Former Butler Grizzly quarterback Press Taylor played a key role in helping the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the New England Patriots 41-33 in Super Bowl LII on Sunday.
Taylor, who won consecutive NJCAA national championships in 2007 and 2008 with the Grizzlies, serves as the Eagles' offensive quality control and assistant quarterbacks coach.
SI.com reports that Taylor came up with the idea for "Philly Special" – a trick play which resulted in quarterback Nick Foles catching a touchdown on 4th-and-goal from the Patriots' 1-yard line to give the Eagles a 22-12 lead just before halftime.
Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich told SI.com that the play originated from Taylor after he watched a Week 17 game, where the Chicago Bears executed the play for a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings.
"Press has this, what we call this vault of trick plays," Reich said. "It's an immense vault, so every week we go into Press's vault looking for plays."
Against the Patriots on Sunday, Foles went out of shotgun and disguised himself making a signal call to his offensive line, leaving rookie running back Corey Clement alone in the backfield to take the snap. Clement ran left and handed the ball off to tight end Trey Burton, who circled back to the right and found a wide-open Foles in the end zone for the touchdown.
Foles, a backup quarterback who took over the starting job after Carson Wentz went down for the season with an ACL injury in Week 13, was named Super Bowl MVP after throwing completing 28-of-43 passes for 373 yards and three touchdowns.
Taylor is in his fourth season with the Eagles after originally joining the team as an offensive quality control coach during the 2013 offseason. Since 2016, Taylor has also served as Philadelphia's assistant quarterbacks coach.
While at Butler, Taylor led the Grizzlies to a 17-1 record as a starter and served as the team's captain in both championship seasons. Taylor wrapped up his collegiate career at Marshall University before joining the coaching ranks. After a year at the University of Tulsa, Taylor joined the Eagles' staff in 2013.
Read more about Taylor and the Eagles' Super Bowl win here.
