With a quarterback prospect the likes of Trae Taylor, the Nebraska football team is excited to get him to Lincoln and start suiting him up for the Huskers. The downside is that people around NU will worry and watch every down he plays in his final year of high school. When the downs Taylor plays include more than 20 rushing attempts, there’s bound to be some who think he’s being overworked, especially in the season opener.
Taylor played an incredible game for Millard South, including leading a dramatic comeback over rival Millard North. The contest was the definition of hard-fought, and more than one report claimed that the 5-star quarterback definitely looked “banged up” late in the game.
When the smoke cleared, Taylor completed 16 of 31 passes for 311 yards and 2 TDs. He also threw an interception. It was his performance on the ground that caused a he-said, he-said situation between Taylor’s dad and the Millard South coach, involving the Nebraska football team.
Trae Taylor faces increased Nebraska football scrutiny after dramatic 412-yard performance
Speaking to J.R. Taylor, On3’s Steve Sipple reported that the quarterback’s father wasn’t thrilled that he ran the ball 24 times, even if he managed to rush for over 100 yards and two more scores. The elder Taylor also said Husker coaches weren’t happy about the QB’s workload.
“We cannot do that,” J.R. Taylor reportedly told Sipple on Saturday. “Nebraska has even called and said, ‘We are going to make a call (to Millard South’s staff).'”
This is where things get tricky, and everyone starts walking on eggshells. Omaha World-Herald Nebraska beat writer Sam McKewon saw J.R.’s comments about the Husker coaches interfering in how Millard South executes its game plan and called the high school’s head coach Taylor Mendenhall to see if NU coaches reached out.
“Never happened," Mendenhall reportedly told McKewon.
That’s where the he-said, he-said enters the picture. There’s now a situation where some fans will believe that Matt Rhule and Dana Holgorsen feel comfortable telling a high school coach how to use his players. Others will claim that Taylor’s father is lying about what the coaches have told him, perhaps to look more “big time” to the general public. And in the middle of this mess is the 5-star Nebraska football commit who already has major drama circling him after just one game in high school.
If there’s already this kind of weird misunderstanding before we’ve even hit September, is this only going to get worse? The Huskers rarely have a prospect of Trae Taylor’s talent level under such a microscope in the state. The last time NU landed a 5-star prospect, Dylan Raiola flipped to Nebraska very late in the cycle. Until then, Husker fans weren’t really paying attention to his high school career because they assumed he was playing college at Georgia.
It’s a safe bet that everyone involved in “QB Rush-gate” wants nothing more than for this little flare-up to just go out and go away. Considering it’s already a three-day story, it feels like this will follow Nebraska football and its quarterback commit for quite a bit longer.
Add us as a preferred source on Google