Taylor Key to ’10
This is from my buddy Jeff over at All Sports Discussion. Head over and bookmark his site, updated ALL the time.
Taylor Key to Season
As I was looking through some practice reports of the ACC teams the last couple of days, something just jumped off the page to me. It was this stat line 16 of 17 passes completed for 319 yards and 3 Touchdowns that I found in the DailyPress.com’s report of the Virginia Tech ‘s Saturday practice.
Was this FSU’s Christian Ponder? Maybe NC State’s Russell Wilson or Miami’s Jacory Harris. No, No, and no. It was Hokie’s Tyrod Taylor . I don’t care if he was throwing against the Scout team that is impressive. It did happen to be Virginia Tech’s 2nd team defense.
So Taylor had a nice outing against the 2nd team defense, big deal. What does it mean?
I think this as a significant result, because the knock on Taylor has always been his consistency in the passing game. For his first two years Taylor split time with Sean Glennon . In 2007 he completed only 53% of passes. In 2008 he threw 7 interceptions versus only 2 touchdowns, but his completion did rise to 57%. His throwing technique was a work in progress. Last year he had over 2300 yards passing with 13 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions. He’s gotten better each year he’s played quarterback at Virginia Tech.
Beamer was so excited about the performance he was quoted as saying “I feel the same way with [Taylor] out there as I did when Michael Vick was out there”. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said earlier this summer, “Tyrod Taylor would be good in our offense, we couldn’t grab him in a phone booth.”
That’s extremely high praise from Johnson, and it speaks to Taylor’s running ability, and if he continues to improve as passer watch out. The Hokies have the dynamic Ryan Williams and Darren Evans in the backfield. There is experience and skill at the wide receiver position. The defense has to be rebuilt, and is not very experienced, but the offense can carry this team through the first few weeks of the season.
The first test for Taylor will come early. The Hokies open up with the top 5 ranked Boise St. Broncos on September 6th. I know the Broncos are the nation’s darlings, but if Taylor approaches his scrimmage performance it’s a 2 Touchdown win for the Hokies. In fact for my first game prediction of the 2010 college football season, I’m calling for 14-20 210 yard 2 TD performance by Taylor in a 27-17 win by Virginia Tech.
I think Taylor will have a very good season, and that’s why Virginia Tech is my ACC favorite. The Hokies will go as far as Taylor can take them.
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