Jeff Traylor Impact @ Texas?

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Per IT:
As a position coach

Texas now has a TE coach and OL coach with backgrounds in the “spread to run” school of offense working under an offensive coordinator who likes to use tight ends and motion to create leverage, move around defenses, and run the football like a pro-style system.

So the Longhorns haven’t exactly pulled in someone with Traylor who’s known for how to better involve the tight ends in the running game, or how to develop NFL prospects at the position.

Strong must be hoping that Traylor’s considerable overall skills as a coach will translate to being able to see out Watson and/or Wickline’s vision for how tight ends will be used in the offense.

On the special teams side, Traylor has experience coaching that unit and oversaw good special teams play from his Gilmer squads. In addition to being a good overseer of a unit and program, he actually has some special teams’ acumen.​

The writer notes that college teams don't usually hire high school coaches who are strong position coaches. He believes Charlie's main reason for getting Traylor is for "building connections with HS coaches within the state and improving evaluations and recruiting in the key East Texas region."

As a recruiter
The writer states that for most of Strong's career, he’s relied on South Florida for providing players with both "speed and aggression in simple yet efficient schemes." He then asks:

[W]here in Texas can Strong find athletes that are hungry to use football as a vehicle to improve their lives?

East Texas.

When it comes to both knowing current East Texas players as well as having connections that will allow successful exploration, evaluation, and recruiting of future stars, Traylor is a major add for the Longhorns.

He has a reputation for getting a lot out of his players and years of relating to high school students as a head coach combined with the obvious ambition that led him to take the Texas job would lead you to believe that he’s probably going to work hard to recruit the area effectively for the Longhorns.​

As an offensive brain

Traylor’s strategy on offense at Gilmer was very closely akin to Strong’s strategy on defense. Get great athletes, give them simple assignments, and put them in spaces where their athleticism can dominate.

Gilmer was a true spread team in 2014 that, ironically, went to a fullback rather than a tight end and used the spread-I formation when they needed to mix things up with the run-game from the base offense. The results were remarkable.

Perhaps the best part of the Gilmer offense was the way they’d mix in gap schemes, the nastiest of which was a counter/trap play that could attack the opposite side from outside zone from the same formation.​

Conclusion

All of this offensive wizardry may be where Traylor’s greatest value lies for Charlie’s program. He’s arguably the best coach on the staff at putting athletes like Jerrod Heard, Kai Locksley, Tyrone Swoopes, or Daje Johnson in simple schemes where they could wreak havoc. All he needs is a good spread OL, a fullback, and some versatile athletes and he’ll get them opportunities in space, which is something Texas struggled to do in 2014.​

[In depth analysis with diagrams - recommend reading the full article here.]
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I'm wondering if Traylor could be Charlie's back-up plan if it becomes necessary for him to pull the ol' Louisville two-step on Watson midway through the 2015 season. Just a thought - I haven't discussed it with Charlie, yet.

 

Good read. Who knows what Strong is thinking? Maybe he's wanting to help Watson move toward spreading out the offense. I don't know if he wanted an Eastex recruiter and the spread experience will come in handy, or if he wanted someone who could help implement spreading out the offense and the Eastex connection was a plus. It seems to me that ignoring his offensive savvy would be a waste of talent and I doubt Charlie wastes talent.

 

Per 247Sports:
Barring any position changes [Jeff Traylor will] only have two scholarship tight ends to work with this spring – Andrew Beck and Blake Whiteley. Whiteley is the intriguing talent in Traylor's room since the former top-ranked junior college tight end prospect in the country seemingly has all the tools to produce at a high level at the position, but he needs to put them all together and took a redshirt year last season to try and get some things figured out.
Beck didn't catch a pass last season and the Longhorns need him to emerge as more of a threat in the passing game.

The more significant impact Traylor will make in his first season transitioning from the high school ranks to college will be felt in recruiting and in what he's assigned to do with special teams. That said, he's got a chance to really make his mark as a coach if he can get either of these guys to make some noise this spring and produce this fall.

 

He may have Swoopes to work with.

 

This^^

 

Per 247Sports (4-27-15):
Traylor's 2014 team at Gilmer scored 950 points in 16 games (the second-highest point total in the history of Texas high school football) and averaged 534.6 yards per game en route to an undefeated season and the Class 4A Division II state title.

Watson has enjoyed the ideas Traylor has brought to the offensive meeting room.

"He's been a great teacher for us," Watson said, adding that Traylor is humble soul who's a consistent and fundamentally-based teacher. "He's got an easy input. He usually just walks up and will say, 'I was thinking about…,' which means he's got a really good point. I listen to him because he's got a lot of wisdom."

 

Hey Watson, I was thinking about some ways to generate more than 59 yards of offense in a game.

 

I hope so....

 

Why would he go to Watson? The lawyers are saying that Wickline is calling the plays.

 

Godz, thanks for the article reference. It was quite interesting and made you think about some things. I think the strangest thing and the most indicative is what Boyd said with this statement :

Neither does Boyd say much about Traylor's special teams expertise. Charlie has so much coaching expertise on his staff --- so why does he bring someone to help with offensive strategy who has not taught in the college ranks? The only thing that makes sense is that CS will build his Texas intra-state recruiting around Traylor. There is not that much population in East Tx just to focus only there. If Charlie does not improve his contact with HS coaches over all Texas, he will continue to take a backseat to Baylor and Tx A&M. So there must be something about the quality of Traylor's contacts over the whole state. It must be something related to the fact that East Tx seems to be the hub and the heart of the largest population centers in the state. IH35 with IH45 with IH10 form an important population triangle with East Tx being an important hub.
[ East + North + South + central == all Texas ]

 

Ding! Ding! Ding! we have a winner. The offensive side of the ball was always the issue with bringing in Strong.

Texas will continue to struggle with offense recruiting until either his offense proves itself or a new OC is brought in to run an offense that the majority of Texas high schools run. Whichever it is it will have to average at least 40 points a game in the Big XII.