In offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone’s spread offense, the quarterback will often throw short passes to playmakers capable of gaining extra yards in the open field.
The receivers don’t land far from the quarterback, and the apples don’t fall far from the tree.
As Mazzone stood watch over his quarterbacks throwing passes, his son Taylor stood not too far away, providing his own orders.
A few yards farther away stood Gray, Taylor’s younger brother and a recent transfer from East Carolina University, in line with the receivers.
Taylor Mazzone was a graduate assistant at Arizona State while his dad was the offensive coordinator there and relocated with him to UCLA as a special teams graduate assistant.
Taylor Mazzone jokes around with his father, as most sons would. When asked whether leaving Arizona State with his dad was a difficult decision, he said the choice was easy. His dad responded with a laugh, “To tell the truth, he hates following me.”
And like a typical son, Taylor Mazzone felt the need to get the last word, quipping back, “He needed someone to babysit me.”
Noel Mazzone left Arizona State and arrived in Westwood with more than 30 years of coaching experience. In just two years in Tempe, Ariz., he turned a feeble Sun Devil offense into one of the most potent in the nation.
Recently, his resume has not only gained recognition in the realm of college football, but also in the NFL.
Players such as Tim Tebow, Christian Ponder and Philip Rivers have sought out the father and son duo for their guidance. The Mazzones also helped Brock Osweiler, who they coached at Arizona State, prepare for the NFL draft.
Noel Mazzone proudly credits Taylor Mazzone and his insight for bringing Tebow-mania to Westwood this past spring.
“(Taylor) does a great job, he’s actually the guy we talk about training all these quarterbacks. He’s the guy that does more of it than I do,” Noel said.
“All those guys, the Ponders and the Tebows, they call him and not me.”
Having played quarterback at Ole Miss and East Carolina, Taylor Mazzone brings his own wealth of experience to the table. In addition to his years playing, he said he gained much of his knowledge from shadowing his father since childhood.
“Just from age 8, going to quarterback camps with him, I learned everything from bags to fundamentals,” he said. “So it’s kind of carried on for the past 12 years of my life and it’s been a pretty fun little family business.”
Not wanting to miss out on the family side of the business, Gray Mazzone, a junior receiver, looked to join his father and brother after seeing all the time they spent together at Arizona State.
“I loved East Carolina ““ I enjoyed my time there,” Gray Mazzone said. “I just didn’t get to see too much of my dad and brother in the past couple years so I thought it’d be a great time to see them all the time and get a chance to hang out with them.”
But where Noel and Taylor Mazzone coincide ““ coaching ““ Gray Mazzone has chosen to deviate.
“Coaching is an awesome thing and I always want to be around football, but I was thinking about doing something in a different field, like marketing for football, because I see just how much time it takes out of their day and seeing it firsthand I know what it’s like,” he said.
Taylor Mazzone said he hopes to follow in the footsteps of his father, much to his mother’s chagrin.
While Mrs. Mazzone may not necessarily approve of Taylor’s career path, Noel Mazzone couldn’t be happier to have him and Gray Mazzone by his side.
“Gray wanted to come be closer to his brother, and obviously I’m out here,” Noel Mazzone said.
“When you have kids you’re only around them for so long, and they move on in the world, so this has just been an awesome experience for me to have these two guys around.”