They won a prep football title. They’ll be together again when Duke plays Notre Dame.
There may come a time Saturday before the game at Notre Dame Stadium when Duke’s Will and John Taylor and quarterback Chase Brice all glance at each other, smile and nod their heads.
For the first time since 2016, the three will be together on a football field, trying to win a game. Brice, the transfer from Clemson, will be making his first start at Duke. Will Taylor will be his center, just as he was in high school, and John Taylor the long snapper for the Blue Devils in the 2020 opener against the Irish.
Call them the “Grayson Gang.” They first met as kids playing T-ball in Gwinnett County, Georgia, played their first football together in the seventh grade and later won a state championship at Grayson High in Loganville.
“We do go back a while,” John Taylor said in an interview Thursday. “It was great to see a friend after parting ways for a while.”
Brice headed off to Clemson after high school. The Taylors, fraternal twins, landed at Duke. That seemed to be that, a parting of ways, until Brice, the backup QB for the Tigers the past two years, contacted Will Taylor after last season.
“I think he texted Will kind of asking what the culture is around our team.” John Taylor said. “That obviously was a little bit of a hint.”
Brice, who graduated from Clemson, entered the NCAA transfer portal and took a visit to Duke. The gang back together again, Brice hanging out with the Taylors and other offensive linemen, and Brice later made it official: he was coming to Duke.
“We had that connection and rekindled the friendship we already had,” Brice said this week.
Chase Brice: From Trevor Lawrence’s backup to Duke starter
Will Taylor, a redshirt junior, was to be the backup center this season behind Jack Wohlabaugh, only to have Wohlabaugh go down with a knee injury last week. Brice was competing with Chris Katrenick and Gunnar Holmberg for the starting job at QB, and was named the starter Sunday by Duke coach David Cutcliffe.
“I’m grateful and I’m humbled,” Brice said of that decision and trust from his coach.
Brice becoming the Duke starter was well-received by another quarterback: Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence. When Duke tweeted out the news on Brice, Lawrence tweeted: “My brother!”
The two talked briefly, Lawrence telling Brice he was happy for him and his opportunity. Brice played in 25 games at Clemson but never was the starter, earning a national championship ring in 2018 with the Tigers in Lawrence’s freshman year.
“He said he knows I’ll be well-prepared,” Brice said. “He knows this means a lot to me and he was just really, really excited for me.”
Friends work their way to Clemson, Duke and Notre Dame
Brice’s last football start was in that 2016 season at Grayson High. It came in the Class 7A state championship game against undefeated Roswell High in the Georgia Dome.
Brice threw two touchdown passes in the last seven minutes of the fourth quarter to give Grayson the lead, only to have Roswell score on a pass on the final play of regulation for a 20-20 tie. But Grayson won with a field goal in overtime to cap a 14-1 season.
“It was wild and about as good a state championship game as you can ask for,” John Taylor said.
Will Taylor later played in the Under Armour All-American Game — “Coming out of high school he was definitely a stud,” John Taylor said of his brother — but was quickly sidelined at Duke with a serious injury in the 2017 fall camp.
A torn lateral collateral ligament (LCL) and damage to the peroneal nerve, he said, caused a foot drop and required two surgeries. There was doubt if he’d be able to run again, much less play football. But Taylor slowly made his way back.
“He kept grinding, defied the odds,” John Taylor said. “Nothing is impossible. He was an inspiration.”
Will Taylor started a few games last season as Wohlabaugh dealt with an ankle injury, now has a bigger role. Brice is getting his chance. John Taylor is listed as the starting long snapper for the Notre Dame game and has been awarded a scholarship.
Should be some day for the Grayson guys. As Will Taylor said, “We have a lot of history.”
Duke at Notre Dame
When: 2:30 p.m., Saturday
Where: Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame, Indiana
Watch: NBC
