When I sat down to watch some late-night PAC 12 action on September 22nd, little did I know that I would discover a talent that most of the country had not seen play before. It wasn’t just his quickness that caught my eye, but how he used his speed to burst through holes and wrap around the edges, seeming way faster than anyone else on the field. Now I hadn’t watched an Arizona football game in awhile, but I had to know who this guy was. Was he one of their senior leaders who had been there for years? Did everyone else know who this guy was and I was just out of the loop? No and no. This lightning bolt is named JJ Taylor and that night he became my favorite player in the PAC 12.

With the run that Arizona has been on as of late, I figured what better time to highlight Taylor than when the Wildcats are beginning to gain some national recognition. Khalil Tate is awesome, but not enough attention has been directed at Taylor… yet. The freshman played in four games last year, as he began his breakout before breaking his ankle against Washington. Despite seeing limited action, in the games against Washington and Hawaii when Taylor got some playing time, he did nothing but impress. In these two games he had 37 carries for 265 yards and two touchdowns, including this great run against Hawaii.

Unfortunately, the injury kept Taylor out for the remainder of the season before he was able to return this year. Every game we’ve all been waiting for the breakout and it just hadn’t quite materialized, until this past weekend against Washington State. In that game, Taylor had just 13 rushes for 152 yards (11.7 YPC) and two scores. While still overshadowed in the game by Khalil Tate, Taylor finally gained some recognition against a good team.

As Arizona continues to have the most electric offense in college football, expect to be seeing a little bit of JJ Taylor on the Sportscenter Top Ten and maybe talked about as a future Heisman contender.