Savant Beyond Belief: Interview With Wake Forest WR Taylor Morin

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Despite being honored as the Virginia Player of the Year in football his senior year of high school while earning a 4.1 grade point average, Taylor Morin wasn’t sure he was going to measure up when he entered Wake Forest University in 2019 as a freshman.

“I had that feeling of not being good enough,” said Morin. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys who went to a Power 5 school to play football and was never heard from again.”

So he vowed to himself he would “not be outworked however many hours it took.” With that mentality and work ethic, he’s going to be remembered for a long time in the Wake Forest community and among his Westfield High School friends in Chantilly, Virginia.

Morin worked so much that he became a standout student at one of America’s most academically rigorous institutions, earning a 3.9 grade point average and Summa Cum Laude honors majoring in engineering with a minor in entrepreneurship and math. He also has been a star receiver on the Wake Forest football team for the past three seasons. Entering Thursday night’s opening game of the 2023 team against Elon University, he has caught 17 career touchdown passes and 122 receptions for 474 yards. And he’s a captain of this year’s team.

Continuing his education, this week he started his Master of Business Administration degree program at Wake Forest.

How has he accomplished so much?

All of which makes this question obvious: How has he achieved so much success both in the classroom and playing football especially after being concerned he may not?

“I had to gamify classes,” he said. “I had to understand what knowledge and skills were being assessed. I had to understand what professors wanted me to learn, to find the algorithm.”

(Note: In football lexicon, algorithm and gamify aren’t words used as often as touchdown and field goal.)

He had the discipline – unlike most college students – to start studying chapters that would be covered for an upcoming exam “far in advance” – often a week or more. While injured during this freshman year, he didn’t have to travel to all away games so took advantage of that time to get ahead with his studies.

“Early in my Wake Forest career I did everything I could to get ahead,” he said. “I’m a visual learner and used that to draw up plays I could look at and walk through plays on the field. Wake Forest was a whole new level of football for me.”

He’s continued to get ahead and show his versatile talents throughout his Wake Forest experience. Yesterday a reporter asked his coach, Dave Clawson, if it would be a challenge this season for Taylor to play both inside and outside receiver positions.

“Taylor graduated with a 3.9 grade point average from Wake Forest. Do you really think it’s that hard for him to learn inside and outside receiver positions? He is a smart football player who can play a lot of different positions. He’s got book smarts, street smarts, and athletic smarts.”

Smart enough, in fact, that Morin has been named to the ACC All-Academic Team three straight seasons. His favorite subject? Math. Favorite class? Calculus 3. He became a member of the Math Honor Society. And yet with all that number crunching he found out, to his surprise, he liked a Greek Mythology class the most because the professor was a great storyteller who used no PowerPoints and no notes. “He was unbelievable.”

A math whiz who resonates with ancient mythology – and has great hands as a football receiver. Not many of those guys walking around.

Taylor’s take on artificial intelligence

And this: Off the field, he did an internship recently with Cisco Corporation that focused on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

“AI is the future of everything,” he said. “It eliminates costs and optimizes business productivity. It has endless possibilities.”

AI recognizes patterns – which he said is “absolutely 100%” what he does when he comes to the line of scrimmage in his team’s unique delayed run-pass option mesh offense. He recognizes the patterns and looks of the defensive backs, how they’re lined up, where they’re moving, and then decides what route to run.

He also recognized patterns during a college internship with Soteria Battery Innovation Group, analyzing and evaluating potential investment groups for the company’s chief executive officer. He used technology platforms such as Crunchbase, TechTrack, PitchBook, and Foundersuite. You’ve used those, right?

For another internship with Cadence Strategic Solutions Corporation, he provided technical support to a software engineering team in support of the US Army. He also used an open-source software tool to provide a pattern visualization analysis of a data set for the engineering team.

Taylor’s tips

Asked how he’s achieved at such high levels, Morin says there are a few simple tips he would share to help others strive to be successful.

“Know what you want to do,” he said.

Entering Wake Forest he knew he wanted to study engineering because he had always liked math. And after that, he hoped to go to graduate school. He accomplished both goals.

His second tip: “Figure out a plan to reach your goal, stick to it, and eliminate distractions.”

What’s next for Taylor?

Looking ahead he’s interested in careers as an entrepreneurial business owner, real estate investor, and technology sales professional.

And one more thing, he says.

“I’d also like to play football in the NFL.”

With his work ethic and proven track record for lofty achievements, don’t be surprised if you see him playing on Sundays as a pro football player.

Or making some other major contributions to the world – through hard work.

And faith. He posted this personal statement on his high school recruiting personal page after committing to Wake Forest.

I would like to thank God for blessing me with the opportunity to play football at the next level. I would also like to thank every college coach who invested their time recruiting me. None of this would have been possible without the unconditional support of my coaches, family, and friends. I am extremely excited to announce that I will be continuing my academic and athletic careers at Wake Forest University.