Disciplined, fast are two traits of new Marble Falls football defense

CAPTION: Defensive coordinator Taylor Wolfe has been leading a tackling drill during the skills training after strength and conditioning ends. Staff photos by Jennifer Fierro

When the Marble Falls Independent School District football program went on the hunt for a new defensive coordinator, head coach Keri Timmerman had a list of qualities, philosophies and other traits he wanted to see in that individual.

Top of the list is stopping the run.

So when Timmerman offered the position to Taylor Wolfe, who spent the last two years at China Spring High School as its defensive coordinator, fans can easily conclude that the new hire shares the head coach’s viewpoint stopping the run.

But what else will a Wolfe defense do?

“The first thing for me is discipline,” he said. “You have to be disciplined because all 11 of (the defensive players) are gonna have a job to do, and their eyes are going to be somewhere pre-snap; they have to be disciplined enough to put their eyes there on what we call a key to tell them what to do. And as soon as that key tells me what to do, I’m playing as fast as humanly possible and I’m getting to the ball. Those are my main two things, because if you’re a disciplined unit — whether it be offense, special teams or defense and that’s what brought me and coach Timmerman because he preaches discipline so much — if you’re disciplined and you can execute your job and keep it simple for the kids, they will go play fast. And if you’re playing fast and you’re disciplined, you’re in really good shape. I think that’s the biggest compliment you can get. When you play somebody on Friday night and postgame, you shake the other coaches’ hands and they say, ‘Man, your defense is disciplined, they played hard,’ I think that’s the biggest compliment a coach can get. And that’s as big a compliment kids can get.”

Wolfe said that when he and his wife, Corinne, began thinking about making a move, they created a list of what they wanted to find in their next spot. For the defensive coordinator, it was an atmosphere that was all about family – activities they could do away from the field house and a place where his children could come and be apart of the program on campus.

“This is a place where my kids can be involved in the athletic program,” he said. “I call them field house rats. They can come hang out, watch workouts and be around the kids, be around the staff and the program. Coach Timmerman’s vision matched my vision. Do we think a lot alike? Can I see myself working for them? And can I be an extension of him or her and do that?”

Professionally, Wolfe wanted to join a staff that has the traits that are building blocks for success.

“I’m looking for a place that just has everything I’ve always talked about – the toughness, the honor, the serving, the discipline and then put that all together and go out and help build that,” he said. “Marble Falls checked every box. There were a couple of different opportunities, I talked to some other schools. And then my wife and I sat down, and I think it was a no-brainer. We felt called to come down here and work with coach Timmerman and get this thing going.”

Those building blocks existed in China Spring that has an athletic department used to each of his sports advancing to the playoffs every year. And Wolfe emphasized he believes Marble Falls is a place that can do that, too.

“I think the fun thing about coming to Marble Falls is we can create that exact same thing,” he said. “It takes time and it takes years and years, but you can set some roots to where these little Mustangs now come to games, they see how we act, they see how we play well, then they go to junior high, they start playing like us. They follow the standards and by the time they’re in high school, they know the expectation, they know the standard. And they know the type of football we need to play around here.”