Exclusive: Brock Taylor Learned Lessons From Past Teammates. He’s Ready to be a Leader for Vanderbilt Football – Sports Illustrated

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When Vanderbilt football kicker Brock Taylor was in his sophomore season, he sat down with former Commodore long snapper Julian Ashby. It was a short and simple conversation, but one that Taylor still remembers having early in his Vanderbilt career.
The message was simple: why not get to meetings 10 minutes early? As a 19-year-old that was in the beginning stages of his second year of college, Taylor was trying to find a happy medium between living his college life and showing up for football when time calls. Taylor has always been on time to team meetings, but the leaders of the team would arrive at least 10, if not, 15 minutes early.
The conversations with Ashby as well as former Vanderbilt punter Nick Haberer taught Taylor a lesson that he still carries into his senior season at Vanderbilt.
“Those guys kind of taught me that there's times to joke around, there's times to be serious. Which I really enjoyed, because all those dudes are great people,” Taylor told Vandy On SI. “Just leaning on guys like that, then knowing that they're doing things the right way and having played in multiple programs as well, and just kind of picking their brains.”
Other of Taylor’s conversations with Haberer and Ashby would include him asking them their offseason habits such as how long they would take off punting or kicking between the start of the offseason and spring ball. Other advice he would seek out would be on how he could develop both as a person and a player.
This fall is different, though. Now, Taylor is heading into his senior year at Vanderbilt and he is more than ready to become a mentor for the younger guys in the special teams room that he had in Ashby and Haberer leading up to this year.
It is a role that Taylor is embracing the chance to step into.
“As I've gotten older, it's been super exciting to kind of step into the veteran role with not being a super young guy in the room anymore, and having spent many years in the program. And so originally that starts with just leading the specialist room, which I really enjoy. We've got a great group of guys that are all really talented and I think really driven and understand what the goal is in this program,” Taylor said.
Taylor is focused on one mission as the top leader in the room among the specialists: winning. The opportunity that Taylor is provided this year is something he takes a lot of pride in. It is a chance for the relationships he has formed with his teammates to turn into a positive culture change inside the Commodores locker room. Anything that Taylor can do to help his fellow special teams teammates, he is willing to do.
Just like with any team in college football, there are leaders on offense, defense and special teams even. But the special teams leaders at Vanderbilt have a unique opportunity that few specialists in college get to have. 
At Vanderbilt, special teams are just as valued as offense and defense. With that comes the go ahead to lead and correct younger players regardless of position or which side of the ball a leader is on.
“I've fully been given the green light by my coaches, the management positions in our program, and coach [Clark] Lea as well to take the reins. You've done what you need to do to build your way up to this position, this program, so you should be prideful in it, and never feel like there's a situation where you can't speak up or correct a younger player,” Taylor said on the messaging he has received from the coaching staff. “The best part of that truly is getting to play a mentor role for new players coming in.”
Taylor realizes the responsibility of what being a leader on the roster comes with, even as a specialist. He does not take it for granted, nor will he. Kickers are not usually viewed as one of the leaders of a locker room, but it is a different case in the Commodores’ program.
The lessons he has learned from mentors earlier in his career have been internalized and applied and it has helped him feel his role on the team is more than just kicking.
“I'm super thankful that the staff has given me full permission to step into those positions that I think a lot of kickers in college football don't necessarily get to do because the position is so specialized. I think that makes my job coming to football every day a lot more fun because I feel like I truly am a part of this team and the team's mission just as much as I am a kicker for the team,” Taylor told Vandy On SI.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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