If recruiting were always as easy for TU coach Philip Montgomery as it was with Corey Taylor II, then Montgomery’s life would be much simpler.
Taylor is a bruising running back from Holland Hall who had a breakout season for the Golden Hurricane as a sophomore in 2018. Although he is a local kid, his journey to TU was not short.
Taylor originally went to Air Force Academy Prep out of high school while preparing to play football for the Air Force Academy the following year. After completing a year at Air Force Prep, Taylor decided to take his life in a different direction.
“I had always admired Tulsa football, so I gave coach Montgomery a call, and sat down and had a long conversation with him about what he would need from me as an individual, as a person who could contribute to the team,” Taylor said. “And I committed to those things and I’m here today.”
That is assuredly the type of phone call a coach needs to pick up.
“It was just the best decision for me and what I wanted to do for my future,” Taylor said. “I love everything that the Air Force and the whole military embodies. I made it a point to take those values that I learned there and bring them here. It just wasn’t something that fit into my future.”
Taylor and Union grad Shamari Brooks form a terrific tandem of juniors at running back that the Golden Hurricane is counting on to lead the offense in 2019. Taylor rushed for 846 yards and a 4.8 average per carry while leading the team with 11 rushing touchdowns. Brooks led TU in rushing yards with 967 on a 4.2 average, and rushed for seven touchdowns.
“They’re a great one-two punch. I think they really work well together,” Montgomery said of Taylor and Brooks. “I think it provides something, defensively, that (opponents) have to prepare for because they run differently. If we can keep them healthy, those two guys, they’ve been in a lot of games, a lot of wars, and they’ve proven what they can do under the lights. We’ve got to continue to find ways to get the ball into their hands and use their God given ability to help us go win.”
Taylor is someone who has made quite an impression from the start at TU. He scored a touchdown in his first collegiate carry at Houston as a freshman. After getting only five carries that year, he had a career high 111 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries in the season opener at Oklahoma State in 2017. Off to a great start that year, he had 68 yards and two touchdown in the next game against Louisiana before suffering a season ending foot injury.
Speaking of OSU, Taylor is looking forward to playing them at in TU’s home opener in the third game of the season.
“Super excited just to be able to go back out there and do better than I did the first time I had the opportunity to play against them,” Taylor said. “And hopefully come out with a better result as a team. Having played them before and understanding their system, I think that we will come into the game even more prepared and that it will be a great outcome.
“It’s very important. It’s very awesome just to be able to interact with our fans and see how we do game day here. I feel like Tulsa is definitely a very unique place, so we’re excited to have Oklahoma State come here.”
And it would be a great opportunity for Taylor and some of his Tulsa teammates to play well against a state school that didn’t take them seriously out of high school.
Taylor was one of those under the radar type of players from a smaller school that didn’t get a lot of fanfare playing out of the Southwest Preparatory Conference. After a strong senior season for the Dutch, where he rushed for 1,233 yards and nine touchdowns, as well as adding 57 tackles on defense, Taylor was off to Air Force Prep.
Even though he never wound up in the Air Force Academy, the patriotic Taylor, who was born on the fourth of July in 1997, enjoyed his year at Air Force Prep. More importantly, he came away from that year much better prepared for life.
“I learned a lot there. After going through basic training, you really find out who you are,” Taylor explained. “It’s not your parents waking you up, it’s not anybody motivating you besides someone yelling in your face, so it was great getting a chance to develop that discipline and being able to let it translate into the rest of my life. It was definitely very beneficial.”
Taylor and his teammates will need that type of discipline from the start of the season when they will face a formidable challenge in the opener at Michigan State. But coming as far as he has to become a key cog in Tulsa’s offense, nothing is going to faze Taylor.
“Going up to East Lansing, we’re very excited to go up there and just play Michigan State,” Taylor said. “We’re very confident against all of our non-conference opponents due to all the work we’ve put in during the off season. We’re confident that we’ll go out there and not only compete but come out with the result we want.”
Taylor knows that to get the desired results, players are going to have to share the load, like he and Brooks will have to do all season, with perhaps freshmen T.K. Wilkerson and Chris Lovick also getting carries as well. But as long as they stay healthy, Taylor and Brooks should get the majority of the carries.
“We’re going to be running back by committee,” Montgomery said. “They’re both going to be starters, they’re both going to get a lot of touches. Whoever has the hot hand that game is going to get more touches, they understand that, but they work well together and understand that.
“In college football, it’s difficult for a running back to stay healthy for a whole 12, 13 or 14 games. Being able to share that load, being able to stay fresher, longer, throughout the season, I think they see the benefits of that.”
Taylor and Brooks certainly are willing to share the load, with personal goals being put aside for the benefit of the team.
“Honestly, my goal is just to be of service to my team, the best way I can,” Taylor said. “Just be the best leader I can to all of my team, and hopefully, all of that will give me the best result out on the field, which is just to be the most productive back I can be.”
