Former QB great Steve Taylor upbeat on current Huskers

As the Husker football season moves along with steady improvement, it can be interesting to reflect back to another time when Big Red football was humming along under the tutelage of Head Coach Tom Osborne with some All-American players headed toward aspirations of playing professionally.

One of those All-Americans was Steve Taylor in 1987, who went on to have an eight-year career in the Canadian Football League, which included a 1992 Grey Cup Championship with the Calgary Stampede. Taylor shared his story and his thoughts about the current makeup of the Husker football program on Monday at the Executive Club luncheon at the Graduate Hotel in downtown Lincoln.

A highly regarded recruit out of Fresno, California, Taylor said he chose Nebraska because of Osborne and the Big Red success.

“One of the reasons I came to Nebraska is because they won all the time. They were in the top 10 all the time,” said Taylor, who returned to Nebraska after his Canadian football career ended. “When my high school coach asked me where I wanted to go to school, I said I wanted to go to the University of Nebraska. I told him the reason why I wanted to go to Nebraska was because I saw Turner Gill. I saw Coach Osborne, he went for two, I saw what they were doing. You had a packed house, some 80,000 crazy fans.”

He said he knew where he was going, and he knew it would be a great fit.

“Obviously, he’s a Hall of Fame coach, but Coach Osborne could relate and somehow you trusted him. He didn’t tell you any fairy tales, he told you the truth,” Taylor said. “He’d say, ‘Steve, if you come to Nebraska you will play quarterback. We will not switch you.’ I went there because I saw someone like me playing quarterback on a national stage. Didn’t have to convince me, I saw it. I knew I could play.”

Taylor talked about a different time in the 1980s and 1990s for Husker football with many All-American accolades and careers in the professional ranks.

“That’s when I’m talking about the standard. That’s the standard,” Taylor said. “And if you want to be the best, you’ve got to play the best. Coach Osborne came to us going into my senior year (1988) and said, ‘We’ve got a chance to win the national championship, guys.’”

Then Taylor shifted today’s team and compared what Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule is doing with his program to how Osborne coached successfully.

“I’m a positive person. I love Nebraska. I’m all in for Coach Rhule,” he said. “I think we have a chance with Coach Rhule. He has a lot of qualities like Coach Osborne. I trust him. I think he can coach. He has a tall task in front of him and he knows it. And we’re going to see what happens with Dylan Raiola. We are very, very fortunate with him.

“I believe in this staff, and we can do it. He’s going to have to tweak some things,” Taylor added, referring to Rhule. “He’s going to have to grow and learn just like Coach Osborne did.”

Taylor said it’s going to come down to patience. He said Husker fans have to realize that it will take time to turn this thing around.

“If you weren’t willing to give Coach Osborne the time to do what he did, we wouldn’t have those championships from the ‘90’s,” he said. “I always knew coach was going to get championships. Always knew.”

He said the same kind of belief will need to be applied to Rhule and his program and what they can accomplish. But Taylor also sees some other bright developments that will make Husker future success attainable.

“Now we have an athletic director and head coach that are on the same page with the same vision. They’re not colliding and fighting with one another. They have that same philosophy and same goal and know what they want to do and want to help each other. I think we have a chance, but it’s going to take some time.”