Jeff Traylor is an American Football coach.
Jeff started his coaching career in 1989 as a High School Assistant coach. He would eventually return to be the Head Coach at his own High School. Gilmer High and would go on to lead the team to 3 state titles. His impact at the school was so profound that they would eventually name the stadium after him.
He then took assistant positions at University of Texas, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Arkansas before being appointed as Head Coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in 2020. In his first year he led them to the best start in the school’s history for a season, winning their first eleven regular season games. They went on to win their first conference championship, a feat they achieved again in 2022.
This is one of our favourite interviews we have ever done. Jeff has great authenticity, and some unique ideas around building culture.
Some of the highlights were:
How the great coaches are self aware enough to know where they are great and where they are. Not. And they hire people to take the place of where they’re weak.
The wonderful way he started with his new team and won their confidence by listening and working with their ideas on how to improve the team.
How is history as a teacher and coach has taught him about the power of hands on learning
And How he tries to fire himself from his jobs and hand the responsibility over to his support staff.
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