Tar Heels have Taylor at H-back

Ryan Taylor was brought to North Carolina three years ago to do a specific job for the football program.

This season, his last at North Carolina, he should finally get the chance to do it.

Taylor is scheduled to play H-back, a receiving position that is mostly a hybrid of tight end and fullback, for a team in dire need of pass catchers. At yesterday's practice, the first of the season, Taylor, a former Mount Tabor High School receiver, was listed as the starter.

"I'm really looking forward to making this season kind of a breakout year, a season to prove myself," Taylor said. "I've got a lot to prove to myself and a lot to prove to my teammates."

He hasn't caught a pass at North Carolina after making 118 catches in his last two high-school seasons, but hasn't forgotten how after duty as a standout special teams player, changing positions occasionally and even playing linebacker on defense.

In a game last season against N.C. State, he achieved the rare feat of playing on offense at tight end, defense at linebacker and on special teams while making three tackles.

"I still think of myself as a viable pass option for this team, and I still have a lot to prove to myself, players, coaches, scouts or whoever that it is still a role I can very much fulfill," he said.

He opened his bid for the starter's job confident that his skills as a receiver had improved, not eroded, in the past three seasons. He said that he was probably not a very good linebacker, although he tried hard to help fill a crucial need, but that the time spent on defense strengthened his all-around awareness.

Having seen offense from the other side, Taylor, now 6-3 and 240 pounds, believes he will know how to run pass routes better and make tough catches in anticipation of the defense's moves.

"Playing defense might have been the best thing I've done in my whole career," he said. "Now I know how to read every defensive scheme. Any scheme they throw at me, I've already done and I'm going to be able to read it that much easier."

Taylor is also healthy, which he wasn't for much of last season. He underwent surgery on his right shoulder after UNC's bowl game to repair a torn labrum that was likely hurt initially when making a tackle on special teams last Oct. 4 in a win against Connecticut.

Team doctors told him that the injury grew progressively worse during the rest of the season. He has no plans to abandon special teams this season, however, and will play on four kick return and coverage teams and will man a spot on the extra-point and field-goal teams.

"It's just a place that I really feel at home," he said. "It's been my role since freshman year; I've been on all of them. It's a place I've kind of carved out for myself. Playing on defense helped me on special teams."

Some of his summer was spent catching passes in Kenan Stadium when several players met to work on their own. On other days, when he didn't feel like going to the football venue, he stepped in the yard of the house he shares in Carrboro with three teammates and caught passes with them.

One of his housemates is T.J. Yates, the starting quarterback who threw most of the summer passes so they could start building a field rapport. Taylor said with a laugh that he might slip a few dollars under Yates' door one night with a note asking him to please throw to the No. 3 receiver on a pass route in a game so he can begin amassing catches.

Taylor doesn't anticipate staging a special event if he does catch a pass, although he has waited so long for his first in college.

"Hopefully it will feel like doing just anything," he said. "I don't want to make a big deal out of it. It will be just like making the first tackle of the season or making the first good block. I don't think there will be any anxiety towards it."

Taylor's contributions will be vital to UNC's offense. Three top receivers from last season's team are gone, two who were high NFL draft choices, but Coach Butch Davis is confident that Taylor can fit in and plug a big hole.

Davis agreed with Ryan's assessment that the time he spent playing on defense has helped his ability as a pass route runner and pass catcher.

"Ryan has been an enormously significant contributor to our special teams," Davis said. "I think (H-back) is probably more clearly a natural position for him to be an offensive player. That's what he had the most amount of success doing in high school."

Taylor never had the chance to master one position in his college career. He didn't play on a winning team until last season. He never complained.

He would like to finish his college career with an ACC championship and berth in a BCS Bowl game, both of which he believes are distinct possibilities because of Davis' rebuilding.

"I think we are totally capable of winning every game," he said. "I don't see any games on the schedule that are not 100 percent winnable and that we shouldn't win.

"This team can be as great as it wants to be. We can be as good as we we're willing to push ourselves."

■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.