It’s rare to find a football player that’s the equivalent of a “five tool” player in baseball, but if Clearwater’s Kane Taylor played that sport, we would probably be highlighting his ability to perform whatever’s necessary to be an all-area player on the diamond. Instead, we are talking about an athlete on the gridiron that can legitimately play four positions and with some work–could even find himself playing a fifth.
The 6-foot-3, 270-pounder may be the size of a defensive lineman, but he’s got his pick-of-the-litter when it comes to playing either linebacker, defensive end, tight end, fullback–or even kicker if necessary. Last season in his first year at Clearwater after transferring from Dunedin–his junior season–he rushed for 120 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown from the fullback spot while catching three passes for 43 yards at his tight end position. He added 39 tackles–10.5 of those for loss–and added two sacks, a QB hurry, an interception, one caused fumble and two fumbles recovered.
Don’t let the numbers “fool” you with that kind of intro. Watch his film and you can see why college coaches–Power Five coaches at that–end up wanting to know all about him after initially showing up to find about someone completely different. Taylor is the “little” or should we say younger brother of former Countryside standout Mario Taylor and should certainly make name for himself as one of the most gifted in Pinellas before he leaves high school–and perhaps one of the best in college and possibly beyond once he handles what he needs to off the field. He showed up at Ignite and was besting the competition as a defensive end, and ended up gaining an invite as a tight end if that’s any indication of where his potential lies.
As mentioned, it’s his talent on the field that’s got college coaches salivating and his head coach at Clearwater, Don Mesick speaking in high-praise. “He’s pretty much great wherever you put him–He’s certainly the best athlete I’ve ever coached. His size and his athleticism and his speed–I mean, I’ve coached fast guys before–I’ve coached big guys before, but I’ve never coached guys that have ALL the tools that he has–it’s absolutely off the charts.” said Mesick.
Getting all gassed-up on praise from coaches at the next level is something that’s the norm when they come and speal to recruits, but throwing out references to “The Shield” and the ability to one day live out the dreams of 99.9% of the kids playing this sport from youth to adult–with MULTIPLE years left to prove it still–can venture into the dangerous land of hyperbole, but when multiple coaches with credibility say the same thing–where there’s smoke, there must be fire.
Mesick can confirm this, “When college guys come and see him and talk to him, they tell him that he’s an NFL player–and that’s big-time colleges saying that. They’re like, ‘man you’ve got NFL ability, you’ve just got to get to college.”
Even Mesick has a hard time putting his arms completely around what’s happening. “Sometimes you doubt your eyes in what they’re seeing, but this kid is just something else. I would probably go that far–even though he doesn’t play quarterback, he can throw a football sixty-yards–even though he doesn’t punt, he can kick the ball 50-60 yards. He can take two steps and just kick it into the end zone off the tee. Overall, he does things we don’t even ask him to do, yet he’ capable of doing. Along with being a man child and being able to catch the ball with one-hand like it’s a baseball, run people over and just manhandle guys.”
The one thing that’s most-exciting is finding a comparison from years’ past to stand him up next to–and when posed the question whether or not Taylor reminds him of anyone in particular, it gets tough. One thing Mesick gets to see is Taylor’s freakish athleticism every day and knows that he’ll take his guy over just about anybody.
“You can take the best guy you’ve seen around here that’s a fullback–and he’s as good as that guy. You can take he area’s best middle linebacker–and he’ll be in the conversation with that guy. Same thing goes for tight end. He even kicked for us a little bit this year, but he was a little inconsistent with that which is why he wasn’t full-time at that even though I’ve seen boot the ball 65-70 yards in practice without even trying–but then the next two go out of bounds at the twenty yard line. It comes down to him simply not getting enough reps at practice or else he’d be good at that, too.”