Kory Cioroch watched from afar on Saturday night while one of his former players, Gophers running back Darius Taylor, sliced and powered his way to 193 rushing yards against Eastern Michigan.
"It looked pretty familiar to me," Cioroch observed.
He certainly would know. Cioroch is the football coach at Walled Lake Western High School in the northwest Detroit suburbs. Taylor, a true freshman, got his first extensive collegiate playing time, carried the ball 33 times and scored a touchdown in the Gophers' 22-6 victory.
"I came in knowing that whatever I could contribute, I would," Taylor said afterward. "I feel like the coaches put me in a good opportunity to make plays."
The next opportunity for Taylor and the Gophers comes Saturday against No. 20 North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The 5-11, 210-pounder will have a chance to build on his breakthrough game that included a rushing total by a true freshman that is second in program history only to Darrell Thompson's 205 yards against Bowling Green in 1986.
"Darius got probably way more [carries] than we even thought he was going to get, but he earned it," Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. "Every rep he ran, he earned more and more and more. You don't know what a true freshman can do in a game until he goes and does it."
Seizing the moment
Taylor got his chance because injured senior Bryce Williams sat out the game and starter Sean Tyler fumbled twice, losing one of them. After eight first-half carries for 44 yards, Taylor ran 25 times for 149 yards in the second half in helping the Gophers hold the ball for 21 minutes, 52 seconds after intermission.