Irish Lineman Taylor Wins Lombardi Award

Notre Dame offensive tackle Aaron Taylor, accustomed to beating defensive linemen, did it again Thursday night by winning the Lombardi Award as the nation’s top college lineman.

He beat out three defensive players--nose guards Sam Adams of Texas A&M; and Rob Waldrop of Arizona and linebacker Derrick Brooks of Florida State.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be voted the best over all these people,” Taylor said. “I’m excited, but any one of us could have won it. I’m just fortunate that I did.”

Taylor, 6 feet 4 and 299 pounds, didn’t play football until his junior year of high school, but he showed enough to be recruited by Notre Dame and was starting by his sophomore year.

“When I was a kid, everybody expected me to be good because I was bigger than anyone else, and that kind of scared me off,” Taylor said. “But when I finally got started I really liked it.”

A superb run-blocker, Taylor helped Notre Dame average 429.5 yards a game this season. He’s started 29 consecutive games dating to 1991.