Longhorns breakout back ready for Big 12 title game

	Ramonce Taylor has sparked an already potent Longhorns' offense after switching positions. AP
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SI.com's Cory McCartney takes a weekly look around the college football nation, with inside reports from each of the six BCS conferences and beyond.

Big 12

Ramonce Taylor has many nicknames for himself -- Reggie Bush Jr., R.T., Mr. Touchdown, but the most telling may be "The Truth," because, truth is, he's been every bit as important to No. 2 Texas lately as star QB Vince Young.

With the soon-to-be Heisman finalist quarterback off his game last Friday against Texas A&M, Taylor ran for 102 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 300 yards and seven scores in three starts since moving back into the backfield from wide receiver.

This season, Taylor has 460 yards rushing, 268 receiving and 329 on kick returns, and the sophomore's tied for second in the Big 12 with 14 total touchdowns.

"He does a lot of things for us. He's an x-factor in the game because he can do so many things," offensive lineman Justin Blalock said at the Longhorns' weekly press conference. "He's really coming into his own, and is our second-best option now. He's a good addition to Vince, and the rest of the guys."

Taylor, who came to Austin as a running back, was moved to wide receiver at the beginning of the season after the emergence of freshman runner Jamaal Charles. Taylor, it was thought, could bring some stability to an inexperienced receiving corps. But injuries, and the fact that Texas' other receivers have more than held their own, allowed coach Mack Brown to put Taylor and his blazing 4.23 speed in the backfield again.

"When Jamaal went down and Selvin [Young] struggled with injuries, coach Brown brought me over and asked me if I can handle it. I told him I could do it," Taylor said. "He put me back there and in the first game against Baylor things went well. Ever since then everything has been working out great for me."

In that first game, he had 102 rushing yards and three touchdowns (and a total of 182 yards and four scores), and as if the nation's third-ranked rushing offense needed it, he's given Texas a lift. In three Big 12 games with Taylor in the starting backfield, the Longhorns are averaging more yards (285.6) than they did in their first five conference games (253.8).

That could prove pivotal against Colorado in Saturday's Big 12 title game. The Buffalos held Texas to its second-lowest rushing total of the year (145 yards) on Oct. 15, and gave up only three yards a carry, half of the 'Horns' season average. But that was a game in which Taylor carried just once for four yards.

So the question is: Can Colorado handle The Truth?

ACC

Bobby Bowden may begin the New Year at home for the first time in 15 years. Florida State's season of upheaval has seen the Seminoles knocked out of the AP poll for the first time since 2001, and unless they can somehow upset No. 5 Virginia Tech (a 13 ½-point favorite) in the inaugural ACC title game, they'll play their first non-New Year's Day bowl since the 1990 Blockbuster Bowl. And if that isn't bad enough -- FSU is also without an All-ACC first-team pick for the first time since joining the conference in '92. ... Maryland junior tight end Vernon Davis may have played his final game for the Terrapins. Davis, who led the Terps with 871 yards and six touchdowns on 51 catches, has filed paperwork with the NFL Players Association to get an idea of where he would be picked in the draft. DraftStudio.com's mock draft projects Davis as a mid-first round pick.