Taylor is armed and dangerous

[formerfan]

From: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=38&u_sid=1472850

 

LINCOLN - Just hours after his record performance in the Nebraska spring game, in a moment of real understanding about what he is and isn't as a football player, Zac Taylor turned to his father as they walked the Haymarket streets.

 

Zac Taylor has come out of nowhere to start preseason camp Thursday as the Huskers' No. 1 quarterback.

 

NU fans passed by, unaware that the dark-haired, clean-cut new kid in town was the star earlier in the day and their quarterback of the near future.

 

"He said, 'If I put on a baseball cap and walk down the street, nobody would know who I am,'" Sherwood Taylor said. "He won't win the bench-press contest, or 40-yard-dash contest, or any of those."

 

Zac Taylor has never been one to knock anybody's socks off on first impression. His statistics and recruiting ratings and physical measurements haven't raised eyebrows.

 

Inevitably, however, the same thing seems to happen everywhere Taylor stops: He grows on people.

 

"I still think his greatest strength is the kind of moxie the kid has," said Troy Calhoun, former offensive coordinator at Wake Forest. "You could sit there and go on and on about the things he has that you can't measure."

 

Outside of certain circles, some would say Taylor has come out of nowhere to start preseason camp Thursday as the Huskers' No. 1 quarterback. But others who know the junior-to-be aren't surprised by what he's on the verge of doing.

 

Call Aaron Flores, the offensive coordinator at Butler County (Kan.) Community College, where Taylor played last season.

 

"He wasn't a guy who all of a sudden had success because he's lucky," Flores said. "He worked for everything he got down here."

 

Or ask Calhoun, who recruited Taylor to Wake Forest, where Taylor redshirted in 2002 before playing sparingly in 2003.

 

"You could see, certainly, that football meant a lot to him," said Calhoun, now assistant to the head coach with the Denver Broncos. "You could just see a kid who down the road would really develop, because of how hard he worked and how hard he studied it."

 

Or pick the brain of Butch Peters, who watched Taylor break passing records at Norman (Okla.) High School.

 

"I probably gave him more latitude as a quarterback than any kid I've coached," Peters said. "Some high school kids, you can't trust them. But Zac you always could. That started as a sophomore."

 

Taylor doesn't have Matt Leinart's golden left arm, Vince Young's feet, Brad Smith's starting experience or Chad Henne's growing press clippings. He won't look like Superman in a Husker uniform when NU opens its season Sept. 3 against Maine.

 

All he'll do, his former coaches said, is throw the ball where it needs to be, never get rattled and be the brains behind your offense.

 

"It's just when you look at him . . ." Peters said, pausing as he tried to describe the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder. "In high school, he had the height, but he was a string-bean kid. Recruiting (interest) was very lukewarm, I think, primarily because of his physical build.

 

"I was just at our state high school coaches convention, and a guy from Tulsa was saying when you first watch him on film, you're not that impressed. But then the more you watch, you start to see the accuracy and intangibles."

 

Taylor's career has developed almost as slowly as his body. As he struggled to fill out, he just kept following his father's emphasis on proper throwing mechanics and doing things the right way.

 

He broke modest records at Norman High because the school didn't throw the football much until his junior year. Taylor was all-district but not all-state, and Oklahoma wasn't offering a scholarship even though Taylor was in the Sooners' backyard and his father was good friends with OU quarterbacks coach Chuck Long.

 

"Having been in the business, I understand," said Sherwood Taylor, a former Kansas State assistant coach who played at OU. "It's your job, and if you make a wrong decision about a player, you might lose that job."

 

Colorado offered a scholarship to Zac Taylor - but also made offers to five other quarterbacks. Taylor committed to Oklahoma State, then worried how much the Cowboys might throw the football.

 

After changing his mind, he arrived at Wake Forest with little fanfare. The local news media cared little about Demon Deacons football, and Taylor wasn't some five-star recruit stolen from an ACC rival.

 

"There was some intrigue, I think, just because we were bringing somebody from a good distance away," Calhoun said. "But I wouldn't say it had people with their eyes wide open or anything, either."

 

Calhoun left after Taylor's redshirt year, and Wake Forest altered its offensive focus. After a backup season in 2003, Taylor gambled and headed for Butler County.

 

Again, without much hoopla. That's usually not surprising for those who land in the junior college ranks on the Kansas plains.

 

"We weren't sure exactly what we were going to get," Flores said. "His dad had come to our place and then Coffeyville. Really, we had only talked to Zac on the phone, so what he was going to do on the field was kind of a blind shot.

 

"One thing I remember is that the first day he got here we had some other guys in, and after meeting with him - and being so impressed - we hurried him over to those recruits to talk with them."

 

Taylor threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 29 touchdowns as Butler County advanced to the 2004 junior college national championship game. Still, his best options were Marshall, Memphis, Troy State and North Texas - until Nebraska called.

 

That started some of the first real attention for Taylor. NU already had a commitment from high school star Harrison Beck - and had said it was done recruiting quarterbacks. And 2004 starter Joe Dailey was only a sophomore.

 

Then people wanted to know more about Taylor as he joined the Huskers for spring practice and supplanted Dailey. A crowd of 63,416 at the spring game got its first good look as he passed for 357 first-half yards and three TDs.

 

"It's kind of in the eyes of the beholder a little bit with him, as far as what you're seeing and trying to evaluate," Calhoun said. "Through time, and with the way he worked, I just knew he could be a quality college quarterback. It's not surprising one bit when you know the kid."

 

But, really, is Nebraska taking a chance as it gives Taylor the keys to its offense? Or did everybody else just miss out, looking instead for a quarterback with more size or a stronger arm or better speed?

 

At times it's been frustrating for Sherwood Taylor, who taught his son to throw the football in the yard and coached him in elementary school.

 

"I always said if he ever grows physically, he could be really good," he said. "I always believed, and it's starting to come to fruition, that he throws the ball better than a lot of people I've seen."

 

Peters, Taylor's high school coach, also wondered why people didn't always see what he was seeing.

 

"Maybe I was too close to the situation, but I knew what the talent level was," Peters said. "I've been doing this 32 years, and he's the best I've seen in Oklahoma high school games."