TRAYLOR TO SMU
[Jeff] Traylor has a close relationship with Morris and infused a lot of Morris' concepts into Traylor's offenses at Gilmer HS, where Traylor won three state titles...
Honestly, I think Charlie Strong wanted Traylor to take over the offense when Strong demoted Shawn Watson one game into the 2015 season. But I think Traylor, having just been a high school coach, might've been worried about how the rest of the offensive coaching room would've received him as the OC.
In hindsight, I think Traylor was the right answer and Strong probably should've just gone ahead with Traylor as OC and made the rest of the offensive coaching room accept him as play-caller. Instead, Strong went with receivers coach Jay Norvell as play caller and passing game coordinator and made Traylor run-game coordinator, replacing Joe Wickline.
All the power spread stuff that worked for Texas when the Horns ran the ball down the throats of OU (58 carries for 313 yards in a 24-17 win) and K-State (53 carries for 274 yards in a 23-9 win) in 2015 was Traylor's stuff that he got from Chad Morris and Gus Malzahn and used with great success at Gilmer. (It's also a lot of what Tom Herman runs.)
Traylor helped recruit a bunch of emerging talent to Texas, including CB Kris and LB Demarco Boyd (who played for him at Gilmer), S Brandon Jones, WR Devin and CB Donovan Duvernay, C Zach Shackelford, WR Damion Miller, CB Josh Thompson, CB/S Montrell Estell, TE Peyton Aucoin, DE Andrew Fitzgerald, WR Davion Curtis and OT JP Urquidez (as well as DE Lagaryonn Carson, who ended up an academic casualty).
It may not have gotten recognized the way it should have, but in his short time at Texas, Traylor showed he was up to the task, helping draw up Strong's biggest win at UT (vs OU in 2015) and helping stock the cupboard with players for Tom Herman.
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