Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a recent interview the Opelika-Auburn News had with Auburn University wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor. Part 1 ran Sunday.

In the second part of Opelika-Auburn News Auburn beat writer Andrew Gribble’s interview with Trooper Taylor, the Auburn assistant head coach/wide receivers coach discusses how his family helps on the recruiting trail, more on his recruiting philosophies and an outlook of sorts for the 2009 season.

OPELIKA-AUBURN NEWS: Earlier in the year you mentioned your wife, Evi, was hip to DeAngelo Benton’s talent. Do your kids, Blaise and Starr, help with recruiting also?
Trooper Taylor: My son does with Facebook and e-mails and Twitter and all that. He does all that. Even being able to forward pictures and stuff. He’s all over that. He’ll go on YouTube and say ‘Dad, have you seen this kid play?’ I’ll go ‘Who is that?’ and it will be one of the kids we’re already recruiting.

When players come to my house, it takes time for me to take time away from them. I may have a player at the house when it’s their birthday or when it’s a basketball game for them. I have to stop and spend time with that player because he’s in town. My kids are unselfish. They understand that. They want the guys at the house. They look at them as their big brothers. It’s special. You have to have that type of relationship because kids sometimes don’t understand why you pick them over you.

OAN: How much do you think technology has affected recruiting?
TT: Too much. Too much. I’m a relationship guy; I’m better on the phone. But you see kids committing before you ever get a chance to build a relationship by being able to read Rivals.com and whatever. It used to be where I could see five kids and nobody knew where I was until I called him. Now, before I get to the kid, that kid knows that I went to see this player first and then I’m going to see that player because of Rivals and all that.

But there are also some positives. It used to be where you had to go all these schools and get the transcripts and film and all that. You can hit one button and watch. That would usually take two months to get all that information.

OAN: What makes you a relationship guy?
TT: When I was 5 years old, my dad told me I have two ears and one mouth. You need to listen twice as much as you should talk. For me, that’s how I do it. I really take the information back from the people that are helping us recruit. So when whoever shows that guy around, I pick their brain. ‘What did he say? How did he feel about that?’ Maybe his favorite food is brownies. Maybe his nickname is Dax and everybody else is calling him Ed, and he hates Ed but he likes his nickname. Those are the types of things I try to find out.

OAN: What did it take to bring Benton here?
TT: It was tough because in that state everyone is an LSU Tiger fan. Nobody wanted him to leave out of there. The relationship that we had, at the end of the day, helped. He didn’t want to let me down. We built that relationship over the phone talking, going to see him.

I was the only coach that went into his neighborhood. Everyone else who met him wouldn’t go into his house because the neighborhood was bad. I did and I met everybody in his family. And it wasn’t even that bad to me. I told him that if I can’t come into your neighborhood, it’s going to be a hard fit here. I need to at least sit face to face with your mother and grandmother and sisters and relatives. I know Coach (Gene) Chizik was the only coach that went to his house.

OAN: Are your current receivers where you’d like them to be heading into the fall?
TT: No, not even close. We spent more times on fundamentals than on plays and stuff (in the spring). They lacked a lot of fundamentals. And that’s not a knock on the old coach. The kids are accountable, too. They should have been trying to do what they were teaching them. At the end of the day when all things are equal, the things that will separate you as a player is your fundamentals and they were lacking those, so we had to get that done.
To me, I didn’t get enough time on the X’s and O’s part on it. We’d like to put more offense in than we did. But I felt good coming out of it seeing who could play and all that deal.

OAN: How much of an opportunity will freshmen such as Benton and Emory Blake have to crack the rotation?
TT: Good chance, good chance, obviously, because of the lack of productivity. I’m hoping these guys that are here or going to take advantage of the opportunities that they got and not let these guys just take it from them. I told them I do business like a barber. When you get out the chair, I say next. I told them it’s not personal. It’s about what’s best for Auburn University.

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