Taylor has thrived as Huskers' leading man
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BY STEVEN M. SIPPLE / Lincoln Journal Star
Zac Taylor reaches an end point today with his final game at Memorial Stadium. “Amazing” is how Nebraska coach Bill Callahan describes the quarterback’s impact during his two years on campus.
“Words can’t describe it,” Callahan said as he tried to put into perspective everything Taylor has meant to the Husker program. “Players like that come around only so often.”
Hence the thunderous ovation Taylor likely will receive today as he and 18 fellow Nebraska seniors are introduced individually moments before the 23rd-ranked Huskers’ regular-season finale against Colorado.
And hence Callahan’s smile this week as he recalled the point at which Taylor essentially began his rise at Nebraska, the point at which the unassuming Oklahoman clearly took charge of the Husker offense, the point at which it began to crystallize that Callahan and company had indeed found the QB who could make this West Coast offense sing and raise the entire team to another level.
“I think he won his team that day,” said Callahan, referring to a scrimmage on April 10, 2005, a week before the Red-White Game.
Such spring scrimmages typically are mundane affairs. However, because the passage of time offers perspective, we can now say with certainty that this particular scrimmage was memorable in Big Red lore, if not historic, as this was the day the torch was passed.
For certain, this was precisely the moment a starting quarterback recruited for the “old” Nebraska offense (Joe Dailey) was clearly overtaken by a junior college transfer who could effectively operate the pass-oriented system ushered into the program with Callahan’s arrival in January of 2004.
Callahan often says he “flipped a culture” in sacking the previous run-based system. The transition was excruciating for Nebraska during the 2004 season as the Huskers limped to a 5-6 record. However, with Taylor’s emergence in his initial spring at NU, “We felt we had a guy we could grow with,” Callahan said this week.
The fateful spring scrimmage also revealed Taylor’s toughness and leadership qualities, traits many of us take for granted at this point.
“He kept getting pounded and sacked and hit,” Callahan recalled. “He got destroyed that day. But he kept getting up and being positive with teammates, kept encouraging them in the huddle, kept clapping. Everybody was kind of wondering about his health, and he held up.
“He won the respect of his team that day.”
He has never lost it. The qualities he showed during that telling spring day manifested themselves time and again during the last two seasons as Taylor became the catalyst for Nebraska’s resurgence in the Big 12 Conference and on the national scene.
Character and toughness aside, it should be noted that Taylor also quickly and deftly digested Callahan’s complicated playbook. Such an undertaking requires more than basic memorization skills; it requires a player to achieve total understanding of the system from philosophical and conceptual standpoints and to transfer that understanding to the playing field.
“When a guy like this comes around, who has all of the intangibles and then has the performance to back it up, it makes for a real unique experience,” Callahan said. “And that’s what he’s given us. Nebraskans should be really proud of this kid and what he’s brought to this program, in a very short period of time.”
Which begs a question: Where would Nebraska be right now without Taylor?
“Hard to say,” Callahan said. “Hard to know.”
Of course, Husker Nation doesn’t want to know, doesn’t want to think about it. To be sure, Husker Nation today has no practical use for thoughts of what might have occurred at Nebraska in the past two seasons had Taylor encountered happiness at Wake Forest, where he redshirted in 2002 and played backup in 2003.
Although Wake Forest has a beautiful campus and outstanding academics, “He never seemed comfortable there,” said Sherwood Taylor, the quarterback’s father. “During that year and a half (at Wake Forest), Zac was able to evaluate what he wanted.”
His objective was simple — he wanted to play. He wanted to start.
“We knew we had to get him to a place where he had a chance,” the elder Taylor said.
So continued Zac Taylor’s rather circuitous route to Lincoln. His next stop was Butler County (Kan.) Community College. While his rise at Nebraska required about three weeks of spring drills, his ascension at Butler basically occurred within hours, before he even strapped on shoulder pads.
It was January of 2004. Butler’s campus, in the midst of winter break, was desolate. Although Taylor had been there for only a few hours, Butler coaches asked him to help play host to a few recruits on hand.
“We could see his character and leadership ability from the minute he got here,” Butler head coach Troy Morrell said this week. “He related well to the players, and I mean all of the players. He can relate to any type of person. He won everybody over instantly.”
Of course, it also helped that Taylor could throw essentially all the required passes, manage the offense, command the huddle and generally make all of the right decisions.
Taylor first heard from Nebraska coaches Nov. 27, 2004, the day Colorado escaped Lincoln with a 26-20 victory, sending the Huskers to their first losing season since 1961.
“It was a full-court press after that,” Butler offensive coordinator Aaron Flores said of Nebraska’s pursuit of Taylor.
Callahan this week remembered his first meeting with Taylor at Butler. They spent an afternoon together. Taylor broke down Butler’s offense play by play. He explained his reads on each play.
“When a young man can do that after being in a program for only one year, I knew we had something,” Callahan said. “It was just a matter of grooming him into our terminology and watching him grow.”
Taylor became Nebraska’s career passing yardage leader in the Huskers’ most recent game, a 28-27 victory at Texas A&M in which he calmly engineered a game-winning touchdown drive in the final two minutes.
With the triumph, the Huskers clinched their first Big 12 North Division crown since 1999 and are now considered a legitimate threat to prevail Dec. 2 in the Big 12 Championship Game.
“We really couldn’t have done what we’ve done here in the last two years without Zac,” NU offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said.
Hence the crowd’s roar today as No. 13 emerges from the tunnel.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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