That's a guy that jumps off the page from that 1 season, but I never heard of him until researching teams for Whoa Nellie.
I wonder why he wasn't given the reins earlier.
Steve TaylorDrafted 12th Round by Indianapolis Colts
1988 First-Team All-Big 8 (AP, UPI, Coaches)
1987 First-Team All-American (Football News)
1987 Third-Team All-American (AP)
1987 First-Team All-Big 8 (AP, UPI)
1987 Sugar Bowl MVP
1986 Sports Illustrated National Player-of-the-Week (Florida State)
1986 CNN National Player-of-the-Week (Florida State)
1988 (Senior)Although Taylor did not repeat as an All-American, he did improve in almost every statistical category. For the first time in his career Taylor threw for over 1,000 yards, in total he threw for 1,067 on 151 attempts and 11 TD’s. Taylor’s longest pass of the year was a staggering 82-yard pass to Todd Millikan on third-and-22 against Missouri, later in the same game Taylor completed a 59-yard pass to Nate Turner on third and 14. Taylor ranked second in the Big 8 in passing behind No. 2 nationally ranked Mike Gundy of OklahomaState. Taylor was also a worthy competitor on the ground, as he rushed for 826 yards on 157 carries and 13 TD’s. Taylor not only made plays in the air, he also reeled off a 60 yard touchdown run against OklahomaState in a 63-42 win. Taylor’s 5.3 yards per carry for the season was astonishing for a quarterback. As a quarterback Taylor ranked 7th in the conference in rushing and combined with his passing was ranked 5th in the conference in total offense with 1893 yards. In the second game of the season against Utah State Taylor threw for 143 and a touchdown as he became the eighth Nebraska player to top 2,000 career passing yards, Taylor also rushed for another 74 yards and two touchdowns to pass Vince Ferragamo and move into fifth on NU’s career total offense chart. Against Arizona State, Taylor was one of three Huskers to rush for more then 100 yards (Ken Clark 122, Taylor 116, Terry Rodgers 113). Two games later against Kansas in a 63-10 win Taylor reached two career milestones, he became the fifth Husker to top 4,000 total-offense yards, finishing the game with 4,034, and he became the third Husker to record 50 career total-offense touchdowns. The next week against Oklahoma State, Taylor would score five more touchdowns and set the school career-record at 55. In the regular-season finale against Oklahoma, Taylor would score the only touchdown of the game in the first quarter on a 1-yard run; Nebraska would go on to win the game 7-3. This win would end Oklahoma’s 31-game Big 8 win streak and earn the Huskers an outright Big Eight title and an Orange Bowl berth for the first time in five years.
Taylor would end his career holding many Husker records: rushing attempts by a quarterback in a season (157 in 1988), rushing attempts by a quarterback in a career (431 in 1985-88), rushing net yards gained by a quarterback in a single game (157 vs. Utah State, 1987), rushing net yards gained by quarterback in a season (826 in 1988), rushing net yards gained by a quarterback in a career (2,215 in 1985-88), tied with three others for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a game (3 vs. Iowa State, 1988), rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a season (13 in 1988), rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a career (32 in 1985-88), and passing touchdowns in a game (5 vs. UCLA, 1987).
1987 (Junior)Taylor started his junior season by rushing for 157 yards against UtahState, a single-game record for a Nebraska quarterback, then laid to rest any doubt about his passing ability the following week vs. UCLA. When the third ranked Bruins’ defense held the second-ranked Huskers’ high-powered rushing attack to a season-low 117 yards, Taylor responded with one of the top passing performances ever for a Nebraska quarterback, as he complete 10 of 15 passes for 217 yards and five touchdowns in leading the Huskers to a 42-17 lead on their way to a 42-33 win. The five TD passes broke the old Nebraska record and tied the Big 8 Conference mark set in 1938 by Ralph Miller of Kansas against Washburn (Miller, of course, has gone on to become one of the nation’s most successful college basketball coaches, and heads into his final year at Oregon State in 1988-1989). Taylor’s performance vs. UCLA earned him the first of two-straight Big 8 offensive player-of-the-week awards. In the Huskers’ third game, he rushed for 122 yards and two TD’s and passed for 69 yards and another score as he led Nebraska to a 35-28 win at ArizonaState. A four-TD-pass effort at Missouri later in the season was another standout performance. Taylor finished the year with 659 rushing yards, a single-season record for a Husker quarterback, while completing 57 of 123 passes (46.3 percent) for 902 yards and 13 TD’s, with nine interceptions. He went into his senior year ranked 10th in career passing at Nebraska (1,748 yards), fifth in career touchdown passes (tied at 19), seventh in career total offense yards (3,047) and 22nd overall in career rushing yards (1,299, 18 yards short of Tuner Gill’s quarterback record of 1,317). His eight rushing TD’s increased his career total to 19, another NU quarterback record. The Huskers’ fastest-ever quarterback (4.54 in the 40), he has been the team’s second-leading rusher each of the last two years.
1986 (Sophomore)
Steve’s 1986 Fiesta Bowl performance helped propel him into a starting job for the following season, and his first career star was a memorable performance. In a national-televised opener vs. Florida State, he complete 10 of 16 passes for 130 yards and two TD’s, and rushed 12 times for 139 yards and two more TD’s in the Huskers’ 34-17 win over the Seminoles, winning Sports Illustrated and CNN national offensive player-of-the-week honors. Three games later, he hit on nine of 19 passes for 196 yards at South Carolina, and hit tight end Todd Millikan with an 11-yard TD strike with 1:26 left to give the Huskers a 27-24 win over the Gamecocks.
