SEATTLE — Taylor Mays is the kind of guy who leaves a lasting impression.
Take, for example, the reaction of Huskies offensive coordinator Tim Lappano when he saw Mays for the first time. Then a standout at Seattle’s O’Dea High School, Mays was on campus for a recruiting visit.
“He looked like they do on Sunday when we recruited him,” said Lappano, who coached under Dennis Erickson for the San Francisco 49ers and the Seahawks. “It was unbelievable. I saw that kid walk into this place two years ago, and they told me he was in high school, and I said, ‘We didn’t have guys on the 49ers that looked like that.’ He really looked better than almost every guy in our back half when I was with the 49ers for two years. We didn’t have guys look like that. And I’ll guarantee you we didn’t have a guy back there that ran that fast.”
There’s not other way to put it. Taylor Mays, USC’s sophomore free safety, is a freak. He’s 6-feet, 4-inches of athleticism rarely found in the NFL, let alone college football. Last spring, he ran 40-yard dash times of 4.35 and 4.25 seconds while weighing close to 240 pounds (He is now down to 229, he said, to improve his lateral quickness). As a junior in high school, Mays ran the 100-meter dash in 10.54 seconds.
“That’s ridiculous,” Lappano said of Mays’ speed. “There’s not many guys in the NFL that can run like that. That’s crazy.”
On Saturday, that “ridiculous” combination of speed and size comes to Husky Stadium representing the one that got away. Ok, so more than one recruit gets away from a college football program each year, but Mays was one that many saw as a potential program changer, much like quarterback Jake Locker.
Mays grew up just minutes from the University of Washington, which is also where his father, Stafford, played in the late 1970s. While attending Seattle’s O’Dea High School, Mays was part of the state’s “Big Three” in the class of 2006 along with Locker, and Bellevue offensive lineman Stephen Schilling, who is now the starting right tackle at Michigan.
Mays considered Washington, but eventually spurned his father’s alma mater for one of the nation’s top programs. It would be hard to make a compelling argument that Mays made the wrong decision. While some of the country’s best high school athletes end up buried on the depth chart at USC thanks to a preponderance of talent, Mays was a starter by the second game of his freshman year after an injury to Josh Pinkard.
After recording 62 tackles and a team-best three interceptions, he was named a second-team All-American, the national Defensive Freshman of the Year, a first-team Freshman All-American, and the Pac-10 Co-Freshman of the Year.
And he’s better this year. At least that’s the opinion of both USC coach Pete Carroll and Mays himself.
“He’s just farther along, as you would imagine,” said Carroll. “He’s a great kid, he studies and he’s a great worker, so he’s grown tremendously with his experience. He’s started every game but the first one that he dressed up with us. He’s gaining all the time. He’s in great shape, and he’s the fastest football player on our team.”
Really Pete? The fastest player on your team? At USC, the place where the country’s best talent goes to win national championships, a 230-pound safety is the fastest player? That’s a scary thought for USC’s Pac-10 foes.
This season, Mays says experience is helping his overall game catch up to his raw ability.
“Just my experience on the field [is better], and understanding our defense and understanding what the offense is trying to do,” Mays said. “I feel like I can make every play that a great safety would make in every situation. That’s what I believe. And if I make a mistake, I understand what my mistake was and I can correct it immediately.”
Mays will hardly be the only talented defensive player wearing USC’s cardinal and gold at Husky Stadium this weekend. Defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, linebackers Keith Rivers and Rey Maualuga, defensive end Lawrence Jackson and cornerback Terrell Thomas were all named preseason first-team All-Americans by at least one publication. And that doesn’t include linebacker Brian Cushing, another All-American candidate, who will miss the game with a sprained ankle.
If anything, the secondary Mays plays in might be the closest thing USC’s defense has to a weakness. The Trojans are eighth in the Pac-10 in pass defense — though Carroll argues that at lot of those yards have come late in games when opponents are forced to pass — and regular cornerback Cary Harris is unlikely to play with a shoulder injury.
“Their front seven is the strength of the defense,” Lappano said. Their front seven is really, really good. Those backers all really run. All of them, the tackles can run, the ends can run… I’d hardly call it a weakness, but I do think the back half is where there would be a weakness if there is one. But Taylor Mays is a weakness? Come on now.”
So even though Mays won’t be the only talented Trojan on the field, he will be the only one who grew up going to practically every UW home game from age five to 12. He’s the one that Husky fans will watch and wonder, “what if?”
That’s something Mays won’t be thinking as he walks through the Husky Stadium tunnel with the nation’s top-ranked team.
On the other hand, Mays might have at least one regret about heading south to smog-filled L.A. for college.
“I’m kind of excited just to come home and be in Seattle’s air,” he said, “to get out of Los Angeles.”
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington Sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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