The following article appeared in the Nov. 11, 2006 edition of the Naples Daily News

By Scott Hotard
www.naplesnews.com

Taylor Lanigan couldn't outrun reality.

His dreams were lost somewhere in Murray, Ky.; he was lost somewhere back home in Naples.

Dishes clanged. Glasses filled with water.

Lanigan kept coming back to the noise and the emptiness. Back to the same routine every day, forcing a smile as he wiped down another dirty table.

Talk about a waste.

He should have been on a football field. He should have been playing his freshman season at Murray State, the Division I-AA school he picked when it came time to sign a scholarship.

He shouldn't have been working for his dad. He shouldn't have been making eight dollars an hour as a bus boy at The Club at Olde Cypress. But this is the price you pay for messing around. Lanigan, blessed with NFL speed, cruised through Barron Collier for four years, doing just enough to get by. He never envisioned a roadblock to the college game,

"Most of my friends were off playing ball," Lanigan says. "I just wanted to find my way back on the field."

They weren't fast times. Lanigan had to be patient.

He watched for Murray State's scores on the highlight shows every Saturday afternoon. He formed a Murray State dynasty on NCAA Football 06, the PS2 game he used to keep his mind off ... football.

But Lanigan found a seam when he scored high marks, finally, on the ACT. He enrolled at Murray State in January — eight months after his Barron Collier graduation — and began practicing with the Racers in the spring.

And then his speed took over. Lanigan, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound freshman, flew right to the top of the depth chart.

The weakside safety ranks third on the team with 66 tackles. He has scored twice, once on a 93-yard fumble return. Speed? Yeah, it helps. But Ken Lanigan, the general manager at The Club at Olde

"I worked him pretty hard," Ken says. "He needed the wake-up call."

A few more wins would be nice, sure. Murray State (1-9, 0-7), which has a bye this week, will finish last this season in the Ohio Valley Conference.

But life could be worse.

"He gets the program now," Ken says. "You've got to study to get ahead."

Even with the test score, however, Taylor's future lacked clarity. When Joe Pannunzio was fired last November following a 2-9 season, the Lanigans worried that another door had closed.

Ken Lanigan called the school. He asked if his son still had a scholarship waiting.

The answer came from new defensive backs coach Mark Lister, who phoned Taylor's father soon before Christmas with the good news.

"I did some research on him," Lister says. "I could tell by what I saw and read that he was a good kid."

Fast, too.

Lanigan's name at Barron, truth be told, was made as a track star. He holds the school record in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. He anchored a 4x100 relay team that earned All-American recognition two summers ago. That speed has always been

"He would just vanish," Ken says. "Like a ghost."

Barron Collier football coach Bill Sparacio first noticed it when he timed Taylor in the 40-yard dash. He noticed it again the next time he timed him ... and the next ... and the next.

"He's the fastest football player I've ever been around," Sparacio says. "I've had kids who were quicker, but I've never had someone with more consistent 4.3s. You could see the grass tear out of the ground as he ran."

But Lanigan, as it happens, boasts more than breakaway speed. He is the type of athlete who can stand flat-footed in the gym and jump to dunk a basketball. The type of athlete who makes the weight room stand still.

That's why they call him "The Freak." Because he has too much size and strength, seemingly, to run like a Kentucky thoroughbred.

"The sky's the limit," Lister says. "He's got all the tools."