Hawaii’s Logan Taylor makes return from season-ending injury

The road to recovery wasn’t always smooth for University of Hawaii linebacker Logan Taylor, but it’s one that led him back to the field on time for one last year of college football.

Taylor, Hawaii’s leading tackler in 2022, tore his left ACL in UH’s third game in 2023, a 31-20 victory over Albany. Because he played under the four-game threshold, Taylor was able to utilize a medical redshirt to return for his seventh year of college ball in 2024.

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But the process following surgery was far from linear for Taylor or the team. The Rainbow Warriors were instantly without their vocal leader and alpha. For Taylor, a strenuous rehabilitation process ensued.

On Wednesday, Taylor was back on the field as the Rainbow Warriors began fall camp, one month before the team’s season opener against Delaware State.

“It’s very emotional every single day because this is something that I prayed for the last 10 months. To be out here is surreal,” Taylor said following Thursday’s practice. “I feel like it’s an out of body experience to be out here with my boys, to do what I love, I just give all praise to God because I prayed for this. I believed it before I could see it and now I’m here. I’m just fired up and all glory to God.

“It definitely wasn’t smooth. It’s the hardest recovery I ever had to endure just because I wanted to push, but it’s a healing process. Sometimes, the hardest thing for me to do is rest because I just like to go. I had to let go of control. It was areas where I couldn’t be in control, I had to trust God. It was hard. But man, did I learn so much out of it. It was hard but it was a blessing.”

Taylor, as he is wont to do, leaned heavily on his faith.

“I felt my character being developed, I felt my endurance, being able to push past these things, these hard battles. I feel like it prepared me to the man of God that God prepared me to be. Man, I’m grateful. I’m so grateful. It has just built my endurance. I’m able to do things I could never imagine because I was able to push through that and on the other side of it was a blessing. I would’ve torn both of these ACLs to be here another year, so I’m grateful.”

To associate head coach Chris Brown, who also coaches the linebackers, Taylor’s return will pay dividends for the ‘Bows.

“It’s awesome. It’s a great feeling to hear his voice every single day to see him running around and doing what he loves the most,” Brown said. “He gets everyone else fired up and when the guys are down, I tell the guys to go drink a cup of coffee and Logan’s that cup of coffee. He’s the one that gets everybody up and fired up. To have him out there, they have been bringing the energy every day and Logan brings it, it’s like an extra shot of espresso. It’s like, OK, it’s time to go to work now.

“Everything we’ve worked on for the last three years, all he’s doing is reiterating the thing to the younger guys and to the rest of the guys. It helps me a lot because now I just gotta tell him, ‘Hey Logan, make sure they’re doing this.’ He does it with so much enthusiasm and so much fire that he actually sometimes does it better than me.”

Taylor isn’t holding himself back in his return to the field, choosing not to wear a brace or sleeve on his recovered knee.

“No nothing. This is just faith right here. I’m just trusting it. But I’m feeling good,” he said. “It’s God’s speed right now so I’m just trusting God and doing what I gotta do daily.”