Who is Taylor Polk, Tulane's new Defensive Coordinator?

BY JAKE WEINSTOCK

New Green Wave head coach Will Hall has promoted Taylor Polk to defensive coordinator, following a two-year tenure as the linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator, here at Tulane. So, what do we know about Polk, who turns 31 years old, next week?

For starters, he played at Ole Miss from 2013-2017 and appeared in every single game from 2014-2017. After graduating and exhausting his eligibility, Polk spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons as a graduate assistant with the Rebels, which was where he first overlapped with Jon Sumrall (who spent one season as a defensive assistant in Oxford, in 2018).

Polk's first full-time assistant position came the next year, at Central Arkansas, where he coached outside linebackers in 2020 and then led the linebackers group in 2021. It was at that point that Sumrall got the Troy job, and came calling. Polk spent 2022 as the inside linebackers coach for the Trojans, working under Sumrall and then Troy-defensive coordinator Shiel Wood (who held the same position at Tulane in 2023, then at Houston in 2024, and now at Texas Tech, who of course is in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal on Thursday night).

After Wood departed for Tulane, following 2022, Greg Gasparato was hired to coordinate the Trojans defense and Polk was promoted to co-defensive coordinator, with Gasparato. Those of course were the same roles that the two men then spent 2024 and 2025 working in, but at Tulane.

Now Polk, considered a rising star in the industry, gets his turn to run a defense, following years of experiences working for Sumrall, Gasparato, Wood, Matt Kitchens, Wesley McGriff, and Mike MacIntyre. Polk has been described as fiery, intense, but relatable to players, who are naturally drawn to him.

In 2024, prior to Will Hall's return to Tulane, I asked someone who was then a Green Wave staff member how many future head coaches were on Jon Sumrall's staff, during his first season at Tulane.

The response?

"Well, at least one; Polk."