Football
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Tight Ends
- Email:
- jean.onaga@colorado.edu
- Phone:
- 303-492-3214
Taylor Embree was named tight ends coach at Colorado on March 1, 2020, joining the inaugural staff hired by the school’s new head coach, Karl Dorrell.
Embree, 31, spent the four years prior to coming to CU in the National Football League. He began his professional coaching career with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2016 as a defensive assistant, and was an offensive quality control coach for three years (2017-19) under Kyle Shanahan for the San Francisco 49ers, the ’19 NFC champions (who ironically lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs). At the 49ers, he also worked with the tight ends and receivers, including All-Pro and 1,000-yard tight end George Kittle.
At Kansas City under head coach Andy Reid, he worked with the Chiefs defense that led the NFL with 104 passes defensed and tied for the most interceptions (18). The team won its first AFC West Division title in six years and posted its best record (12-4) in 13 years.
His first taste of the coaching profession came as a graduate assistant working with the offense at Nevada-Las Vegas under coach Bobby Hauck in 2012; he was well connected to Hauck who coached at Colorado with his father under Rick Neuheisel from 1995-98. He would then return to his alma mater for two-plus years as a grad assistant under Jim Mora, Jr., working with the defense in 2013 and the offense in 2014. The Bruins went 10-3 in 2013 and were the Sun Bowl champions with a 42-12 win over Virginia Tech and repeated that record the following year and won a wild Alamo Bowl over Kansas State, 40-35.
A 2012 graduate of UCLA, he played in 50 games (starting 32) for the Bruins from 2008-11; he set a UCLA record for the most receptions by a true freshman and led the team in receiving as a sophomore and junior. He made 137 career receptions for 1,776 yards with four touchdowns, averaging 13.0 yards per catch; he is still 11th on the Bruins all-time receptions list (eighth at the time of his graduation). He signed as a free agent with the San Diego Chargers and participated in their training camp in the summer of 2013 and started his coaching endeavors with UCLA as a graduate assistant for the offense in 2014 and 2015.
He was born October 3, 1988 in Denver, and graduated from Blue Valley West High School (Overland Park, Kan.), where he was an All-District performer in both football and basketball. His hobbies including golf and skiing when he can, movies, watching the NBA, spending time with his family and enjoying Colorado’s mountains. He is the oldest son of Jon Embree, who lettered four years at tight end for the Buffs (1983-86), was a CU assistant coach for 10 years (1993-2002) and head coach for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The elder Embree is the assistant head coach and tight ends coach for the 49ers; his younger brother, Connor, is a defensive assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs (former Buff Eric Bieniemy, Kansas City’s offensive coordinator, dubbed Super bowl LIV the “Embree Bowl” with family members on the staff of both teams). He is married Kristina Madsen and the couple have two children, son Grayson (2) and daughter Peri (born this past January).
AT-A-GLANCE—He will be coaching in his first college games this fall as a full-time coach. He coached in 68 NFL games (San Francisco 51, including three playoff and Super Bowl LIV, Kansas City 17, including one postseason).
COACHING EXPERIENCE
| 2012 | Nevada-Las Vegas | Graduate Assistant (Offense) |
| 2013 | UCLA | Graduate Assistant (Defense) |
| 2014-15 | UCLA | Graduate Assistant (Offense) |
| 2016 | Kansas City (NFL) | Defensive Assistant |
| 2017-19 | San Francisco (NFL) | Quality Control (Offense) |
| 2020 | Colorado | Tight Ends |
