Taylor returns to the field
Northwestern’s superback position lost one familiar face in Dan Vitale. But it is also gaining one in Jayme Taylor.
Taylor, a redshirt sophomore, got back on the field for the first time on Tuesday after a broken ankle ended his season before it began in 2015.
“It was good to get him out there running around today. We are going to err on the side of caution with him, making sure he’s getting ready for a good summer and he will be 100-percent by the time the fall comes,” superbacks coach Bob Heffner said.
Taylor, a 6-4, 230-pounder out of The Woodlands (Texas) played for the Wildcats as a redshirt freshman in 2014, catching nine passes as Vitale’s backup. He broke his ankle last August and spent the 2015 season focused on what he could do while he was out – namely, lifting weights and getting stronger.
“Being out I was able to get in to the weight room more because I wasn’t playing. Right now I am focusing on getting my technique back. It’s going to take some time to get back there. The time in the weight room will be very important. It’s something I really needed to work on before getting hurt, and I was able to refocus myself there and push forward,” Taylor said.
He’s put on 12 pounds and is ready to keep improving on the field.
“Today was actually the first day that we ran him around (on pass routes) on some things, and we are taking it slow,” Heffner said. “One thing that is to his advantage and mine is that I’ve seen him play before, he played for us a whole year. While he was out he worked really hard with what he can do. He’s much stronger.”
He added, ”He hasn’t played football for quite some time so he’s a little rusty but I know he will be back and provide good depth with Garrett Dickerson.”
Speaking of Dickerson, the two will work as a tag team as long as Heffner’s vision plays out this season.
“One thing that happens, first of all, even we are playing with one superback in the game, Jayme and Garrett are both 240-248 pounds, so when we are going fast those guys are going to get winded faster than a 180-pound wide recevier. As long as we are in that one-superback set then they can tap their helmet and we can switch them out,” Heffner said.
And while we can’t expect to see an immediate replacement for a superior athlete like Vitale, we can certainly see fresh faces like Dickerson and Taylor bringing everything they’ve got to the table.
“It’s hard to replace a guy like Dan. I’m not sure you can because of how good of a player he was and how good of a leader he was. I am excited to step up and do my best on the field and as a leader,” Taylor said.
He continued, “(Vitale) had a no days off mentality. Every day he was studying the playbook. Every day he was in the weight room working hard. I learned a lot from him.”
Heffner also noted that there’s a good chance both Taylor and Dickerson see the field together this season.
“I would say certainly if the two of them are in the game there is more of a chance that Garrett is a tight end, maybe. But Jayme is bigger than Dan was, so I don’t know if that will happen all the time.
“If they played together, the thing that we try to do here is we could go from a traditional offensive set and then flex them out in a spread-out set. We did that a good bit with Dan and Garrett, and we will probably do the same thing with Jayme,” Heffner said.
No matter what happens at superback, Taylor says this team’s identity is opportunistic.
“Right now there are a lot of guys taking advantage of good opportunity. A lot of young guys are coming up and turning it on so it’s really exciting to see them evolve and come around,” Taylor said.