The always reliable presence that is Chase Taylor

On Monday, Chase Taylor came to the rescue of one of his teammates.

The No. 19 Michigan football team’s sophomore linebacker saved his classmate, sophomore cornerback Shamari Earls, from a universally dreaded experience: Earls’ car was about to get towed.

To avoid the universally dreaded hassle, Taylor was quick on his feet. He called Earls, relaying the message that he needed to get to his car quickly, or else a several-hundred dollar payment and a trip to a parking lot a half-hour away would be in his future.

Thanks to Taylor, Earls got to his car in time. While the call might’ve been an unwelcome surprise for Earls, it’s not out of character for Taylor.

“You can count on my brother,” Earls said Tuesday. “There’s times I’ve called him for everything.”

Earls isn’t the first person who’s relied on Taylor, and he likely won’t be the last, either. In high school, Taylor knew early on he’d play Division I football. Taylor received seven offers — six at the power-conference level — before the start of his junior season, according to 247Sports. He could’ve pushed all of his chips into specializing on the gridiron, opting to focus on football-specific training or run track and field in the offseason — both of which are common paths for high-level college prospects.

But not Taylor. A lot of his friends were hoopers, as he played middle school basketball with several of the players now on his high school’s team. Naturally, he decided to join them on the court his junior year.

“There’s a lot of kids at the school now that just stopped playing when they got to high school because they figured, ‘Oh, football is gonna be my ticket, so (I’m) not even gonna waste time playing anymore,’ ” Taylor’s high school basketball coach, Derek Smith, told The Michigan Daily. “But he was the opposite. He just wanted to play with his friends and just be a kid.”

Taylor may have joined the basketball team to play with his buddies, but he was as locked in as they come. Smith referred to him as “unguardable,” and shared that no one could stop Taylor if he ripped the ball through and drove to the rim.

On one occasion, Taylor was tasked with guarding a co-region player of the year who averaged over 20 points per game. Taylor took the matchup head-on and turned his play up a notch. Playing nearly the full game , he held that player under 10 points and nearly put up a triple -double.

“It’s just the kind of person he is that he gave everything,” Smith told The Daily. “And it wasn’t like this game was the one that was going to send us to state. It wasn’t a region championship game. It was just a regular season game against a rival, and he gave everything he had.”

While Taylor’s size and athleticism certainly give him an edge on the court and on the gridiron, his tools go beyond that. That surely helped, but Taylor was invested in becoming a smarter player as well. Taylor watched film on his own and went the extra step to review his findings with his coach. He’d also join Smith for film sessions and ask questions as they watched the tape. These weren’t the pass concepts or run fits that Taylor would need to know inside -and -out to succeed in the world of big-time college football. He simply sought to gain an extra edge on the court — in a sport he took up for fun.

Since moving on from competitive basketball, Taylor still puts in time in the film room. This offseason was a big one for Taylor — he’s become one of the Wolverines’ top linebackers after playing sparingly a year ago. Taylor himself proclaims his knowledge of the game as his biggest area of improvement from year one to year two.

“Be a sponge,” Taylor said Tuesday. “That’s what I say. Be a sponge. Learn everything. Ask questions.”

That’s paid dividends for Taylor and Michigan’s defense. The Wolverines have held opponents to only one touchdown in eight quarters of football, and Taylor’s become a key part of the rotation at linebacker, recording seven total tackles on the season thus far.

Earls counted on Taylor to look out for him and his car, just as his high school basketball teammates relied on him to shut down the best player on the floor.

Now, Taylor’s become a player his coaches can rely on on Saturdays. That next step was simply inevitable.