Detailing what Zac Taylor brought to Nebraska as a quarterback

With at least another month until college football finally kicks off again, these summer months provide an opportunity to stop for a second and look back at some of the sport’s great moments before more are made this fall.

Over on the On3 YouTube channel, Andy Staples revisited the aughts, bringing on Sean Callahan of HuskerOnline to discuss the emergence of Zac Taylor during the 2005 season, capped off by a victory in the ’05 Alamo Bowl, which was massive for the program. But none of that was possible without Taylor, per Callahan, who retold to Staples the tale of how the current Bengals coach became a Nebraska legend.

“Out of nowhere, late, they take this guy by the name of Zac Taylor,” explained Callahan. “He was a true-and-true Oklahoma Sooner fan. In 2004, he watched the Nebraska-Oklahoma game in the stands in Norman as an OU fan on a break from Butler Community College. Then, by ’05, he was the starting quarterback for Nebraska against Oklahoma.”

What a rise for Taylor, who Callahan says fit like a glove into Nebraska’s system at the time, while some other QBs simply didn’t.

“They wanted a mature quarterback, kind of a guy that knew how to run a complicated offense. He’s obviously that to this day,” added Sean Callahan.

“So, Zac Taylor comes in and wins the job, gets off to somewhat of a slow start learning this offense that Bill Callahan was running with the Raiders two years before in the Super Bowl.”

But Taylor was able pick up the offense as the year went along, and the Cornhuskers only improved as the season progressed.

“As that year moved on, you started to see Taylor get better and better, to the point where it really peaked at Colorado.”

That game against the Buffs was a real turning point for the program at the time, per Callahan.

“Nebraska was a two-touchdown underdog in Boulder against a Colorado team that had already clinched the Big 12 north that time, and they went in there and won by like 30 points. They called it the Restore The Order Game at that time.”

After that magnificent game by the team and Taylor, Nebraska came for blood in the Alamo Bowl.

“Zac Taylor was unbelievable and that kind of carried over to the bowl game, where they get this opportunity to play Michigan, who didn’t really want to be there.”

Obviously, Nebraska won, Zac Taylor returned for another year, and the rest was history.