Our Team

Gary Howard

Director of Scouting
Western Region & Texas

Coach Howard joined the National Preps team and is the Director of Scouting for the Western Region & Texas. NP’s national network of scouts works for over 270+ College Football programs providing evaluations on over 30,000 potential college football athletes serving as the backbone of today’s college football recruiting world. Gary is also the director of the National Preps Collegiate Showcases.

Coach Howard is a 15-year high school coaching veteran. Following a successful coaching career in the SF Bay Area, Howard owned and operated one of the nation’s top recruiting companies NorCal Football Scouting. XOS Digital/Catapult acquired NorCal Scouting and appointed Coach Howard as the VP/GM of its National Recruiting & Scouting Division.

Howard led the XOS Digital national scouting team for almost a decade working directly with over 150 universities across the country to help them locate, identify, and evaluate the nation’s top high school and junior college football prospects.

As a 20-year scout coach, Gary is an industry veteran who has years of experience working with the NCAA. He has worked in partnership with many events including, The Opening, the Elite 11, ESPN, Fox Sports, Pylon 7v7, and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. He has served on the selection teams of the US Army All American Bowl on NBC and the Under Armour All-American Game on ESPN. Howard is also the Director of the National Combine at The NFL Pro Bowl every year.

Gary entered the scouting world while working as a TV Football analyst for Comcast Sports & later CBS Sports Network.

Trent Herzog

Western Region Scout

Trent has over 30 years of football experience as a player, coach, and scout. Prior to joining National Preps in 2017, Trent oversaw scouting in Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington for XOS Digital for 4 years. Prior to working at XOS Digital Trent spent some time working for CaliPreps
scouting Northern California.
Coach Herzog has 26 years of high school football coaching experience and in those 26 years Trent has developed friendships and relationships with some of the top coaches and programs in the nation. Trent has been part of 13 championship teams in his 26 years of coaching, as a head coach his teams went 24-6 and won 3 league titles. As a Varsity head coach, his teams have gone 88 and 42 and won 3 Championships. Trent has been part of 26 teams as a head coach or defensive coordinator that have won 13 championships, 23 playoff appearances, and have an overall record of 202 wins, 90 losses, and 2 ties.
Trent’s awards include being named the SCL Coach of The Year 2010, NBL &
Redwood Empire Coach of The Year 2013, Max Preps Northern California Coach of The Year 2013, Petaluma People’s Choice coach of the year 2016-2017-2018-2019. He was awarded a proclamation from the city of Petaluma, county of Sonoma, and the state of California in 2013. Trent has coached at numerous college camps over the years (Alabama, Cal, USC, Washington, Sacramento State) Under coach Herzog’s leadership 19 players have earned a full Division 1 scholarship. He also has 60 more
players who receive college scholarships including Elijah Qualls (University Washington) Elijah was selected in the 2017 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Herzog has also spent time on the selection committee for the Army All-American Bowl

Jordan Reyes

Western Region Scout

Jordan Reyes began his scouting career right out of high school as a Scouting Associate for Norcal Football Scouting in 2008. From there, he went onto the University of Colorado Boulder to work in their football and recruiting offices while obtaining his bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2012. Since then, he has worked as Player Analyst and Scout for the college market, first with XOS Digital for five years, and has since been with National Preps beginning in 2017.

Throughout his career, he has scouted areas all over the western region and Texas. In addition to his 12 years of scouting experience, he has also spent five years as a coordinator and WR/DB coach for one of the top high school football programs in Northern California.

Randy Taylor

Southern California Scout

Randy Taylor has over 35 years’ experience in the college football recruiting arena. Coach Taylor graduated from the University of Illinois, was a 3-year letterman, and received post-season awards from the Big Ten and the Blue-Gray All-Star Game. Following his collegiate career, he went on to join the football staff for the Fighting Illini, which included a Big Ten Championship and a very long-awaited Rose Bowl appearance. He then continued his success developing and coordinating recruiting for UNLV.

Taylor’s greatest success as part of a football staff came while serving at UCLA. After landing several nationally ranked classes (including the top spot – #1 in the country), His success was well noted, including being named the nation’s top recruiting coordinator by ESPN.com. Between stints at other Division 1 program – (San Jose, Minnesota) and continues today, Taylor provides college coaches valuable evaluations on prospects, essential for success in the recruiting process. Coach Taylor is trusted and respected by college and high school coaches alike.

In addition, Taylor also has been a major contributor to FOX Sports/Scout.com and is a frequent guest on Tom Lemming’s CBS’ The Lemming Report. Coach brings a unique take on prospects, coaches, and the recruiting process. Come “Signing Day” (first Wednesday in February), he is always the “go-to” for media outlets across the country. Taylor’s background, connections, and expert analysis make him the perfect source for the vast national college football fans to discover who will be joining their roster in the fall, their prep accomplishments, and the expected contribution he’ll make to their home team.

As a long-time recruiting expert, Taylor has ranked the top college football prospects for a variety of publications, has co-hosted a recruiting show, and teaches a recruiting class for high school coaches, athletes and families.

Randy and his wife Kristine have been married since 1977 after meeting at the University of Illinois.

Jordan Johnson

Pacific Northwest Scout

Jordan has been active in the high school & collegiate football world for the last decade, initially starting his career at Rivals in 2010-11.

He is currently a regional scout for NationalPreps.com representing the states of Oregon and Washington. Johnson was an all-conference athlete at Beaverton High school on the football and baseball field, before graduating from Portland State University in 2004.

Brad Turner

Texas Regional Scout

Coach Brad Turner has been the Texas/Oklahoma Director of Scouting for National Preps for the last 3 years. He joined the NP team after a highly successful coaching career in the State of Texas. He has 30 years of coaching experience in Texas High School football including 21 as a Head Football Coach and Athletic Director.

Prior to Coaching, Brad was a graduate of Weatherford High School where he was a letterman in football and baseball. He attended Texas Arlington, played football for the legendary Coach Chuck Curtis and received a BA degree in PE. He also holds a MA degree from Texas A&M Commerce in PE/Health and Recreation.

Brad started his coaching career with assistant jobs in Weatherford, Forney, and Graham where he was a part of 7 playoff teams and an 89-12 record as an offensive coordinator/varsity coach.  As a head coach, Coach Turner has an overall record of 118-89 including 15 state playoff appearances in Lone Oak, Sulphur Springs, Springtown, and Northwest Eaton.

Coach Turner is a 5-time Coach of the year, 2-time all-star coach, speaker at numerous clinics, elected to the THSCA board of directors, and has sent some 75+ kids to play football at the next level.

Brad has been married to his wife Paula for 34 years and they have 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

Taylor Mitchell

Pacific Northwest Scout

Taylor played collegiately at Humboldt State University in Northern California and then went on to coach at several schools including at his alma mater as the Linebackers Coach and also worked as a Recruiting Specialist at the University of Washington.

He has been with National Preps now for over three years and helps with covering the Pacific Northwest. He currently coaches at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, WA where he is the Associate Head Coach.