Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? I told y'all yesterday, forget it!" The gift of gab, mixed in with a wry, humorous touch comes naturally to Taylor, who since 2008 has been a game and studio analyst for CBS Sports. He did the Notre Dame-Air Force game last season, might be as- signed the Notre Dame-Navy game this Nov. 1, and starting Oct. 11 he will handle SEC doubleheaders with play-by-play man Carter Blackburn. Taylor also is a studio analyst on the popular weekly show "Inside College Football." "It was a way for me to stay con- nected to football," Taylor said of his career path. "I didn't want to be a coach. I wanted to control my own destiny in the hours and all the stress and pressures. Being on national TV has stress and pressure, too, but it's miniscule compared to what coaches go through." Taylor enjoys television production because it's an offshoot of an offensive line working in harmony. "It's a team of people that have a four-hour window where there is this intensity, where we have to work to- gether, and we somehow pull it to- gether more times than not," he said. "Being able to talk and speak from my heart on something is a gift that I have been given. I use that partially as an analyst on TV that people get to see, but there is a lot of ways I use that that people don't get to see, that isn't pub- lic, that I think I'm much better at than when I'm in front of a camera, although that part is coming along." BEFORE THE GLORY Growing up in Northern California as the only child in a single-parent house- hold and near the ghetto, Taylor said he started to live the "knucklehead" life- style that embraced reckless behavior and had law enforcement regularly nip- ping on his heels. When Taylor was 14, his mother, Mardi, a registered nurse, made the tough-love decision to kick him out of the house. "I was just a kid that was lost and didn't believe anything, didn't have anybody but my mom that believed THE HUMAN NATURE LETDOWN No. 2 Notre Dame defeating No. 1 Florida State 31‑24 in 1993 is still referred to by Aaron Taylor as the pinnacle of his athletics career, including starting in two Super Bowls and winning one. He still believes 11‑1 Notre Dame was the best team that season, but sleepwalking through the first three quarters the next week while falling behind 38‑17 to Boston College, rallying to move ahead 39‑38 before losing on the final play gave the national title to FSU over the No. 2 Irish. "We controlled our destiny, and we gave up that right by not showing up against BC," Taylor said. "What's so profound to me is we had Lou Holtz, Joe Moore, me, Bryant Young, Tim Ruddy and Jeff Burris as captains — you couldn't ask for more leadership concentrated on the damn football field. And if we couldn't pull it together because we had celebrated too much … that haunts us all. "As an analyst now I'm very aware of that and I pick upsets pretty well because I just look at teams that are coming off huge wins the week before." — Lou Somogyi