by having a narrow concept of how things work. Any coach at the top of D1 coaching could coach any group and have success. Watch who he hires to compliment his strengths. If life were as simple as you make it, we’d be hunched over picking bugs of each other’s backs.
Obviously their sprinting has always been very good but they actually used to have some great distance swimming back when they were in their prime, especially on the women’s side… Hayley Peirsol, Ava Ohlgren, Adrienne Binder.
And it’s common sense in the swimming world that a distance-focused team won’t be dominant, so I’m sure a successful and experienced coach like Gary won’t create a program full of milers.
Similar to the hiring of Brett Hawke. Great coach. Yet questionable as to the experience to lead a storied SEC program.
Gary is top notch! Wishing all the best to him and his family and Auburn!