Will Taylor (born January 10, 2003) is an American

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

for the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...

. He previously also played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and wide receiver for the Clemson football team.

Early life and high school

Taylor grew up in Irmo, South Carolina and originally attended

Ben Lippen School Ben Lippen School is private K-12 Christian school in Columbia, South Carolina. History A Scottish phrase meaning “Mountain of Trust,” Ben Lippen School was founded in 1940 by the Columbia International University (CIU) board of trustees und ...

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

, where he played baseball and football. He batted .432 with 38 hits in his sophomore baseball season. Taylor passed for 1,647 yards while also rushing for 1,549 yards as a junior. Taylor transferred to

Dutch Fork High School Dutch Fork High School is a school in the Lexington & Richland County School District Five, located in Irmo, South Carolina. Notable alumni * Tyler Bass, NFL kicker for the Buffalo Bills *Alaina Coates, professional women's basketball player * ...

in his hometown prior to his senior year. He completed 136-of-203 passes for 2,237 yards and 21 touchdowns with four interceptions and gained 448 rushing yards with 11 touchdowns on 60 carries as Dutch Fork won the Class 5A state championship. In his senior baseball season, Taylor batted .450 with seven home runs, 33 RBIs and 34 runs scored and was named the South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. Taylor committed to play college baseball at Clemson during his junior year at the Ben Lippen School and pledged to also play football at the school during his senior football season. Taylor was considered a potential first round selection in the

2021 MLB Draft The 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 11–13, 2021. In conjunction with the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the draft was held in Denver. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The ...

. He was selected in the 19th round by the Texas Rangers after he stated his desire to play football at Clemson and opted not to sign.

College career

Taylor entered Clemson as a quarterback with the expectation that he would move to the wide receiver position after his freshman season. He was named the Tigers' primary punt returner going into the 2021 season. Taylor received significant playing time for the first time on September 11, 2021, in a 49–3 win against

South Carolina State South Carolina State University (SCSU or SC State) is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States. It is the only public, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina, is a memb ...

, rushing for 20 yards and returning three punts for 53 yards. Taylor suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Tigers' fifth game of the season against Boston College. Taylor missed the beginning of his freshman baseball season due to his knee injury. He began playing with the team in May. Taylor finished the season with a .260 batting average and 14 runs scored in 13 games played. After the season, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Greeneville Flyboys The Greeneville Flyboys are a summer collegiate baseball team of the Appalachian League. They are located in Greeneville, Tennessee, and play their home games at Pioneer Park. History Previous Greeneville teams Professional baseball was firs ...

of the

Appalachian League The Appalachian League is a collegiate summer baseball league that operates in the Appalachian regions of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Designed for rising freshmen and sophomores using wood bats, its season runs from ...

. Taylor played in ten games during his sophomore football season and caught five passes for 16 yards and one touchdown and returned ten punts for 20 yards as the Tigers won the

2022 ACC Championship Game The 2022 ACC Championship Game was a college football conference championship game that was played on December 3, 2022, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina to determine the champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for t ...

. He missed four games after suffering a minor knee injury. In baseball, Taylor batted 362 with 79 hits, 16 doubles, five home runs, 46 RBIs and 11 stolen bases and became the first Clemson athlete to win ACC championships in football and baseball in the same academic year since 1989. During the following summer, Taylor announced he would be giving up football to focus solely on baseball going into his junior year.

References

External links

Clemson Tigers baseball bioClemson Tigers football bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Will Living people Players of American football from South Carolina Clemson Tigers football players People from Irmo, South Carolina 2003 births Clemson Tigers baseball players Baseball players from South Carolina