When Scooter Berry exited West Virginia’s week two game against East Carolina after suffering a left shoulder injury when he penetrated the backfield and sacked Pirates quarterback Patrick Pinkney, immediately it appeared the Mountaineers had lost an integral part of its defensive line. WVU plays an odd stack 3-3-5 scheme, with Berry at the starting tackle position , alongside nose tackle Chris Neild and end Julian Miller, so there went one-third of the line.

Time for the Mountaineers to panic?

Hardly.

“The fact remains, it goes on,” said head coach Bill Stewart. “You replace him at that moment and press on.”

Reserve defensive linemen Larry Ford, Jorge Wright and Josh Taylor, sprinkled in with linebacker Ovid Goulbourne, were all ready. All have gotten reps on the line, but perhaps none have outshined the play from Taylor. The 6-foot-1, 263-pound red shirt sophomore from Miramar High School (Miramar, Fla.) stepped in for Berry and has since performed admirably, netting nine tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and an interception.

However, for Taylor, the instant impact he delivered did not surprise him one bit. 

“Not really,” he said. “There’s always room to improve.”

Coming out of high school, Taylor only received one scholarship offer from St. Paul’s College, an NCAA Division II school located in Lawrenceville, Va.

“I was really stubborn coming out of high school,” Taylor said. “I thought I could play D-I [Division I, now known as FBS] ball. I didn’t want to settle.”

WVU offered Taylor a chance to walk on the team and earn a scholarship last year. He was red shirted during the 2008 season and was not granted a scholarship until this past summer.

“I had to keep pushing myself to get where I wanted to get,” he said. “I came up here to play. I thought I was going to be able to help out the team.”

Clearly, Taylor has already done that with just five games under his belt.

“He’s come on as a player,” Stewart said.

Neild said of the defensive line, “They knew we didn’t have that much depth coming into this year.

“Having them step in and know if one of us veteran guys gets hurt like Scooter did, we got somebody that’s pretty good to step in there.”

Earning a scholarship provided financial support for Taylor and his family, as well as extra incentive to perform on the football field.

“It means a lot,” Taylor said. “My parents were basically taking out loans for me trying to pay out school and just to get that weight off my back -- that’s a lot.”

It doesn’t stop there for Taylor, though. “I need to prove that I deserve the scholarship now that they gave it to me. I need to stay with the drive and stay playing hard.”

Going back home to Florida was not an option for Taylor. He refused to fail in the goal he set for himself to play at a major college football program. “I couldn’t go back home and say it didn’t work out for me. That would be saying like, ‘Oh, he just gave up. He didn’t want to push himself and work hard.’”

Even though a recovering Berry, who is a red shirt junior, missed WVU’s games against Auburn and Colorado, he is still impacting the defense, specially, acting as a mentor to Taylor. “Scooter helps me a lot,” Taylor said. “Every time I come off the field, I go straight to him.”

Creating chemistry is essential for any successful football team and that intangible item trickles down position by position. A positive bond between the defensive linemen is something Taylor is proud to be a part of.

“We’ve basically been coming together all season,” Taylor explained. “The d-line, we’re a real tight unit. We go out together. We cheer together.”

During WVU’s game last Saturday at Syracuse, Taylor intercepted Orange quarterback Greg Paulus on the opening series of the game, killing an SU drive that moved the football inside WVU territory. Taylor was caught off guard by his own momentum swinging takeaway.

“Yeah, I was actually,” he said.

After he nabbed Paulus’ screen pass out of the air, Taylor returned the interception eight yards but fumbled the football while being tackled to the turf inside the Carrier Dome.

“As you could see I didn’t know too much to do after that happened,” he candidly remarked.

Nevertheless, teammate Pat Lazear, a linebacker, scooped the football and returned it 53 yards to the Syracuse 11-yard line, setting up Jarrett Brown’s short touchdown pass to Noel Devine on the very next play. From there, WVU never looked back in the rout, which was all triggered initially by Taylor.

Joked Stewart, “I’d like to see him get one of those a game.”

“I’m just happy that I got the pick and that I helped out the team,” said Taylor, who said he had not ran with a football in a live game situation since he was a fullback at Miramar.

This Saturday, WVU welcomes in-state opponent Marshall, who features the college football’s No. 2-ranked rusher, Darius Marshall, who is averaging better than 147 yards a game. Taylor and the Mountaineers defensive line will need to be up to the challenge of defending the Thundering Herd’s talented tailback if they are to capture the non-conference win.

“He’s an excellent player I think,” Taylor said. “We just got to do the best we can to contain him because he’s a great player.”

The former walk-on will continue to step into the limelight if he helps WVU’s defense contain the game-changing potential of Darius Marshall.

“I’m  not the type of person that likes to stay in the background,“ said Taylor. “I like to get out there and help out the team as much as I can.”

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