Taylor Jacobs
Encyclopedia
Taylor Houser Jacobs is a former American college and professional football
player who was a wide receiver
in the National Football League
(NFL) for five seasons in the early 2000s. Jacobs played college football
for the University of Florida
, and thereafter, he played professionally for the Washington Redskins
, San Francisco 49ers
and Denver Broncos
of the NFL.
in 1981. He attended Florida A&M University
's Developmental Research High School in Tallahassee, and played high school football
for the FAMU DRS Rattlers. He was named to PrepStar's high school All-America
team. He caught thirty-seven passes for 685 yards and six touchdowns as a senior. As a junior, he caught thirty-three passes for 708 yards and eleven touchdowns and rushed for 362 yards. He was also an outstanding baseball
player and gifted track
athlete. In 1999, he clocked automatic times of 10.50 and 22.05 seconds, respectively, in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash finals at the Florida Class 1A track and field championship meet.
to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida
, where he played for coach Steve Spurrier
and coach Ron Zook
's Florida Gators football
team from 1999 to 2002
. In 1999, Jacobs was the only true freshman
wide receiver to play, appearing in ten of twelve games including the Citrus Bowl
. As a sophomore
in 2000
, he played in all twelve regular-season games with five starts, and recorded seventeen reception
s for 198 yards and two touchdowns. As a junior
in 2001
, Jacobs played in all twelve games with three starts including the Orange Bowl
, and posted thirty-eight catches for 712 yards and seven touchdowns. As a senior team captain
in 2002
, Jacobs was Florida's most productive receiver—he finished with seventy-one reception
s for 1,088 yards, an average of 98.8 receiving yards per game, and had four 100-yard receiving games. He started all eleven games, was one of ten semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference
(SEC) selection, and played in the Senior Bowl
and the Hula Bowl
all-star games.
Jacobs returned to the University of Florida after his NFL career was over, and completed his bachelor's degree
in sociology
in 2009.
, and he played for the Redskins from to . Jacobs saw limited playing time as he struggled through a series of injuries in his rookie season in 2003. He finished his rookie campaign with eight games played, three catches for 37 yards and a touchdown. In 2004, he appeared in 15 games with four starts. He logged 16 catches for 178 yards, an 11.1 yards per catch average, with a long of 45.
Jacobs was traded to the San Francisco 49ers
on August 14, 2006 for Mike Rumph
, and released on October 2, 2007. He was signed by the Denver Broncos
on November 6, 2007, and released on August 26, 2008.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player who was a wide receiver
Wide receiver
A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football, and is the key player in most of the passing plays. Only players in the backfield or the ends on the line are eligible to catch a forward pass. The two players who begin play at the ends of the offensive line are eligible...
in the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) for five seasons in the early 2000s. Jacobs played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
for the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, and thereafter, he played professionally for the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
, San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
and Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
of the NFL.
Early years
Jacobs was born in Tallahassee, FloridaTallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...
in 1981. He attended Florida A&M University
Florida A&M University
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, commonly known as Florida A&M or FAMU, is a historically black university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, the state capital, and is one of eleven member institutions of the State University System of Florida...
's Developmental Research High School in Tallahassee, and played high school football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
for the FAMU DRS Rattlers. He was named to PrepStar's high school All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
team. He caught thirty-seven passes for 685 yards and six touchdowns as a senior. As a junior, he caught thirty-three passes for 708 yards and eleven touchdowns and rushed for 362 yards. He was also an outstanding baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
player and gifted track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
athlete. In 1999, he clocked automatic times of 10.50 and 22.05 seconds, respectively, in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash finals at the Florida Class 1A track and field championship meet.
College career
Jacobs received an athletic scholarshipAthletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport...
to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
, where he played for coach Steve Spurrier
Steve Spurrier
Stephen Orr Spurrier is an American college football coach and player. Spurrier is the current head coach of the University of South Carolina's Gamecocks football team. He is also a former professional player and coach...
and coach Ron Zook
Ron Zook
Ron Zook is a former American football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at the University of Florida from 2002 to 2004 and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2005 to 2011. Zook is a native of Ohio and an alumnus of Miami University, where he...
's Florida Gators football
Florida Gators football
The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the sport of American football. The Florida Gators compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletics Association and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference...
team from 1999 to 2002
2002 Florida Gators football team
The 2002 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida in the sport of American football during the 2002 college football season...
