How Purdue shaped Penn States Taylor Stubblefield: I always thought he could be a star

Bob DeBesse still remembers the route like it was yesterday. Standing on Purdue’s practice field with offensive coordinator Jim Chaney next to him, his eyes were fixated on Taylor Stubblefield.

When it came to putting his foot in the ground and changing directions, Stubblefield was exceptional. Chaney and DeBesse, who was the receivers coach on Joe Tiller’s staff, knew Stubblefield wasn’t going to blister past defenses with straight-line speed. If they lined up a bunch of FBS receivers next to him, Stubblefield wouldn’t crush the eye test, either.

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“He’s not somebody you’d pick out of the lineup and say, ‘When this guy exits college, he’s going to be the all-time leading receiver in the history of the NCAA,’” DeBesse said. “He wasn’t super fast, by any means. Quick as could be in and out of breaks, but he wasn’t super-duper fast. But man, did he know how to work routes.”

Stubblefield’s movements were convincing, and his knowledge of coverages and opponents’ tendencies was so vast that DeBesse said he needed to watch even more film to keep up with his receiver.

The 2023 @cfbhall ballot got us thinking about Taylor Stubblefield's gigantic 2004 day at Illinois.@CoachStubbs // @BoilerFootball pic.twitter.com/Pb1I72s6O2

— Purdue On BTN (@PurdueOnBTN) June 6, 2022

Out on the practice field, Stubblefield started in, stuck his foot down and burst back outside. Suddenly, something clicked for Chaney.

“The pivot route, that was one of Taylor’s big-time routes,” DeBesse said. “We’re working the pivot route and then Jim stops and says, ‘Hey, Taylor, instead of running pivot, act like you’re gonna run pivot, but then continue across on your shallow drag route.’ We called it ‘stutter.’ Taylor did it and we all looked at each other and Jim looked at me and I looked at Jim and we both were kind of like, ‘Wow. That looked pretty dang good. That could be dangerous.’”

They were right. Countless big plays during the Tiller era from Kyle Orton to Stubblefield were generated off that stutter route. DeBesse took it with him every place he’s coached. Stubblefield, now in his third season as Penn State’s receivers coach, has since put variations of stutter in for the Nittany Lions, who open their season against the Boilermakers on Thursday night in West Lafayette.

“We have some of them that will be in the game plan as well,” Stubblefield said with a smile. “You’ve seen it grow throughout the years with some of the routes that we were doing. That was a fun route, though. It helped me get open a little bit.”

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This week for Stubblefield is all about beating Purdue. But there’s also the reality that returning to his alma mater is special. During his prolific playing career at Purdue from 2001-04, he set numerous records. He finished his career with a then-FBS-record 325 receptions and still ranks second in Big Ten history with 3,629 yards. At the place known as the “cradle of quarterbacks,” Stubblefield twice led the Big Ten in receptions. He also holds the Purdue record for receiving touchdowns in a season with 16. In June, he was placed on the ballot for the 2023 College Football Hall of Fame vote.

Stubblefield’s return to Purdue is a reminder of what the people there meant to him, including Orton, who shared countless nights poring over the game plan with Chaney and Stubblefield alongside him.

“Kyle and I had just the relationship of just a mutual respect,” Stubblefield said. “In some games when he got sacked pretty hard, there were certain times you could tell that I needed to just have a quick conversation say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna get open for you, trust it,’ or, ‘Hey, shake it off,’ or whatever. And he listened. I listened to him and it was the kind of relationship that you want to have with the quarterback and receiver.”

Former Texas A&M and Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin, who recruited Stubblefield to Purdue, is one of his mentors. So too is DeBesse, who accompanied his All-America receiver to the Biletnikoff Award ceremony in 2004. DeBesse later served as a groomsman in Stubblefield’s wedding.

“It was one of the neatest honors for me as a coach,” said DeBesse, who is now 62 and most recently served as Georgia Southern’s offensive coordinator through 2020. “I brought the age up of the wedding party. It was a bunch of young guys and me.”

Despite his prolific college success, Stubblefield went undrafted in 2005. His playing career ended in 2007 after stints with the Carolina Panthers, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and St. Louis Rams, and he transitioned into life as a mortgage broker. DeBesse marveled at how someone with Stubblefield’s love of football and smarts for the game was away from it, but he always believed his former receiver would work his way back to the sport.

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Stubblefield felt he was either going to do something in business or head back to football, too.

“I always thought he could be a star,” DeBesse said. “I always thought he could be a difference-maker as a coach — and not just because of the football knowledge, but from a recruiting standpoint he’s such a great personality. I knew he’d be able to relate to kids and be good with families and moms and things like that.”

Stubblefield said being a mortgage broker pushed him outside his comfort zone. Sales is like recruiting in a way. Stubblefield would know, as he joins cornerbacks coach Terry Smith as Penn State’s recruiting coordinators. Back then, Stubblefield had to make calls and reassure clients he cared about their business and that he’d do right by them. For a year and a half, he tried it out while starting to dip his toe into coaching at Central Washington. The housing market crash in 2008 helped propel Stubblefield into coaching on a full-time basis.

He was a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan in 2008. He made stops at Illinois State, Central Michigan, New Mexico, Wake Forest, Utah, the Toronto Argonauts, Air Force and Miami, none for more than two seasons, before he landed at Penn State, which marked his 11th coaching gig in 14 years. DeBesse was the offensive coordinator on Bob Davie’s staff at New Mexico when he told Davie he’d really like to bring in Stubblefield as his receivers coach in 2012.

“Unfortunately he was only with us a year because Wake Forest came calling,” DeBesse said. “Taylor was famous in the coaching profession because he coached at so many schools in like so few years. … It’s good to see him settle down and be in a great place, but a lot of those moves were made because he was moving up the ladder. The word got out as far as his reputation.”

The start of the 2022 season will mark the longest Stubblefield has been on one coaching staff, as he’s never before coached a third season at one school. On the day James Franklin introduced Stubblefield, he mentioned the new receivers coach needing stability — at the time, Penn State’s receivers room needed the same. Stubblefield has provided it, and a position group that was a question mark when Stubblefield arrived has turned into one of the team’s strengths.

It’s expected to continue to be one despite the loss of first-round pick Jahan Dotson. Stubblefield formed quick bonds with the latest crop, from scribbling down routes on a napkin during his first meeting with Parker Washington to showing up to Mitchell Tinsley’s girlfriend’s place last winter to visit with the Western Kentucky transfer, who figures to be featured in this offense, too.

Stubblefield has bolstered his resume at Penn State, and there’s no missing him when the team is on the practice field. He was a passionate player, remembered in part at Purdue for early fist pumps as he scored a 97-yard touchdown against Notre Dame. Sometimes those passionate moments reappear now.

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“We’ve got a trash-talking staff when it comes to talking at each other,” said quarterback Sean Clifford. “Coach Stubbs is always gonna make sure he’s getting the best out of us, and at the same time when we make a play, he’s definitely going to be hyping us up and coming with the juice.”

Stubblefield knows better than most that being a wide receiver is as much about having the right tools as it is knowing when to use them. He mastered that last part as a player. Now, it’s about getting those in the Nittany Lions’ receiving corps to take that to heart.

“What you’re seeing as a coach, that’s what he was as a player,” DeBesse said. “I mean, he was energetic. He was always talking noise. He was always competing. Always, always, always competed. And, he usually won too.”

(Top photo: Getty Images)

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