Jan. 27, 2007

University of Tennessee Assistant Head Football Coach Trooper Taylor announced Saturday he has removed his name from consideration for the head football coach position at Howard University.

"I have chosen to remove my name from consideration as the head football coach at Howard University. I appreciate them contacting me. It is

"I am extremely excited about what we are doing here at Tennessee, and my family and I love and respect Coach Fulmer, our staff and the city of Knoxville. I really appreciate the support I have received from our fans and our players that wanted me to stay. We are having a great recruiting year to go along with an outstanding group of young men returning to our team, and I look forward to being a part of that for a long time."

The Cuero, Texas-native joined the Tennessee football staff in 2004 as running backs coach. He accepted the position of assistant head coach for player development in 2005, and began coaching wide receivers for the 2006 season.

"I am pleased that Trooper will remain with us. Trooper is an outstanding coach and recruiter, and he, Evi, Blaise and Starr are very special to us," said Fulmer.

"Almost every year some of our coaches are contacted by other universities or the NFL. Sometimes it becomes public, other times it does not. When you have good people, that is going to happen. We have good people in our organization, and it is important to keep them when we can. I appreciate our administrations support and look forward to a great year ahead."