He's taken a few years off and there's been two regime changes since he last published weekly. This was such a reset that I almost consider it a pilot episode. Give him some time to develop new characters and find the right balance.
@TheNewNU is right that the Pelini years will likely never be matched. He had a goldmine of outrageous characters (in real life) to work with and it all came together beautifully. This staff has their **** together, which is great for real-life football, but not so much for comedy.
The heavy use of Taylor makes sense with the Martinez connection, the fact that Adrian was just named the starter and we lost Gebbia, a heralded Cali QB, at the same time. It was topical, in a sense.
Now if every week becomes a new excuse to trot Taylor out, that will be another story. But I really don't think he'll go that way.