Sheridan grad Shay Taylor is eyeing a larger role for Ohio Bobcats football in 2024

ATHENS — Coaches with the Ohio football program learned quickly what many around Sheridan High School have known for years.

Shay Taylor gets it.

Taylor was the second half of the Muskingum Valley League's tandem in the front seven last fall with the Bobcats, who rode the nation's fourth-ranked defense to another 10-win season in 2023.

Taylor, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound middle linebacker, and John Glenn senior Shane Bonner, a grad senior who played a hybrid position, were part of a deep and talented linebacker rotation for assistant coach Nate Faanes. It featured two first-team All-Mid American Conference selections in seniors Bryce Houston and Keye Thompson.

Taylor made the most of his opportunities in a backup role and on special teams as a redshirt sophomore, eventually starting in the Myrtle Beach Bowl after opt-outs forced him into extended action. This, after he suffered a hamstring injury against Central Michigan.

His play in the bowl game showed why Faanes, who has coached seven All-MAC players since 2016, and others around the program see a promising future.

'Wouldn't trade it for anything': Shane Bonner thrived for OU football; now he wants more

Seizing the moment in Myrtle Beach Bowl

Taylor finished with six tackles for a defense that yielded only 33 yards rushing and forced five turnovers, the most ever for an OU defense in a bowl game.

Taylor's fumble recovery late in the second quarter set up a Rickey Hunt touchdown. Prior to that, he recorded a sack in the first quarter on an inside blitz. Another blitz netted him a fumble recovery with 1:07 left before halftime.

It didn't surprise Bonner in the least.

"That guy has big things in front him," Bonner said recently. "He had some really good players in front him, so he had to wait his turn."

It was a factor in which Taylor found positives. He estimated that 80 percent of the roster returned for the 2023 season, with "great players and great role models" in front of him in Thompson, who is transferring to Pitt, and Houston, who yearns to be an NFL Draft pick.

He took plenty of mental notes. He made no bones about his expectations to be a full-time starter this fall for a unit that will be much younger overall, particularly at linebacker.

His style of play has already shown to translate.

"At this level you have to know a lot of other people's jobs, really you have to know everyone's," Taylor said. "My style has always been to way to the ball and I don't think that has changed."

Faanes said on Thursday that he expects Taylor "to have a big year for us," citing his competitiveness and intangibles as reasons he enjoys coaching him.

"He spends more time than a lot of people getting better at his craft," Faanes said. "He cares, and he’s tough with intangible stuff. The intangibles — I care way more about that than I do about anything else. That was very evident when we were recruiting him, and he’s only blossomed even more."

Taylor said he has already taken on a leadership role as one of the defense's elder statesmen, something Faanes echoed and appreciates.

It was a role in which he also thrived as a two-way standout at Sheridan, starting for three playoff teams.

"We have some great athletes coming back, and we lost some great athletes," Taylor said. "At the end of the day I think our standard is to be one of the best defenses in the country. With (our coaches) it’s easier to do than at a lot of other places. I think we have the opportunity to be just as good."

Blackburn column: Maysville embodied what is right about high school sports

Patience translates into playing time

Taylor knew when he inked a Division I scholarship offer in the season following the COVID-19 pandemic that he was going to need patience and resiliency to get to the field.

Current roster players were given an extra year of eligibility around the same time that the Division I transfer portal also came into prominence.

Taylor passed up offers from smaller schools to chase his Division I dream, which is finally paying off with the prospects of extended playing time.

He admitted he had his doubts.

"The COVID thing, kids above me getting an extra year, the portal thing, NIL deals — it was all a big mess as I was starting college," Taylor said. "But at the end of the day I knew that if I persevered that I could try and replicate the same success that I had in high school."

He said that he is thankful to have Faanes as a position coach, citing his impressive resumé of All-MAC players.

"I'm just blessed that he is still here with us," Taylor said.

'Bigger than ourselves'

Taylor said Bonner, a two-time walk-on turned scholarship player from John Glenn, was "very much respected" by his peers because of his combination of resilience, work ethic and humility.

Faanes called it "probably one of my favorite stories of all time, just his path and how he started here and how he ended up."

When they were on the field for the bowl game, it is believed to be the first time that two players from different high schools in the Muskingum Valley League played in a Division I bowl game.

"I didn’t really process it going into the game," Taylor said. "But he and I talked about it throughout the season, just how crazy it is because we are both from such small communities. The area that we were representing was bigger than ourselves."

He remains a proud General and is thankful to be shown the value of high standards prior to college. He thanked Sheridan head coach Paul Culver III and assistant Chad Culver, his high school linebackers coach, for preparing him.

"The tradition of winning," Taylor said. "When we had Coach (Frank) Solich when I first got here it was the same principle of everyone that is from this area. It’s a big community that respects the football team and the coach. I am blessed to have grown up in that environment at such a young age and chosen a school that replicated the same things."

sblackbu@gannett.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Ohio University football: Sheridan grad Taylor eyeing more playing time