Nov. 14, 2014
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
At 320 pounds, senior Vince Taylor is one of the biggest players on the football team. But Vanderbilt’s veteran defensive tackle says he wasn’t always built this way.
“I was always a smaller guy,” he said. “I was already shorter than everybody else. So me being short and little that didn’t get me on the field.”
So when he was 10 years old, he decided to strengthen his way onto the football field. His mom bought him a weight set from a garage sale. With a bench seat and squat rack and numerous weights accrued from different places, Taylor fell in love with getting buff.
His passion even got him into a bind on more than one occasion.
Though warned by his mom not to lift when she wasn’t around, Taylor couldn’t resist. And there were times were 10-year-old Vince Taylor bit off more than he could chew.
“When she used to go to work, I used to put too much on the bench and too much when I used to squat sometimes. Sometimes I would get stuck,” he said. “The only way I could lift it was digging deep and lifting the weight up off me. I was the only guy around my age lifting weights. People used to come over and think my mom had a boyfriend. But that was my stuff.”
Twelve years later, Taylor continues to be a giant in the weight room.
The 6-foot-1 Taylor keeps the mentality that he is the smallest guy in the roomâ€â€even though he is far from itâ€â€as he bench presses as much as 460 pounds and squat presses 500 pounds as many as 10 times. He has morphed throughout his football career from a middle school quarterback and running back to linebacker to defensive tackle his last two years at Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Miss.
In addition, he was a three-year letter winner on the track team in shot put and discus. And he was a part of Oak Grove’s power lifting team. Beefing up to 300 pounds if he had to, Taylor helped Oak Grove reach state power lifting competitions. He finished third as a junior in the 275-pound weight class at the 5A South State Powerlifting Meet, lifting an incredible 1,320 pounds.
“I enjoyed it and I noticed I started to get bigger than a lot of the kids I was around,” said Taylor, who will graduate in December with a degree in urban development and social change. “What’s funny is even though I lift as much as I do now and as big as I am now, my mind is still that I’m a small guy. Every team we play I feel like I am the smallest guy on the field. That is what keeps me lifting.”
But Taylor admits there is more to strength and conditioning than weight lifting. He credits the strength and conditioning staff, led by director of football sports performance Bill Hughan, for stressing the importance of stretching and flexibility in workouts.
Already Taylor has seen a carryover effect on the football field, where he has recovered two fumbles this season in addition to 17 tackles and a sack after the first five games.
“When the new staff came in, their whole emphasis was getting our bodies leaner so we can play longer and (to have) flexibility,” he said. “That is something I have never taken the time out to actually work towards. I’ve always lifted a lot of weights, play football. But as a football player it is more than just lifting weights. Your body is your job. You have to do everything to keep your body healthy.”
