Going into the locker room at halftime of the Bruins’ game against Tennessee, freshman wide receiver Taylor Embree knew he needed to be ready.
With two of the Bruins’ top receiving threats, wide receiver Marcus Everett and tight end Logan Paulsen, out for the game, Embree needed to step up. So during halftime, he caught balls, held a football in his hands and did anything he could to make sure he would be ready if his number were called.
“I was anxious the whole first half because I didn’t have any catches,” Embree said. “I had some balls thrown my way, but I didn’t have any catches. So I just went into the locker room, I caught some balls, I got a ball and played around with it a little bit, just so I could get a feel with it, with my hands so I wasn’t getting cold, getting out of the game.”
Apparently, it worked.
Embree finished the game with four receptions for 53 yards, solid statistics for the first collegiate game of his career. Though the numbers alone were impressive, the ability Embree displayed to make clutch plays was what characterized his performance.
Embree had two third-down catches, including a 12-yard reception on third and 9 in the fourth quarter that extending a crucial drive that ended with running back Raymond Carter’s 3-yard touchdown run. That score gave the Bruins a 17-14 lead and the momentum the team needed for a victory.
For Embree, the situation he made the catches in did not matter; the only important thing was that he caught the ball.
“Once you get out there, I always say after your first hit, after first contact, it’s football,” Embree said. “The fans, they get blocked out, and you just got to concentrate. I know I had two third-down catches, and I didn’t look at the down. I just (thought), “˜It’s first and 10, just go out there and make a play.'”
Wide receivers coach Reggie Moore, a former UCLA wide receiver from 1987-1990, said he was impressed with Embree’s ability to translate making plays in practice to making plays in a game.
“When his number was called, he made some plays and he showed that he can not only do it in practice, but he can do it in a game,” Moore said. “So, that just lets you know that it’s not something that’s just a practice deal.”
Embree’s journey to UCLA is one that players rarely take. After completing his senior year of high school at Blue Valley West in Overland Park, Kan., in 2006, Embree planned to enroll at UCLA in fall 2007.
Upon learning that he would redshirt, Embree chose a different path: grayshirting. Instead of coming to UCLA with the incoming class of 2007, Embree chose to stay in Kansas City, improve areas of his game that needed work, and enroll at UCLA in January 2008, saving his redshirt for another time.
Embree said he benefited greatly from his decision.
“I was out in Kansas City working out and I got to work on a few things that I might not have gotten to work on while being out here,” Embree said. “And I also got to save my redshirt year. And then I benefited from coming out early because I got a head start on everything.”
Moore said that by joining the team in January, Embree was able to learn the speed of the game before the other members of the 2008 recruiting class. He also noted that though the extra time Embree has had to learn the offense gives him a slight advantage over the other freshmen, it is Embree’s foundation in football that has helped him become the player he is today.
“I think that what he has going for him in his favor is he makes plays on the football,” Moore said. “He has good hands, he’s a smart kid, comes from a background where he’s been exposed to a lot of football over his years. He’s been in it all his life.”
Embree’s father, Jon Embree, is now an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs. Before that, he was a member of Rick Neuheisel’s first coaching staff at the University of Colorado in 1995.
For Taylor Embree, he said his past relationship with Neuheisel makes their current relationship much more personal and he has a lot of trust in what Neuheisel says.
“I don’t want to let him down,” Embree said. “He’s our head coach, and you don’t want to let the head coach down. But I also have a closer relationship, so it’s just that more personal. When I go out there, I really expect to do my job, he really expects me to take care of business. He knows my dad’s a coach, and I should be on top of it.”
Following his first win as the head coach of UCLA, Neuheisel sat behind the microphone and talked about the immense joy he had watching Embree, a player he watched grow up, play the way he played against Tennessee.
“To watch a guy you’ve watched grow up go and play like that ““ make the plays that he did down the stretch ““ it’s part of the circle of life,” Neuheisel said. “It was a really cool thing.”