Legacy Kelvin Taylor commits to Florida Gators

By Adam Silverstein
February 18, 2012

Eighteen years after his father first donned an orange and blue uniform and ran out onto Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, four-star running back Kelvin Taylor (Belle Glade, FL) announced that he would follow in his dad’s footsteps by committing to play football for the Florida Gators in 2013.

The son of University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame running back Fred Taylor, he has been around both football and the Gators his entire life. And like his father, his immensely successful high school football career earned him a scholarship offer from Florida, which he chose over Alabama on Saturday.

Kelvin Taylor (5’10” 205 lbs.) actually began playing as an eighth grader, starting for the Glades Day High School varsity team and running for 1,692 yards and 27 touchdowns. He followed that up by amassing 2,691 yards and 47 touchdowns as a freshman, breaking former Gators running back Emmitt Smith’s career Florida high school record of 8,804 yards two years later at the end of his junior season in 2011.

With 9,698 career yards to his credit (only 8,114 of which count nationally), he has an opportunity to break the all-time record of 11,232 yards, which was set back in 1953. He has also produced 148 touchdowns in four years of playing high school football.

Taylor undoubtedly has his sights set on the NFL and can only hope to be as successful as his father, the No. 9 overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Fred Taylor rushed for 11,695 yards and 66 touchdowns (adding 2,384 receiving yards and eight receiving scores) over 13 seasons as a professional.

His name can also be found throughout Florida’s record books as he still holds the Gators’ single-season record for yards per carry (6.0 in 1997), led the team in rushing in both 1994 and 1997, has the sixth-most attempts in school history (537) and is fourth in both career (3,075) and single-season (1,292) rushing yardage.

Even with a strong love for the Gators, Fred Taylor never pushed his son to commit to Florida and said that he just wanted him to be happy no matter which school he chose.

And just because he will be playing for the Gators, do not expect Kelvin Taylor to think the starting job or anything else for that matter will be handed to him.

Reidel Anthony, a former teammate of his father’s and the offensive coordinator at Glades Central, told ESPNU that Taylor is a hard worker who makes his own way.

“Kelvin plays hungry and there’s no sense of entitlement there,” he said. “He doesn’t expect to just walk in and dominate because he’s Fred Taylor’s son. He wants to be a player that earns what he gets.

“And he’s just a humble young man, real quiet like Fred was. He’s not going to tell you that he’s going to run for 350 yards on you, he’s just going to do it. He has the respect of his teammates, his coaches, other coaches and his opposition because of the way he plays the game.”

Florida wide receivers coach Aubrey Hill, also a former teammate of Fred Taylor’s and still a close friend of the family, was Kelvin Taylor’s primary recruiter with the Gators throughout the entire process.

With his commitment now out of the way, the younger Taylor no longer has to endure the rigors of recruiting and can instead concentrate on the things that matter the most.

“I’m gonna keep my grades up, work very hard, run track, lift weights and just focus my mind on high school football and trying to get another state title,” he said earlier in the week, according to The Gainesville Sun.

The No. 111 ranked player nationally according to Rivals and a five-star recruit listed as one of ESPNU’s top 100 prospects in 2013, Taylor gives Florida their second big-time running back commitment in the 2013 class. He joins four-star Adam Lane (Winter Haven, FL) as two of the Gators’ five pledges as of press time.

He is currently attending Florida’s second Junior Day this weekend in Gainesville, FL and intends to enroll at UF in January (as does Lane).

Taylor’s commitment was first reported by Andrew Spivey of Gator Country.

RELATED: 2013 LB Powell chooses the Gators at Junior Day | WR Rodney Adams makes the call for Florida

Photo Credits: Stuart Browning, Unknown

12 Comments

  1. wgator40 says:

    boom!!! just go ahead and get your class locked up early coach. that way the idiots around here can’t complain about “not closing strong” . The kid is gonna be a beast and two years from now the Gators will be back in SEC and BCS contention thanks to WM, book it!

  2. DGLBkGATOR FAN says:

    ppl will still complain about closing strong lol0p2/2013 no one will remember any of this…. good pick up i’m starting to feel old after watching his dads whole UF career

  3. Tractorr says:

    Let’s just hope Aubrey Hill doesn’t “suddenly” become the hottest coaching commodity.

  4. Daniel M. says:

    The Taylor and Lane duo has the potential to develop into something similar to the Ingram and Richardson duo. I would like to see Taylor pass block or catch a pass in his highlights. Not sure it exists.

    It’s taking time but Muschamp is definitely putting the right pieces together. In Will we trust.

  5. alex says:

    not to worry. Hill’s a pretty useless coach. Please note utter lack of development of our receivers over the course of the season.

    • Tractorr says:

      Yep, that is why I think it would be weird if all the sudden schools came looking at him hoping they would get a shot at Taylor.

  6. Mr2Bits says:

    The thought of him and Lane is definitely enjoyable

  7. Nathalia says:

    Sexy. Love it. Keep em comin Boom. He’ll be a 5 star when they adjust the rankings by the end of the year. HE is the hottest RB commodity from Florida this year. So excited hehe. We already have 8 guys and 7 are ranked super high. Obviously a program like Florida cant be down long. *Booty shorts, beer and Florida Gators* 😉

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