Kelvin Taylor had dominated the opposition in his career, but never at Florida.
Games with 197 rushing yards are few and far between.
But the Florida-Georgia game wasn’t just UF’s best game of 2014 — it was also Taylor’s breakout game with the Gators.
Snap after snap, Kelvin took the handoff and ran full force against a Georgia defense that was favored to beat Florida by double digits.
By the end of the game, Taylor had run for 197 yards and two touchdowns as the Gators upset Georgia 38-20 for the team’s biggest win of the year.
Kelvin had finally made a name for himself that wasn’t "the running back who can’t pass block" or "NFL running back Fred Taylor’s son."
Before the season, Kelvin said his goal was "to be better than my father."
With No. 11 Florida returning to EverBank Field on Saturday, Taylor will look to get UF’s running game revitalized on the same field where his father made his career.
And in the process, Kelvin hopes to stand out from Fred’s shadow.
"At the end of the day," Kelvin said, "I have my own name."
• • •
Before he even held a football, or played a down for the Florida Gators, Kelvin Taylor was fatherless.
When he was growing up, Kelvin’s father, Fred Taylor, wasn’t home often.
His mother, Tiffany Campbell, was the only family he had.
At the age of 6, Kelvin only knew about his father from watching the TV announcers ooh and aah over him on Sundays.
That year, in 1999, Fred would finally meet his son.
But with his career in full swing, there wouldn’t be much time to catch-up.
He was working almost 300 miles north of the family’s home in Belle Glade, dazzling spectators with each breathtaking run in his first season in the NFL as a Jacksonville Jaguar.
• • •
Tiffany’s brother and Kelvin’s uncle, Jerry, was a rising star quarterback in 1998 at Glades Central High. He had a rocket for an arm and NFL dreams at the front of his mind.
Jerry and Kelvin instantly connected through football — both wanting to be like Fred, but both wanting to make their own name.
Maybe football is in the Taylor’s and Campbell’s blood.
There’s emphasis given to the Campbell lineage, because without Jerry, the name Kelvin Taylor may not have left Belle Glade.
Jerry drove Kelvin to practice and brought him to what can only be described as "the projects" to play football against older boys.
He made Kelvin do push-ups every day, telling him he needed to get bigger or he would never make it.
But when Kelvin was nearing middle school, everything changed.
Jerry was arrested and convicted of committing seven robberies in a week’s span.
Another father figure of Kelvin’s was gone.
But Fred took over Kelvin’s training, which included bringing him through the rigors of working with the local Jaguars who would spend their offseasons training with the Taylor family.
By eighth grade, Kelvin was more than prepared for the rigors of Florida’s Class 1A football division.
Despite playing a year ahead for Glades Day, he fit right in with the rest of the high school players.
Kelvin had his father’s, and uncle’s, physical acumen.
What followed was a plethora of unprecedented accomplishments and accolades that seemed like a foregone conclusion considering his lineage: national freshman of the year, the state of Florida’s all-time leading rusher in high school and the No. 1 ranked running back by ESPN at the end of his senior season.
• • •
Fred, through interviews over the years, has repeatedly made one thing clear: Kelvin did not get into football because of wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps.
And he is even more adamant that he didn’t push Kelvin to choose Florida.
Kelvin’s college decision came down to Alabama and Florida, and he appeared set to join the Crimson Tide.
He had looked up to former Alabama running back Trent Richardson, and had competed against the Tide’s current force, Derrick Henry, in high school.
But after much thought and deliberation, Kelvin chose Florida thanks to a hard recruiting pitch from former UF coach Will Muschamp.
"I stayed away from Kelvin’s decision," Fred told the Alligator last season.
"He made that decision totally himself and he said coach Muschamp was a huge influence on that because he liked that Coach approached him in conversations when he was a recruit. For that particular reason, that’s why Kelvin’s wearing orange and blue."
In his freshman season, Kelvin rushed for just 508 yards and four touchdowns while working as the team’s backup in the backfield.
But near the end of the season, Taylor began to show promise.
He garnered his first career start against none other than Georgia at EverBank Field, and 336 of his rushing yards would come in the last five games of the season.
