Burns, Taylor fill key holes for Seminoles
TALLAHASSEE — Florida State’s defense has a lot of hype surrounding it heading into the 2017 season.
The Seminoles return all but two starters from a defensive unit that picked up steam down the stretch of the 2016 season, helping FSU win seven of its final eight games.
The loss of talented 2016 starters DeMarcus Walker and Marquez White is significant, but the Seminoles have high expectations for two experienced sophomores stepping in to replace them.
Walker, a second-round draft pick by the Denver Broncos, was an anchor on the defensive line, finishing the year with 16 sacks, second most in the country, serving as an emotional leader for FSU.
White, a two-year starter at cornerback who graduated after last season, proved more than capable of holding his own as a lockdown corner against some of the nation’s best receivers during his time at FSU.
Defensive end Brian Burns and cornerback Levonta Taylor, however, have risen to the occasion early in preseason camp and are helping fill the vacancies.
Burns, a four-star defensive end recruit in FSU’s 2016 recruiting class, turned heads with his surprising 2016 season. He racked up 9.5 sacks, the most nationally among true freshmen.
“It’s really helped me by knowing what to look at, what to look for, getting all the knowledge I got from DeMarcus [Walker] and Josh Sweat,” Burns said. “Now I know how to watch film, I know what to do on the field, I know how to carry myself.”
Burns, a former Plantation American Heritage standout, is spending camp working on his rush defense with the end goal of being an every-down player.
“He’s more serious and he understands the scheme,” FSU defensive ends coach Brad Lawing said of Burns’ progress early in his second season. “He’s taking more of a leadership role on our defense because he knows those are the expectations for him.”
Measuring in at 6-foot-5, 218 pounds, Burns is significantly undersized weight-wise for a defensive end. Still, Lawing compares him to two players he coached earlier in his career: Julian Peterson at Michigan State and John Abraham at South Carolina. Both of these players were undersized coming out of college, but they didn’t let that stop them. They went on to combine for 185 career sacks in the NFL.
Like Burns at defensive end, Taylor is not a traditional cornerback.
Taylor was the No. 1 cornerback and No. 7 overall player in the 2016 recruiting class in spite of the fact that he stands just 5-foot-10, shorter than most coaches want at the position.
During 12 games in 2016, Taylor played at multiple spots in FSU’s depleted secondary while showing elite speed, ball skills and athleticism
He may be small in stature, but Taylor more than makes up for that deficit in swagger.
“We always talk about how I have to play receivers because of my height disadvantage,” Taylor said of his conversations with the coaching staff. “But I’m also fast, twitchy and strong, so I cut receivers off very quickly at the line of scrimmage.”
Neither of these projected new starters may fit the mold of the traditional players at their positions, but no one seems to view that as a downside.
Said FSU defensive coordinator Charles Kelly: “If you do what you are supposed to, technique right, you play within the scheme of the defense, the results will come.”