Bio

Aaron Mingo is in his fourth year as the head coach of the Taylor football program, after becoming the 14th head coach in program history in May of 2021.

The first year of the Mingo Era in Upland brought several highlights, with the Trojans leading all NCAA and NAIA football programs with 15 CoSIDA Academic All-District awards and topping all NAIA football programs with four CoSIDA Academic All-American honors. TU also led all MSFA teams in Academic All-MSFA accolades and claimed five All-MSFA nods.

On the field, Mingo’s squad put up 42 points in a season-opening win at Judson and secured the program’s most lopsided win since 1963 with a 63-0 onslaught at Madonna. Along the way, the Trojans averaged 22.1 points and 180.4 rushing yards per game, marking the best totals for the program in scoring since 2018 and its best rushing average in nearly two decades.

Year-two of Mingo’s tenure brought more growth, as the Trojans posted their best start since 2011 and ended with the most wins in a season since 2015 with a 5-6 overall clip. TU defended its home turf well, going 4-2 inside Turner Stadium for the most home victories for the program since 2017.

The Trojans continued their academic excellence as well, notching 18 NAIA Scholar-Athlete awards, eight CSC Academic All-District honors, two CSC Academic All-American nods and 32 MSFA Academic All-League awards, while topping the 3.0 mark for team GPA once again.

Mingo brought 12 years of collegiate coaching experience at faith-based institutions with him to Taylor, having most recently served at Dordt from 2016 through 2021. Prior to his time at DU, Mingo served in the same role at Bluefield College for three seasons and as a recruiting coordinator and offensive line coach at Greenville University for four years.

Mingo came to Upland after a highly successful five-year stint at Dordt University of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, where he helped create one of the highest-rated offenses in the NAIA as the offensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator and offensive line coach.

The Dordt football program took off immediately with the arrival of Mingo, posting back-to-back five-win campaigns in 2016 and 2017 after earning just 11 total wins in the previous eight seasons.

The Defenders posted consecutive seven-win seasons and cracked the NAIA Top-25 Poll in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, before closing the 2021 spring season with an 8-3 record, a NAIA Playoff appearance and a No. 15 national ranking in the NAIA.

Under Mingo’s watch, the fast-paced Dordt offense closed the 2021 spring ranked No. 2 in the NAIA with 532.6 total yards of offense per game, No. 2 with 320.0 rushing yards per outing and No. 6 with 43.7 points per game. Those numbers led to the Defender offense finding the end zone 64 times in 11 contests.

In addition to those eye-popping statistics in his final season at DU, Mingo helped the Defenders’ offense average 37.6 points per game over his five seasons. That mark included 39.8 points per game over his last three seasons, which fueled a 22-10 overall clip and a 19-8 record in the GPAC during that span.

Those numbers led to a pile of individual honors for Mingo’s student-athletes, as the Dordt offense picked up five NAIA All-American honors and 12 First-Team All-GPAC awards in his five years with the program.

Prior to his time at Dordt, Mingo led the Bluefield offense for three seasons, helping the program to records for scoring, total offense and rushing offense.

Mingo got his coaching career started on the staff at Greenville, assisting the program to three conference championships in four years and the program’s best single-season in school history.

Mingo also attended Greenville as a student-athlete, completing a degree in criminal justice in 2008, before earning a master’s degree in teacher leadership from Greenville in 2011. During his time on the gridiron with the Panthers, Mingo was a member of the Football Servant Leadership Council and earned all-league attention in the classroom as well as on the field.

Mingo and his wife, Ashley, have one son, Gideon.