Nebraska football: 5 most underrated players in Nebraska Cornhuskers history

Zac Taylor threw 45 touchdowns in two years as Nebraska’s quarterback.

Wait, what? Are we talking about that Zac Taylor? Yes, the second-year head coach of the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals used to play quarterback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers back in the day. After redshirting and playing a year at Wake Forest, Taylor transferred to Nebraska to become one of the most prolific passers in the history of the Cornhuskers.

Granted, Nebraska has been historically an extremely run-first football program. However, Taylor did have a great deal of success through the air from 2005-2006 in Lincoln. As a first-year starter in 2005, Taylor completed 55.1 percent of his passes for 2,653 yards, 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His senior season stats in 2006 were even better, completing 59.6 percent of his passes for 3,197 yards, 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Taylor left Lincoln with 5,850 passing yards for 45 touchdowns and 20 interceptions in 26 games. After going undrafted in 2007, he briefly played with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before getting into coaching. That looks to have been a good decision.

Before going 2-14 in his first year leading the Bengals, Taylor served as the quarterbacks’ coach for teams like the Miami Dolphins and the Los Angeles Rams before replacing the longtime Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis. While it remains to be seen if he’ll be any good coaching in the Queen City, Taylor can always bank on being one of the better quarterbacks in Nebraska football history.