Shreveport's Trent Taylor working on new role at Tech

RUSTON – Trent Taylor's sophomore numbers speak for themselves.

The Shreveport native who prepped at Evangel led Louisiana Tech with 64 catches for 834 yards and nine touchdowns, establishing himself as one of the premier slot receivers in Conference USA not named Marshall's Tommy Shuler.

Taylor returns as Tech's top receiver, a role he has embraced through eight spring practices. Even Bulldogs coach Skip Holtz has noticed, dubbing Taylor's spring as "outstanding."

But Taylor is working on a new aspect of his game heading into the 2015 season.

"I need to step up more in a leadership role. I gotta be more vocal, which is what (Tech inside wide receivers) coach (Joe) Sloan has been telling me every day," Taylor said Monday. "Just teaching all the young guys players and what not. I've been trying to step into that role and keep learning more and more every day."

Taylor joins Carlos Henderson and Paul Turner as Tech's top three receivers for 2015, although Turner's absence as he recovers from offseason surgery has left Taylor, a junior, as the most seasoned player of the unit.

A year after Tech had the benefit of seniors Sterling Griffin and Hunter Lee leading the charge, Taylor is now tasked with leading a group primarily comprised of sophomores and freshmen aside from Conner Smith and Grant Childress, a pair of junior reserves with little experience.

Rising sophomores Marlon Watts and Marcus Gaines played sparingly in 2014, but will have expanded roles this season.

"They want to work. They enjoy football, and that's huge," said Florida transfer quarterback Jeff Driskel. "Coach Holtz says all the time that you can't be good at anything if you don't have passion about it. They definitely have the passion for it."

Even walk-on's DeJuawn Oliver and Kylin Thomas have made plays during the spring. On Monday, Oliver caught a pair of back-shoulder fades for touchdowns from Ryan Higgins — one came during 7-on-7's with the other during full 11-on-11 team work.

"You see flashes on them growing up," Holtz said. "I just need to see it every day now."

Since Henderson played so much as a redshirt freshman, it's hard to consider him as a youngster, but he's still learning the position.

Henderson was known as a one-trip pony in 2014 with his ability to score anytime he touched the ball, whether that came via kick returns, screen passes or vertical routes.

Tech wide receivers coach Tim Rattay sat Henderson down and showed him all Henderson's great plays and then his bad plays in order for him to become a better route runner.

"When he has the ball in his hands, he's dynamic. We've all seen that," Rattay said. "Now it's just becoming a more complete receiver, and he's taking pride in that. I showed him the clips he looked terrible and he's taking pride in becoming a complete receiver."

Other than Henderson, Watts is a young player to watch after he secured nine catches for 106 yards as a wiry, 170-pound freshman. The 6-foot-2 receiver is all the way up to 190 pounds and wants to get to 205 or 210 pounds before he graduates.

His height and body control will help add to a receiving corps that has speed on the outsize and a proven inside receiver.

"We have inside shake-and-bake with Trent. We have (Carlos) down the field. We have red zone threat and we have Paul Turner," Watt said. "We can pretty much do what we want."

Gaines continues to make plays in spring practice despite his 5-foot-6 frame. Gaines hauled in eight passes for 82 yards as a freshman, one of which went for a highlight-reel, one-handed touchdown.

"Marcus is ultra-competitive and tough. When you have a guy that has a little bit of a height discrepancy, then they better be tough," Rattay said. "That's the biggest thing and that's what he has to do — he has to fight and scrap and claw. He has really good feet, he has good ball skills and he has good top-end speed and all of that helps."

The unsung hero of the group, at least according to his teammates, is Smith. Smith has played behind the likes of Lee and Taylor on the inside for the past two years, so he's made his mark as one of Tech's best blockers.

Taylor even went as far to say there's nobody in the country that can block like Smith as a receiver.

"There's no guy I have more trust in to run a bubble (screen) blocking for me when I'm not looking," Taylor said. "He's definitely not the guy that gets all the TV time or whatever. He's definitely a crucial part of this offense and we're going to need him all throughout this season to be successful."

Connect with Sean Isabella on Twitter at ST_IsabellaTNS