Hokies’ Taylor finds his voice

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Tyrod Taylor leaned into the huddle during a preseason practice in August and looked around at his teammates. Some of them were chatting.

A year earlier, Taylor might have felt uncertain about how to handle this situation. He was an 18-year-old true freshman, one of the youngest and quietest players on Virginia Tech's team.

His innate athleticism and elusiveness led Tech's coaches to name him their starting quarterback by the third game, but the leadership that the position demands did not come as naturally. In the huddle, he sometimes spoke too softly for teammates to hear him.

Aware that this season's team would lean more on youth, Taylor vowed during the offseason to assert himself more. During that preseason practice huddle, he had an opportunity.

"Listen up," he told his teammates. "We're here to practice, not to talk."

Taylor noticed some surprised reactions as he looked through the players' facemasks. "Some guys looked at me like, 'I've never really heard this guy talk that much.' But I just tried to show them that I'm the leader, I'm the quarterback of this team, and let's stay focused."

While this season was almost as rocky for Taylor as last season -- another high ankle sprain, more rotating with Sean Glennon -- he is becoming the authoritative voice and reliable player the Hokies will need him to be during his final two years, when this team ought to face heightened expectations.

In the two games leading up to Thursday's Orange Bowl against Cincinnati, few Tech players have performed better than Taylor. Twenty-five percent of his passing yards and 24 percent of his rushing yards for the season have come during the past two games, in which he has two touchdown runs, a touchdown pass and an interception.

He was always a shifty runner, but his passing has been more precise recently. He led the Hokies to a win over Virginia and an ACC championship-game victory over Boston College by completing 62.2 percent of his passes for 221 yards. In his previous eight games, he had completed 55.3 percent for 675 yards.

Taylor attributes the improvement to being more disciplined about standing in the pocket longer while waiting for a play to unfold and having better timing with his freshman wide receivers, who replaced last season's four seniors. He struggled to gain that timing during the preseason because the Hokies were still sorting out the receiver situation, so Taylor couldn't get enough passes with one or two main guys.

But he has learned through games that Danny Coale's quickness lets him run down passes faster than Jarrett Boykin, while Boykin's massive hands and 6-2 body make him adept at snagging jump balls.

Taylor's passing was the subject of much conversation this season, especially after Tech's Oct. 18 loss at Boston College, where Taylor completed just 12 of 27 passes for 90 yards and an interception. Quarterbacks coach Mike O'Cain considers it Taylor's worst game of the season.

"I thought he played tentative," O'Cain said. "From that point in time, he's been more assertive as a player. He's thrown the ball much crisper, much more authoritatively. Sometimes it takes maybe a subpar performance to really see where you are. So I think from that point in time he's really played pretty well."

Not that things proceeded normally for Taylor during that time. They rarely have since he arrived in Blacksburg. The week after Boston College, he sprained his left ankle on the first play at Florida State. Then he missed the Maryland game, rotated with Glennon for the first half at Miami and was benched in favor of Glennon against Duke after committing four turnovers in the Hokies' first five possessions.

But the coaches stuck with him, and he validated their decision in the final two games. Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring understood that Taylor's success this season would depend to a large degree on the development of Tech's receivers and tailbacks -- all new from last season.

Now that those players have gained experience, Stinespring said, "I think you see that Tyrod is in a position where he starts taking over some games, where he's the best player on the field at times."

Taylor knows much will be demanded of him next season. The Hokies lose just three offensive starters and no skill-position players. With Glennon's eligibility expiring, the offense belongs fully to Taylor, though from the perspective of many teammates, it already does.

"He demands our attention," Coale said. "He really has developed into that position of when you're in the huddle, all eyes are on him."