If Taylor does indeed end up wearing the orange and black in Cincinnati, though, he will become the first former Husker hired as an NFL head coach in the Super Bowl era, and he will have done it just a shade more than a decade since starting his first gig as a GA in College Station in 2008.

As much as the recent spree of hiring young, offensive-minded coaches in the NFL has benefited Taylor and others, former teammates of his insist he’s no coattail rider. NFL owners and general managers can lack creativity, but there are only so many openings and there are so many candidates.

So why Taylor and why now?

‘I despised him’

Taylor, a Norman, Oklahoma, native, spent only two years in Lincoln but still worked his way into the pantheon of the universally respected.

Ask around, and you’ll find nothing but lavish praise for everything from his play to his dealings with teammates and reporters. One athletic department official put it simply enough this week: “One of the best people I know.”

Joe Ganz feels that way about Taylor, too. The 33-year-old Youngstown State quarterbacks coach, however, didn’t have such high regard for Taylor in the spring of 2005.