It looked like Kelvin would be the Gators’ leader in the backfield in 2014.
Yet when the season rolled around, Kelvin again was relegated to the No. 2 running back slot behind Matt Jones.
Despite playing in every game, he fell absent for long stretches due to the perception that he couldn’t pass block.
Following Missouri’s 42-13 demolition of the Gators on homecoming, murmurs of Muschamp being on the hot seat continued to rumble.
Meanwhile, Taylor, like the rest of the Gators, had grown increasingly frustrated with his and the team’s situation.
But with "The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" coming up in the same stadium he had flashed potential in his freshman season, the upcoming rivalry matchup was Kelvin’s chance to turn his season around.
This was the field where his father had made his living, his name and legacy.
This was the Taylor family’s turf.
And after the win, Kelvin confirmed that having his breakout game in Jacksonville meant a lot to him.
"I’ve been coming to this stadium since I was like 12," he said. "I was excited to play in this stadium and I was very blessed."
• • •
When Jim McElwain arrived on campus in December, he knew nothing of the criticisms that had hounded Kelvin in his first two seasons.
Everyone had a clean slate.
Kelvin was eager to re-write his story.
With the offseason departure of redshirt sophomore running back Adam Lane, Matt Jones leaving early for the NFL draft and two true freshmen running backs behind him in the stable, there was no one on the depth chart ahead of Kelvin.
But in just the second game of the season, Kelvin risked falling out of favor with his new coach.
After scoring a touchdown to give the Gators a 31-17 lead against East Carolina, Kelvin celebrated his score with a throat-slashing gesture — a celebration for which the NFL once fined his father $10,000 — that drew a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff.
McElwain immediately erupted, laying into Kelvin on the sidelines for committing an action that was detrimental to the Gators.
"It’s not OK to act that way," McElwain said. "It’s not OK to call attention to yourself, when a selfish act hurts your whole team."
With Florida’s annual game against Georgia imminent, and UF’s running game needing a boost after a dismal 55-yard performance against LSU, Kelvin is hoping to get the Gators backfield attack back on track.
And Kelvin doesn’t need to worry about using his father’s Jacksonville legacy, or Jerry’s incarceration and 2018 release, as motivation.
He’s internally motivated to make his own name.
"I feel like I’ve known how to pass block, now that I’m getting the reps to really do it. " Taylor said defensively.
"Last year I felt like if I would have done one thing wrong, everybody’s so quick to say something. … You could watch all our films from last year and you probably don’t see me miss a pass protection at all. I don’t know why people made a big deal about it."
With half of his junior season under his belt, Kelvin has already run for more touchdowns than he did last season.
Sitting pretty with 463 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, he no longer has to worry about redeeming himself.
Kelvin’s new running backs coach, Tim Skipper, said Kelvin is "an interesting guy" who lets his play on the field speak for itself.
But in the locker room, Kelvin is an unquestioned leader.
"When we’re in the meeting room, he’s pretty vocal and talkative and helping the younger guys out," Skipper said.
"On the field, he’s more of that silent guy that goes about his business. He’s more into doing what he needs to do to make us better. … I’m pleased with how he’s been."
McElwain said the one thing he wishes more people knew about Kelvin is his personality.
"I think the one thing that gets lost is what a great person, what a great player, what a great teammate Kelvin Taylor is," McElwain said.
"He is a guy that doesn’t miss anything. He’s always there early. His teammates respect the heck out of him and that’s what you want."
As McElwain points out, Kelvin is a guy who’s always trying to get better.
When he was dealing with a difficult first two seasons, Kelvin didn’t give up — he only worked on improving.
"He’s a guy that every day is asking me ‘what can I do to get better?’," Skipper said.
"Even if he feels like he had a good game, he’s going to talk about that one or two reps where it wasn’t exactly the way we wanted it to be. You’ve seen it on game day where he’s played a lot better. He’s more physical. In pass protection, he’s striking people.
"I think it’s all paying off for him."
Follow Graham Hall on Twitter @Graham311
Kelvin Taylor celebrates during Florida’s 38-20 win over Georgia on Nov. 1, 2014, at Everbank Field in Jacksonville.
