{"id":25003,"date":"2016-02-26T09:02:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/henry-taylor-rekindle-friendship-at-nfls-scouting-combine\/"},"modified":"2016-02-26T09:02:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:02:53","slug":"henry-taylor-rekindle-friendship-at-nfls-scouting-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/henry-taylor-rekindle-friendship-at-nfls-scouting-combine\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry, Taylor rekindle friendship at NFL’s scouting combine"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014<\/strong> Derrick Henry and Kelvin Taylor have spent most of their lives chasing the same dreams.<\/p>\n

In high school, it was the pursuit of Emmitt Smith\u2019s state rushing record. In college, the goal was SEC stardom.<\/p>\n

Now the former rivals turned friends are working out together at the NFL\u2019s scouting combine, where they\u2019re trying to prove they can thrive at the pro level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been good catching up with him, talking about football,\u201d Henry said Wednesday in Indianapolis after the two walked into the interview room at the same time.<\/p>\n

There will be plenty of topics for discussion this week.<\/p>\n

Henry was rather surprised when he measured in at 6-foot-2 1\/2 and 247 pounds, about 5-6 pounds heavier than he expected. That\u2019s not good news for a running back with aspirations of going in the first round of the draft.<\/p>\n

Taylor, meanwhile, may be asked to explain in the team interviews what he learned from coach Jim McElwain\u2019s embarrassing sideline scolding last fall over a celebration.<\/p>\n

At least both players know they\u2019ll have one empathetic ear around town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re real close,\u201d Henry said. \u201cWhenever we get together, we like to talk about football.\u201d<\/p>\n

But football has taken their careers down very disparate paths.<\/p>\n

While Taylor actually broke Smith\u2019s high school record in Florida, Henry wound up smashing a 59-year-old national prep record with 12,144 career yards. Taylor also topped the 12,000-yard mark, but the National Federation of High School Associations doesn\u2019t recognize the yardage he amassed from his eighth-grade season when he also played on the varsity team.<\/p>\n

Henry also won the only head-to-head prep meeting, 42-6, on a day he outrushed Taylor 362-223.<\/p>\n

The dominance continued in college.<\/p>\n

After Henry left his home state for powerhouse Alabama, he became the second Heisman Trophy winner in school history, helped the Crimson Tide easily get past Taylor\u2019s Gators for another SEC crown in December, then scored three touchdowns in a national championship game victory over Clemson.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Henry broke the SEC\u2019s single-season rushing record, was voted MVP of the SEC championship game and won the Doak Walker, Maxwell and Walter Camp Awards.<\/p>\n

Now, he must prove the critics wrong one more time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to let it fuel you,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s final college season took a very different turn.<\/p>\n

With the offense struggling, Florida relied heavily on its junior running back. Just when it appeared he was about to break through, McElwain\u2019s tirade was captured on video for the whole world to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at me, don\u2019t look down,\u201d McElwain shouted before uttering another sentence with an expletive.<\/p>\n

Some thought Taylor\u2019s celebration was a tribute to his father, former Florida and Jacksonville Jaguars star Fred Taylor.<\/p>\n

Instead, the younger Taylor said he was trying to signal the game was over by gesturing the \u201cthat\u2019s the wrap\u201d gesture \u2014 something he now regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Mac did the right thing, though, because I should have never brought any type of attention to myself. He did the right thing yelling at me and things like that, because he would have done the same thing if it was practice,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt just so happened that all of the media and everything was around, so I felt like a lot of people blowed it out of proportion.\u201d<\/p>\n

But growing up around pro football also taught Taylor something else \u2014 what it takes to be a star.<\/p>\n

For most of his life, Taylor has been pursuing goals. He finally beat his dad in a foot race at age 17, finally caught Smith\u2019s record in 2011, and finally became his own man in college.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s up to the two friends to come out to Indianapolis and show what they can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis game is everything I ever dreamed about, and this opportunity is everything I ever dreamed about and more,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI just want to take full advantage of it and embrace the process and have a great time and be the best player I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry couldn\u2019t sum it up any better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Derrick Henry and Kelvin Taylor have spent most of their lives chasing the same dreams. In high school, it was the pursuit of Emmitt Smith\u2019s state rushing record. In college, the goal was SEC stardom. Now the former rivals turned friends are working out together at the NFL\u2019s scouting combine, where they\u2019re trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":25004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25003"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}