Taylor Stubblefield

Taylor Evans Stubblefield (born January 21, 1982) is a former American football wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers and St. Louis Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He left Purdue owning the most receptions in NCAA history. Stubblefield is currently a wide receivers coach at Wake Forest. A three-sport athlete at A.C. Davis High School, Stubblefield committed to the Purdue University to play football for the Boilermakers. In his collegiate debut in 2001, he had five receptions for 65 yards. He led the team in receptions and was named to the All-Freshman Big Ten team by Sporting News. Stubblefield fractured his skull following his red-shirt freshman season, but he did not miss a game and was fully recovered by the time the 2002 season came around. During his sophomore season, he finished with 77 receptions for 789 yards, but didn't record a touchdown catch. As a junior in 2003, Stubblefield earned second-team All-Big Ten honors at the conclusion of the season. In the 2001 Sun Bowl, he had nine catches for a Sun Bowl-record 196 yards. During the 2004 season, Stubblefield was a Biletnikoff Award finalist and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors. He finished his college career with an NCAA record of 325 receptions (that was broken in 2011), 3,629 yards and 27 touchdowns.

Despite his college success, Stubblefield was not selected in 2005 NFL Draft. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Carolina Panthers, but failed to make the team as a wide receiver or return man. Stubblefield then signed with the Hamilton Tiger-cats of the Canadian Football League. During the 2006 season, he was invited to training camp with the St. Louis Rams, but once again didn't make the team. He was re-signed by the Tiger-cats, but he never recorded any statistics while he was on the team.

When the 2007 season came around, Stubblefield hung up his cleats and returned to his home state of Washington, where he was named the wide receivers coach for Central Washington University. The following season he took the same position with Eastern Michigan, while also working towards his master's degree. For the 2009 and 2010 seasons, he was asked by former Purdue Defense Coordinator Brock Spack to take the wide receivers coaching position at Illinois State. For the Redbirds, Stubblefield coached Eyad Salem, who broke the school's single-season receptions record (92 catches) and twice tied the single-game receptions record with back-to-back 14-catch efforts. Salem was an All-MVFC first-team selection. The next year he took a job with Central Michigan as their wide receivers coach.

Early years
Stubblefield was born in Yakima, Washington. He graduated from A. C. Davis High School in Yakima, where he was a member of the football, basketball and track and field teams. For football, he set school records with 123 receptions, 1,900 receiving yards and 21 touchdowns. He also had the school record for receiving yards and receiving touchdowns in a single game, which was broken in 2011. He was named First Team All-State. He also led the basketball team to the state tournament three times, earning fifth and eighth place trophies.

College career
Stubblefield attended Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he played under head coach Joe Tiller. He played alongside current NFL player Kyle Orton, and consensus All-American kicker-punter Travis Dorsch. As a redshirt freshman he led the Boilermakers with 73 receptions. In the 2001 Sun Bowl against Washington State, he tied a Sun Bowl record of nine receptions, and set a record with 196 receiving yards. He also scored two touchdowns and recorded a bowl record with a 244 all-purpose yards. He helped lead the Boilermakers to a second straight Sun Bowl appearance in 2002. As a junior in 2003, Stubblefield led the Big Ten Conference with 86 receptions. He totaled 835 yards and three touchdowns. He was a Second Team All-Big Ten selection.

Stubblefield was named a First Team All-Big Ten selection his senior year (2004), in which he caught 89 passes with 1,095 yards receiving and scored 16 touchdowns, third-most in the nation. He became the first player to lead the conference in receptions two seasons in a row since Ohio State's David Boston in 1998. The All-American participated in the East-West Shrine All-Star Game, where he had seven receptions for 128 yards and scored two touchdowns, while throwing a pass that led to the first touchdown. He became the first consensus All-American receiver for Purdue since Bernie Flowers in 1952 and earned First Team-All Big Ten honors.

With career totals of 3,629 yards and 21 touchdowns, Stubblefield ranked as the all-time NCAA receptions leader with 325 in his college career (until it was broken by Ryan Broyles of the University of Oklahoma on October 15, 2011). His teammate, John Standeford, had set the Big Ten Conference record with 266 receptions in 2003. Stubblefield was named to the Sun Bowl's 75th anniversary team.

Statistics
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 * Numbers in bold are Purdue school records

Carolina Panthers
Stubblefield went undrafted by the NFL after his successful college career. He was signed as a free agent by the Carolina Panthers on April 26, 2005.

Hamilton Tiger-cats
He played during the 2005 season with the Hamilton Tiger-cats in the Canadian Football League.

St. Louis Rams
On January 6, 2006, Stubblefield was signed to the St. Louis Rams.

Return to the Hamilton Tiger-cats
Stubblefield returned to the Tiger-cats on March 6, 2007.

Central Washington
After a brief stint playing at the professional level, Stubblefield returned to his home state of Washington, where he served as a wide receiver coach for the Wildcats at Central Washington University, an NCAA division II program.

Eastern Michigan
After just one season with Central Washington, Stubblefield joined the Eastern Michigan staff to become an assistant coach under head coach, Jeff Genyk.

Illinois State
After Genyk was replaced by Ron English, Stubblefield moved on to Illinois State to be an assistant and wide receiver coach. He joined head coach Brock Spack, who was a former defensive coordinator at Purdue.

Central Michigan
On February 18, 2011, Central Michigan announced the addition of Stubblefield as their wide receivers coach.