When Montavious Taylor walks into the weight room in the bowels of Panther Stadium, as he’s done four times a week, every week this summer, he’s always greeted the same way.
“Oh, there goes the freshman of the year,” coaches will say. “What’s he going to do?”
Taylor isn’t a freshman anymore. He’s almost eight months removed from his rookie season at Clark Atlanta, where he led the Panthers in rushing, with 730 yards and seven scores in a season that earned him SIAC Freshman of the Year honors and a new nickname from the coaching staff. He’s almost a month removed from being named to the preseason All-SIAC team.
And he’s still a long way from where he wants to be.
His coaches like calling him out. They enjoy challenging the young back, pushing him to break. They remind him of how he was second in the conference in rushing last season and how much he has to live up to this year. But one teammate is there to remind him of something else.
“He always tells me stay down,” Taylor said. “(That) means to keep humble. Continue doing what you’re doing. Just work.”
“He” is Bre’nard Williams. And he knows what he’s talking about. Williams, a senior linebacker, led the conference in tackles last season, earning himself All-SIAC honors at the end of last season and again in this year’s preseason poll. He’s the general of the No. 1 pass defense in Division II. And he’s training a promising new soldier.
Taylor and Williams are the two heads of a struggling Panthers team that is trying to claw its way out of the jaws of mediocrity. Taylor: the insatiable ground gainer who chews up opposing defenses for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight snack at the head of the No. 1 rushing team in the conference. Williams: the voracious tank of a man who chases down every ball like the carrier stole it from his mother. Taylor: the quiet producer, who leads with his actions. Williams: the outspoken voice of the team who inspires teammates not just by how he plays, but what he says.
“We’re counting on those two guys a bunch,” coach Kevin Weston said. “And they’re just great young men.”
Running backs coach Fred Jones said that being a great young man after winning a great award can be hard, though. On a campus as small as Clark Atlanta’s, just a few miles from where Taylor went to high school at Carver, it would be easy to get big-headed.
But Weston won’t allow his young star to rest on his laurels.
“Every day we present it to him,” Weston said. “You can be freshman of the year for the rest of your life or you can move on to something greater.”
That was an easy choice for Taylor.
“It’s in the past now,” he said. “I’m not a freshman anymore.”
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