A former National Championship-winning player and assistant coach, Mike Taylor is in his first season as an assistant coach with UT Arlington. He was officially hired on July 15, 2022.
Taylor – who won a National Championship as an assistant coach at Rice and as a player at San Jacinto College – spent the seven previous seasons at Baylor, serving as the hitting and third base coach for the Bears.
In 21 seasons at the D-I level as an assistant coach, Taylor’s teams have appeared in 17 regionals, nine super regionals and made the trek to Omaha as part of the College World Series five times. He won the 2003 National Championship while at Rice, and in total his clubs have won 15 conference tournament or regular season championships.
Taylor had served as Baylor’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 2016-22, developing the Bears’ hitters and outfielders. Under his tutelage, BU led the Big 12 in team batting average in both 2019 (.310) and 2021 (.302); the 2019 club ranked 9th nationally, while the 2021 squad was 16th.
In 2018, Baylor claimed its first Big 12 Tournament Championship in program history and advanced to the Stanford Regional – one of three-straight regional trips for the Bears as they also made NCAA postseason play in 2017 and 2019. All told during his tenure in Waco, Taylor coached 18 MLB Draft picks, including three First Round selections.
Serving the 2014 and 2015 seasons as the hitting, catching and third base coach for Houston, Taylor helped the Cougars to a pair of 40-win seasons, the 2015 American Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship, 2014 AAC Tournament Championship, two regionals and one Super Regional. The 2014 squad posted a 48-18 record, tying for the most victories in a single season in program history.
He developed 13 players who were selected in the 2014 and 2015 MLB drafts, three ABCA all-region batters and eight all-AAC hitters. Over the two seasons, the UH offense averaged 5.4 runs per game, hit .272 and blasted 61 home runs with 574 walks in 129 games.
Before joining Houston, Taylor was an assistant coach at Rice for 12 seasons from 2001-12 under legendary head coach Wayne Graham, after which Van Hook replaced him on the Owls’ staff from 2012-17. Taylor helped the Owls to 12 straight conference titles, 12 consecutive regionals, eight supers and five CWS appearances between 2002-08.
He coached 92 Rice players who were chosen in the MLB Draft, including third baseman Anthony Rendon as the sixth overall pick in 2011 after being named the 2010 Golden Spikes Award Winner. While at Rice, the team earned a 91 percent graduation success rate, a GPA of 3.0 or higher and produced the 2008 NCAA Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award winner.
Prior to his tenure at Rice, the Houston native spent eight seasons at the junior college level. He was an assistant coach at Galveston College for two seasons (1999-2000), going 84-34 overall, winning a conference title in 2000 and finishing ranked No. 4 nationally. He served as an assistant at Blinn College for six years (1993-98), posting a 259-103 record and helping Blinn to a pair of conference titles and a No. 3 national ranking to end the 1993 season.
As a player, Taylor was a shortstop for Graham at San Jacinto College. He helped the team to a national title as a freshman in 1987 and a national runner-up finish in 1988 before spending five seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Graham has called him “the best shortstop I’ve ever coached.”
While coaching at Blinn, Taylor completed his undergraduate degree in human performance at Prairie View A&M in 1998. He and his wife, Amy, have four daughters: Macy, Madisyn, Molly and McKinley.
