Jadrian Taylor admits he didn’t know anything about El Paso other than it was next to Mexico. He’s a self-described country boy from East Texas. Taylor, now a senior defensive end at UTEP, graduated from Lufkin High School in 2017 before spending two seasons at Kilgore Junior College. East Texas is all he knew. That changed when he was presented with an opportunity to play FBS football for the Miners. 

“This is the big city for me,” Taylor said. “It is like I moved to New York.” 

Taylor’s play in 2021 was worthy of the bright lights. He led UTEP with 6.5 sacks as the Miners finished the regular season 7-5 to qualify for the program’s first bowl game since 2014. Taylor added 33 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, and eight quarterback hurries. 

He’s fallen in love with El Paso. Taylor mentions his love of the food and the people and the mountains. He loves everything about his new life in West Texas. Well, except for one thing. 

“I had never seen traffic in real life,” Taylor admitted. “I hadn’t seen this many people in my life. I went from a city of 7K (Lufkin) to 30K (Kilgore) and now one close to a million. That is crazy to me.”

None of his successes seemed possible when Taylor graduated high school without a single college offer despite leading Lufkin in sacks as a senior. Taylor walked on at Kilgore College. Anyone with experience at the JUCO level knows that it’s a grind that spits out more than it polishes. Taylor made himself an exception to that rule. 

Kilgore’s motto is MTXE, which stands for “Mental Toughness Extra Effort”. MTXE is tatted on Taylor’s arm. 

“Kilgore taught me how to love the game because it is a blessing,” he said. “A lot of us didn’t make it. I’m blessed.”

The road isn’t over for Taylor even though he’s 801 miles from his hometown. The senior wants to leave a mark on his adopted city. UTEP hasn’t reached consecutive bowl games since 2004-05. It’s a feat only accomplished twice in program history. 

“We’re trying to act like we were 1-11 last year,” Taylor said. “We want to keep our same approach to avoid complacency. We feel like we still have a lot to prove.”