High School: Four-year letterman for coach Justin Scogin’s Vikings … a three-start recruit, Taylor finished his career as Louisiana’s No. 2 all-time passing leader in yardage and No. 3 in touchdown passes, throwing for 12,374 yards and 135 touchdowns … as a senior, threw for 4,357 yards and 47 touchdowns, adding nine rushing scores while completing 73 percent of his passes … named first-team all-state by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the Louisiana Football Coaches Association, Louisiana Sportsline and GeauxPreps and was the LFCA’s Offensive MVP and the Louisiana Sportsline Offensive Player of the Year … was named to the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate Tremendous 13 and its All-Prep Team and was the MVP, was the Shreveport-Bossier Journal All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year and its quarterback, the district MVP and first-team quarterback as a senior while earning Player/Athlete of the Week honors from the Tim Fletcher Show, Max Preps and GeauxPreps … as a junior, set a school record with 4,189 passing yards, completing 74 percent of his passes and connecting on 49 touchdowns to earn all-state honors from Louisiana Sportsline (Offensive Player of the Year), second-team all-state from the LFCA and honorable mention all-state from the LSWA … named the All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year and first-team all-city by the Shreveport Times as well as a member of the Advocate’s All-Prep Team … led the state in passing yards, touchdowns and completions and was the District 1-5A Offensive MVP … earned numerous player of the week awards and was the SB Advocate’s Midseason Football MVP … as a sophomore, threw for 3,098 yards and 37 touchdowns to earn all-district, all-parish and all-area honors and was an honorable mention all-state selection … helped lead coach Airline to an 11-1 record as a senior and a state quarterfinal berth in his final season … Airline went 10-2 in his junior season and was perfect 7-0 in district play in his sophomore year … therw for 730 yards and two touchdowns in five games as a freshman … also lettered in baseball, track and golf … holds a 3.34 GPA.

Personal: Son of Stephenie and Jason Taylor … has one brother, Jaden … plans to major in health and exercise science … hopes to be successful in everything he does and to honor God.

"Ben's a special kid," McCorkle said. "The kids will say he has video game numbers. I don't play video games, so I don't know. His stats are gaudy. You have to look at them twice to see what they are. He's thrown for a pile of yards and a pile of touchdowns. For them to score 70 points in a game was a common thing this year. The numbers they put up are wild.

"On top of his talent and his stats, he has some intangibles that are pretty neat. He helped turn a program around, and what we're trying to do here is pretty similar. When you talk to him on the phone, you feel like you're talking to a 30-year-old man. He's very mature, very polished. He comes from a great family and brings a lot of intangibles that will be neat in our locker room."

Ben Taylor