Taylor made

Florida tailback Fred Taylor ends career on high

ORLANDO, Fla. -- During a team meeting on the evening before Florida's 21-6 win against Penn State in the Citrus Bowl, Gator coach Steve Spurrier issued a pearl of wisdom to the Florida players who would be appearing for the final time in an orange and blue Gator uniform the next afternoon. He told them their careers were only as good as their final games.

For one Gator player in particular -- running back Fred Taylor -- Spurrier's wisdom meant a little more. For Taylor, the Citrus Bowl represented his final opportunity to destroy the black cloud that had dogged him since he first stepped on Florida's Gainesville campus in 1994.

There were off-the-field incidents, many of them, which seemed to constantly jeopardize Taylor's football future. As a freshman, there was an egg-throwing incident. Before his sophomore season, there was the stolen debit card with which he and three teammates used to buy pizzas. Later, it was a stolen bookbag Taylor accepted from a teammate. He had been suspended twice, missing a total of four games. He was a problem child.

But in 1997, the talented running back finally began to chip away at the negative aura that surrounded him. On 214 carries, the senior captain led the team with 1,292 rushing yards ( the fourth-best single-season total in Gator history. He was named first-team All-Southeastern Conference. He stayed out of trouble.

There was one game left, though. And your career is only as good as your final game.

"I think," Taylor would say after the Citrus Bowl, "the way this game ended, I had a pretty nice career here."

The way the game ended was with Taylor being named the game's most valuable player after running for 234 yards on 43 carries, a Citrus Bowl record, against a Penn State defense which proved one last time to be extremely porous against the run.

During the regular season several opposing teams had success running the ball against the Nittany Lions, a team which surrendered more than 180 yards rushing per game. In a dismal 49-14 loss to Michigan State on Nov. 29, Penn State allowed an amazing 470 yards rushing.

Heading into the Citrus Bowl, the Florida coaching staff was well aware of this sizable chink in Penn State's defensive armor and they made Taylor aware as well.

"We just thought we could run on them, the way Michigan State ran on them and a lot of teams ran on them," Taylor said.

And from the opening kickoff Florida's belief in its ground game was glaringly obvious.

First-and-10 from the Florida 20 yard line -- Taylor takes the handoff and runs for eight yards before being tackled by Penn State linebacker Aaron Collins.

Second-and-two from the Florida 28 -- Taylor takes the handoff and runs for seven more yards before being tackled at the 35, this time by Penn State free safety Shawn Lee.

First-and-10 from the Florida 35 -- Taylor takes the handoff and runs for another 13 yards before being tackled by cornerback Shino Prater.

And that's how Florida's first drive progressed. It took the Gators 11 plays to reach the end zone, and their senior running back carried the ball on seven of those plays for a whopping 47 yards.

As the game wore on, Florida's play-calling remained largely the same -- mainly because Penn State failed to adjust defensively until the latter stages of the contest.

"There at the end, they got a whole bunch of guys up there, but most of the game they didn't have all that many up there," Spurrier said. "Fred Taylor was sensational and blocking was pretty good. That was the plan, to hand it to Fred."

And because of that plan, Taylor will not be remembered by most as a talented problem child. Instead, he'll likely be remembered as the talented running back who torched Penn State in his final collegiate appearance.