He couldn’t run. He still can’t move his toes. Yet Will Taylor worked himself into Duke’s starting lineup.
Will Taylor already accomplished plenty, overcoming a dire medical diagnosis just to play a few games here and there over the last two football seasons at Duke.
On Saturday, he’ll achieve even more when he makes his first career start, lining up at center in place of the injured Jack Wohlabaugh when the Blue Devils face Syracuse in an ACC game at Wallace Wade Stadium (4 p.m., ACC Network).
Two years ago, the simple act of running onto a football field -- let alone playing, let alone starting -- looked impossible.
An August 2017 knee injury tore a ligament but also caused damage to the nerves controlling the muscles in his lower right leg, leaving Taylor with the condition known as foot drop. With the muscles not firing normally, he couldn’t lift the front part of his foot to walk or run smoothly.
A three-star recruit entering his freshman season at Duke, Taylor was told his career could be over even after a second surgery, involving a tendon transfer, a few months later to relieve the condition’s symptoms.
“They were very straightforward with me just how serious is was,” Taylor said. “I still remember, they said their first goal was to make it so I could run and play sports and stuff with my future kids one day. That was the main goal before getting me back to football.”
Rather than give up, Taylor put in the grueling rehabilitation to regain strength and re-learn how to get his foot to move as he needed. At one point in preseason practice in August 2018, his leg was so weak and uncomfortable he was close to calling it a career.
But Duke offensive line coach Jim Bridge encouraged him to give it a few more days to see how he felt. Taylor did and a few more days turned into a few more weeks and so on.
Now here he is, preparing to start an ACC game.
“He went from foot drop to success,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “I never had had one recover from that.”
It’s been a tough couple of years for Taylor, who still has no feeling on the outside of his right leg and is unable to move his toes.
Will’s twin brother, John Taylor, is not only his Duke football teammate but also his roommate. He was there to provide moral support as well as help Will physically during all those months he had to use crutches.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d been able to get through it without John,” said Will Taylor, who is proudly one minute older than his brother.
In 2018, as a redshirt freshman, Will Taylor played 30 snaps over three games, making his collegiate debut during a 55-13 win over N.C. Central on Sept. 22.
After Duke’s 8-5 season, Taylor won the team’s Mike Suglia Award, given to a second-year player in the program. Suglia was a sophomore Duke offensive lineman who died in spring 1977.
Last summer during August preseason camp, Cutcliffe said, he made a point during a team meeting to praise Taylor for how far he’d come just to that point.
“It was in my heart and on my mind,” Cutcliffe said “He was having such a good camp. I said `Guys, he’s really something miraculous. You want to talk about inspirational. There he sits right there in Will Taylor. Guys, that’s amazing.”
This season, Taylor saw similarly light duty as a reserve in three games.
But last Monday, Duke’s medical staff made the decision that the ankle injury Wohlabaugh, the team’s starting center, had been playing through for five weeks required surgery. Cutcliffe had the option of starting the inexperienced Taylor or moving redshirt senior Zach Baker over to center from his starting left guard position.
He went with Taylor and is pleased with how this week’s practice went. While Wohlabaugh is 20 pounds heavier, Taylor is showing effectiveness in another way.
“He’s brilliant,” Cutcliffe said. “So he uses his mind and his quickness to his advantage.”
All season long, Duke has started freshmen tackles in Casey Holman on the left side and Jacob Monk on the right.
Baker and Rak Chambers are the starting guards.
For the Syracuse game, with the Blue Devils aiming to halt a three-game losing streak, they’ll be surrounding an inexperienced but inspirational center.
Taylor had been getting some repetitions with the first team for the last month while the coaching staff had Wohlabaugh rest his injured ankle.
Cutcliffe expects the group to play at their best and be successful, not in spite of Taylor, but because of him.
“What he’s had to go through to get where he is, that’s what you call paying the price,” Cutcliffe said. “So if they don’t step up around him and we don’t play our best game up front I’m going to be really disappointed. Because that’s what good people do.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 9:54 AM with the headline "He couldn’t run. He still can’t move his toes. Yet Will Taylor worked himself into Duke’s starting lineup.."