This comes up now and again for good reason: it’s probably the most brutal collision you’ll see and it ended the careers of both Michigan’s Daydrion Taylor and Penn State’s Bob Stephenson. From the first quarter of the 1997 Penn State game:
Fast forward to last Friday when Marcus Ray (#29, pursuing Stephenson in the clip) join Ira to guest host WTKA 1050AM’s Michigan Insider show. A listener called in and asked Ray about that epic collision and Marcus provided some very interesting context on that team, the secondary’s philosophy that year, and discussed an earlier play by Taylor that may have precipitated his aggressiveness.
Just a couple minutes, worth a listen:
Marcus Ray discusses Daydrion Taylor and the 1997 Penn State Hit Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadRelated:
* Here’s a clip (via WolverineHistorian) of Taylor talking about the collision a year later including commentary from Bo who called it the hardest hit he’s ever seen.
* Here’s a piece on Stephenson from December of 1997 talking about the aftermath of the hit. Nasty stuff.
* Ray’s book ‘Rays of Light, Volume 1 "Let There Be Light"’
