When Drew Casani sees talent, he knows it.
The longtime football scout, who served under former UCLA football coach Terry Donahue while with the San Francisco 49ers, where Donahue was general manager from 2001-05, has been tasked with evaluating playmakers and potential professional football players throughout his 30-plus-year career.
Casani even led UCLA’s scouting department for a short period under Jim Mora in 2017, diving into the prep scouting world to find the next blue-chip prospect that could take the Bruins to new heights at the Rose Bowl.
But in 2025, Casani, the head coach at Loyola High since 2019, coached and identified a legitimate college recruit who could be that prospect that helps bring UCLA’s defense a much-needed spark in a season where not much has gone according to plan.
Enter Bruins freshman linebacker Scott Taylor.
“The thing that is really special about Scott is his football intelligence,” said Casani, who coached Taylor all four years at Loyola. “He’s such a smart athlete and such a smart football player. He understood as well as the coaches what we were trying to do, what offenses were trying to do to attack us.”
The former Angelus League Player of the Year in the CIF Southern Section is a player who might now take flight with interim head coach Tim Skipper and senior defensive analyst Kevin Coyle leading the Bruins’ defensive unit. Taylor, who had appeared on special teams in all four games this season, turned into a vital linebacker on the field during UCLA’s 17-14 loss at Northwestern on Saturday.
Taylor tallied his first career tackle and was a driving force to secure a pass breakup – so much so that the Los Angeles native celebrated as it was his hand that batted down the ball – that was ultimately rewarded to linebacker Jalen Woods.
“It’s everything you dream of as a kid, being out there making plays when it counts,” Taylor said. “For me, I’m just a guy who likes to bring energy. I always say, ‘I’m too young to not have energy.’”
In third-and-short situations or goal-line stands and needing defensive stops, Coyle – who is now play-calling the Bruins on defense, along with a new playbook – sent Taylor on the field as another linebacker to rush during blitz packages.
It paid off, time and time again, helping lead to a second-half shutout of the Wildcats despite the loss.
“He was so productive as a pass rusher because of his explosiveness and the ability to get off the ball, that we figured that [the edge rush] was the best place to disrupt our opponents,” Casani said, adding that UCLA plays Taylor off the ball, too. “But seeing that he could have done anything, he could have played any position really well.’
For Skipper, who while serving as the special assistant to the head football coach under DeShaun Foster helped with defensive game-planning, he noticed Taylor’s drive from the start of Costa Mesa fall training camp just after the now-interim coach joined the coaching staff.
“Scott’s a guy that’s flashed,” Skipper said earlier this week. “He makes plays every day, whether it’s special teams or on defense, and I think he’s getting better and better and better. I think he can definitely be a guy who will keep having major contributions to the team. I’ve just – I enjoy watching him play, so we’ll see how he keeps on progressing.”
And it’s not just the coaches who have noticed.
Defensive lineman Gary Smith III, one of the elder statesmen of the defense, who also serves on the team’s leadership committee, noticed the effort Taylor had been putting in during practice during the early parts of the season.
“He’s just been a sponge coming in, learning from the older guys, and he has a lot of athletic ability,” Smith said of Taylor in late August. “I’m just glad to have him on our team, and he’ll definitely help us out.”
Taylor said he’s leaned on his “big bro,” redshirt senior linebacker JonJon Vaughns, since arriving in Westwood, immersing himself in the linebackers room with players such as Wyatt Mosier and Woods.
Casani knew Taylor could make it at the next level – he had scoured the nation for players just like his star defender years earlier in Westwood.
He pleaded with college recruiters that Taylor had the talent to back up the numbers the 6-foot-4, 235-pound defensive end had put up in high school, such as the 91-tackle campaign he recorded during his senior season.
“I let my play speak for itself,” Taylor said, adding that his relationship with associate head coach and inside linebackers coach Scott White was a driving factor in his choice to come to Westwood.
Taylor added: “Once I was here, I found home, and I didn’t look anywhere else.”
The cliche “first one in, last one out,” seems fitting to describe Taylor based on how his former coach glows about his effort. Casani said Taylor’s mental makeup and character are what set him apart from his peers, the intangibles he says differentiate the talented football players and future professionals.
“I think Scott is as talented as anybody, but it’s that other – the day-to-day character and passion to learn and win and get better in every area – he has,” Casani said. “When I talk to people and they ask me about him, I have no doubt that he has the ability to play on Sundays – because of his football intelligence and his work ethic.”
It’s only fitting that Taylor, who grew up idolizing former UCLA and Loyola linebacker Anthony Barr, is now getting the chance to do the same as the former Bruin: suiting up in the Rose Bowl for the team that once declared itself “Linebacker U” in 2013, the year Barr claimed consensus All-American honors.
Skipper recognizes what could soon be on the way for Taylor, with eight games remaining to make a larger impression.
“I think he’s got a very, very bright future,” Skipper said.