By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
AUSTIN – Until the career-ending injury to starting center Dominic Espinosa midway through the third quarter of Texas’ season-opening win against North Texas in 2014, Taylor Doyle was likely earmarked to implant his stamp on Longhorn football via occasional appearances in mop-up roles and on the scout team.
Boy, how things have changed.
Doyle is now Texas’ man in the middle at center and one of the faces of the team. He player in all 13 games – and started 11of them – and performed well [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]enough to be named to spring and preseason watch lists for the 2015 Rimington Trophy, which honors the top center in the nation. (Continue reading below…)
(…Continued from above.) Doyle, a 6-foot-4, 298-pound fifth-year senior from Lake Travis, earned starts at guard against Brigham Young, UCLA and Kansas and then moved to the No. 1 center spot for the first time in the Oklahoma game, helping the Texas offense gain 482 yards, including a career-best 334 passing yards by quarterback Tyrone Swoopes.
He remained as first person to touch the ball on each offensive snap for the Longhorns for the remainder of the season and is now entrenched in the role.
Doyle is a key member of a Texas offensive line that returns five starters from last year when the group was learning on the run from offensive line coach Joe Wickline.
“Last year was the first time many of us had been on the field a lot and we were learning to play together as a unit,” Doyle said. “We don’t have that excuse this year. We have guys, including myself, who have come a long way and had to step up, but we still have a long way to go. Fortunately, we’re in a great position with coach Wickline leading the way and teaching us as we go.”
Doyle never played center in a game until that Texas-OU matchup. He was a tackle in high school and was a reserve guard for his first three years on the 40 Acres, earning scout team kudos for his work in practice.
He is mannerly and clean-cut, the kind of guy you wouldn’t recoil against knocking on your front door to take your daughter to the movies. But according to Andy Erickson, Doyle’s former teammate at Lake Travis and one of his best friends, Doyle has a nasty streak in him that kicks in once he’s donned his headgear.
“Taylor will fool you because he’s really easy going until it’s time to strap in on,” said Erickson, who played wide receiver at Rice and Texas State. “All his aggressiveness comes out on the football field.
“For a while, we were all afraid Taylor was never going to get the chance to show what he could do, to prove how good he can be,” Erickson added. “When coach Strong and coach Wickline came in they gave him the opportunity, and Taylor has taken advantage of that chance.”
There are plenty of folks – yours truly included – who would have labeled Doyle a disappointment during his first three seasons. But with a few breaks and a lot of hard work, Doyle’s proven wrong all his doubters.
Texas’ success this season will be intertwined with that of Doyle. If he continues to improve at the rate he did in 2014 and so far this off-season, he can be one of the Longhorns’ most important players.
Just sayin, ya’ know?
The Habe is Steve Habel, Horns Illustrated’s senior editor. He was the magazine’s first staff member, in 1994, and has covered Texas sports ever since.
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