. In 1999, Jacobs was the only true freshman
Freshman
A freshman or fresher is a first-year student in secondary school, high school, or college. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves A freshman (US) or fresher (UK, India) (or sometimes fish, freshie, fresher; slang plural frosh or freshmeat) is a...
wide receiver to play, appearing in ten of twelve games including the Citrus Bowl
Citrus Bowl
The Florida Citrus Bowl is a stadium in Orlando, Florida, USA, built for football, which currently seats around 70,000 people....
. As a sophomore
Sophomore
Sophomore is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the second year of study at high school or university.The word is also used as a synonym for "second", for the second album or EP released by a musician or group, the second movie of a director, or the second season of a...
in 2000
2000 Florida Gators football team
September 30, 2000The Florida Gators came into Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi ranked third in the nation. The unranked Mississippi State Bulldogs ran for 351 yards, 172 yards and a touchdown for Dicenzo Miller, and 156 yards and a touchdown for Dontae Walker. Bulldogs quarterback...
, he played in all twelve regular-season games with five starts, and recorded seventeen reception
Reception (American football)
In American football, a reception is part of a play in which a forward pass from behind the line of scrimmage is received by a player in bounds, who, after the catch, proceeds to either score a touchdown or be downed. Yards gained from the receiving play are credited to the player as receiving...
s for 198 yards and two touchdowns. As a junior
Junior (education)
"Junior" is a term used in the United States to describe a student in their 3rd year of study . A Junior is considered an upperclassman...
in 2001
2001 Florida Gators football team
The 2001 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida in the sport of American football during the 2001 college football season...
, Jacobs played in all twelve games with three starts including the Orange Bowl
2001 Orange Bowl
The 2001 FedEx Orange Bowl game was a post-season college football bowl game and BCS National Championship match between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida State Seminoles on January 3, 2001, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida...
, and posted thirty-eight catches for 712 yards and seven touchdowns. As a senior team captain
Captain (sports)
In team sports, a captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field...
in 2002
2002 Florida Gators football team
The 2002 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida in the sport of American football during the 2002 college football season...
, Jacobs was Florida's most productive receiver—he finished with seventy-one reception
Reception (American football)
In American football, a reception is part of a play in which a forward pass from behind the line of scrimmage is received by a player in bounds, who, after the catch, proceeds to either score a touchdown or be downed. Yards gained from the receiving play are credited to the player as receiving...
s for 1,088 yards, an average of 98.8 receiving yards per game, and had four 100-yard receiving games. He started all eleven games, was one of ten semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
(SEC) selection, and played in the Senior Bowl
Senior Bowl
The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football exhibition game played in Mobile, Alabama which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those collegiate players who have completed their eligibility. First played in 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida, the game moved to Mobile's Ladd Peebles Stadium...
and the Hula Bowl
Hula Bowl
The Hula Bowl was an independently administered post-season invitational college football game held each year in Hawaii from 1947 to 2008. The game was last played at Aloha Stadium in the Hālawa district of Honolulu, Hawaii. At one point the longest-running sporting event in Hawaii, it had been...
all-star games.
Jacobs returned to the University of Florida after his NFL career was over, and completed his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
in 2009.
Professional career
The Washington Redskins, led by Jacob's former head coach at Florida, Steve Spurrier, selected Jacobs in the second round (forty-fourth pick overall) in the 2003 NFL Draft2003 NFL Draft
The 2003 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936. The draft was held April 26–27, 2003 at the Theatre at...
, and he played for the Redskins from to . Jacobs saw limited playing time as he struggled through a series of injuries in his rookie season in 2003. He finished his rookie campaign with eight games played, three catches for 37 yards and a touchdown. In 2004, he appeared in 15 games with four starts. He logged 16 catches for 178 yards, an 11.1 yards per catch average, with a long of 45.
Jacobs was traded to the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
on August 14, 2006 for Mike Rumph
Mike Rumph
Michael Jamaine Rumph is a retired American football free safety and cornerback.-High school:...
, and released on October 2, 2007. He was signed by the Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
on November 6, 2007, and released on August 26, 2008.
See also
- Florida GatorsFlorida GatorsThe Florida Gators are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The "Lady Gators" is an alternative nickname sometimes used by the Gators women's teams...
- List of Florida Gators football players
- List of University of Florida alumni
- List of Washington Redskins players