For the last 12 days, Ryan Taylor has literally been living the dream.
Or at least, he’s been living his dream.
The two weeks UCLA was set to play Houston and Texas were a selling point in the Denison kid’s recruiting decision ““ and really, things could not have gone better.
Ever since a 35-0 embarrassment at the hands of Stanford on Sept. 11, Taylor’s team has looked more and more like the Bruin squad he was so excited to sign with two years ago.
According to the redshirt senior center, the players have stopped pressing and started having a good time.
And the change came just in time for Houston ““ a school also from Taylor’s home state, whom UCLA beat up on Sept. 18.
But Taylor’s dream can get better yet.
He’s going “home” to Texas this weekend to play the school he grew up fantasizing about.
And of course, the Texas native has Texas-size dreams.
So he’s not just going home for family and friends.
He’s going home to get a win.
“I’m definitely putting the hook ’em down,” he said. “I can’t wait to put them down for once in my life.”
A “Great Ride”
Ryan’s father Randy Taylor likes to say his son’s football journey has been “a great ride.”
That ride is bringing his son three hours south of home Saturday ““ a highlight in a life full of sports.
But for Ryan Taylor, the ride hasn’t always been smooth.
Taylor is not the kind of prodigal football kid who had Gatorade Player of the Year written all over him since playing Pee Wee league.
In fact, football came second to baseball growing up ““ until the Friday night lights made football’s atmosphere too appealing to turn down.
“I fell in love with it,” he said simply. “It really is like a religion down there.”
As he puts it, Taylor got the “big boy genes,” so football was indeed a physical fit, but he stayed a second-teamer as he moved through junior high.
When it came time to think about playing college ball, his ACT scores forced him to Tyler Junior College, 130 miles southeast of Denison.
And in junior college, they don’t go after you like they do out of high school. By this time, Taylor was an all-league player, but he wasn’t sure things would materialize.
“It was blurry,” Taylor said. “JC has a different way of recruiting. They kind of have to wait for us to be done (with our degrees).”
But as his second year of junior college rolled around, Taylor got a visit from UCLA special teams coach Frank Gansz Jr. Gansz was an old friend of Taylor’s JUCO coach Danny Palmer. The two Texas natives had coached together at Houston ““ and both coaches saw something special in Taylor.
“He had just a great family,” Gansz said. “A very bright kid.
There are so many things that you like about him when you recruit him.”
But joining the UCLA football team as a transfer from Texas carried its own set of challenges.
On the field, he wasn’t going to be handed a starting job. And off the field, Taylor couldn’t stop homesickness from creeping into his consciousness.
Taylor was the first person from his junior college, and the first person from his high school to ever attend UCLA.
And he was the first member of immediate family to ever go west to California.
“It was a tough transition for him,” Randy Taylor said. “He went from a Texas homeboy to L.A. and those were trying times at first. He’s never been that far away from home that he couldn’t come home on a weekend.”
“(He called) every now and then. ‘Course we probably called him more than he called us.”
After playing in only three games last season, the ride finally started getting good.
Taylor had a successful and progressive spring camp this fall, and he was slotted to start at left guard.
Then, injuries took their toll on the line, and the Texan was thrust into the starting center job after redshirt junior Kai Maiava suffered a fractured ankle in a fall scrimmage. He became, as offensive line coach Bob Palcic put it, “the quarterback of the offensive line.”
“He’s been performing well all fall,” Palcic said. “And he’s becoming a very good football player.”
Then the season started. And the ride went sour again.
Offensive coordinator Norm Chow installed the new pistol offense in the spring to get the running game going. But after a loss at Kansas State and another loss at home to Stanford, the 0-2 Bruins were taking steps in the wrong direction.
“We were like man, something is not going right,” Taylor said.
“We had to check ourselves at the door after the Stanford game.
We were trying to find an identity for our offense, and we couldn’t find it.”
As the team worked to figure things out, Taylor and his roommate, redshirt sophomore running back Johnathan Franklin, were sponging in film from their couch.
Taylor would advise Franklin on exactly how the line would block for him on particular play calls.
The pair paused to talk about one play in particular ““ a simple draw that had big potential.
“I told him how the play was going to hit,” Taylor said, “and it happened the exact same way (in the game).”
Thirty yards later, Taylor was racing down the field to greet Franklin and tell him “I told you!”
Franklin was glad to receive him.
“Ryan Taylor is like my big brother, like a mentor,” Franklin said.
“He’s one of the hardest workers we have on this team. … When (center) Kai (Maiava) went down, he really stepped up and took control of this offensive line. Everybody on this team has a great respect for him. I definitely want to win for him. He deserves it.”
Taylor has spent this week harassing Franklin and any other teammate who will listen for any extra tickets they might have.
Taylor and his father estimate that 40 friends and family will be making the drive south to Darrell K Royal ““ Texas Memorial Stadium to see the hometown boy’s homecoming.
“I’m wearin’ Bruin blue and gold,” Randy Taylor, the lifelong Texas fan said with pride.
“It’s going to be a very tough crowd and we’re going to be a very small group. (But) if they’re sitting with me, they’re going to be wearing Bruin blue and gold.”
His son’s been on an up and down ride for many years now. But the last 12 days have been pretty fantastic for him.
“It’s a big deal for all my family and my friends because they’re big supporters of me,” Ryan Taylor said. “But it really does mean a lot. It’s hard to explain.
“It’s kind of surreal ““ me going and playing my favorite team growing up. It’s a dream come true.”