Florida staffer Brandon Taylor expected to become West Georgia special teams coordinator, LB coach

The University of Florida football program is undergoing more staff changes, as graduate assistant Brandon Taylor has reportedly taken a job with West Georgia.

According to college football insider Bruce Feldman, Taylor is signing on to be West Georgia’s special teams coordinator and help coach the linebackers. Here was the initial report, which Feldman shared to Twitter:

“SOURCE: UF staffer Brandon Taylor is expected to become the new special teams coordinator & coach OLBs at West Georgia. Played for Mario Cristobal at FIU, coached under Ed Orgeron and Greg McMahon at LSU.”

Taylor served two years on the Gator staff and was listed by the team website as the “GameChanger graduate assistant” — a title you won’t see on most college football staffs — where he worked under GameChanger coordinator Chris Couch, who appears to effectively be the team’s special teams coach, since he worked as the special teams coordinator with Billy Napier at Louisiana before moving with him to Gainesville.

Taylor himself also has special teams coaching experience prior to his time with Florida as he was a special teams graduate assistant with LSU in 2020 and 2021. Now, he’s taking over his own unit at West Georgia, who will transition to Division 1 ranks this coming summer as members of the Atlantic Sun.

Per the Gators athletics site, here’s the skinny on Taylor’s career prior to his two SEC stops:

“Prior to working with the Tigers, he was a defensive analyst for Jacksonville State in 2019 and a defensive graduate assistant – linebackers for FIU in 2018 and a defensive assistant – linebackers at Louisiana Tech in 2017.
 
“A native of Slidell, La., Taylor made his coaching debut during the 2016 season at Southern University as an offensive assistant – OL / TE’s. 
 
“Taylor was a long snapper for five seasons (2011-2015) at FIU appearing 35 career games where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in liberal studies. He later received his master of liberal arts from LSU in 2022.”

After quite a few years in various lower assistant and graduate assistant roles, Brandon Taylor is finally breaking out of the cage and spreading his wings to take on a bigger role at a bit of a smaller school than he’s typically worked with.

However, there’s ample opportunity to rise fast at West Georgia, since they are just starting as a D1 program this season. If he performs well in this new gig in SEC country, there’s reason to think he could be right back in the league as a special teams coordinator or assistant of some kind on down the line.