Birds of a feather: Childhood friends and teammates Jared Taylor, Malik Dotson ready for final college game together

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Nov. 19—There is no glory at the end of this story, no shining moment where childhood friends Malik Dotson and Jared Taylor lead their team to a championship, their equally triumphant teammates hoisting them on their shoulders and carrying them off the field.

No, whatever dreams Dotson and Taylor had of their final season together were shaken even before the first snap of the season, when Dotson knew he was already playing on a broken foot.

"I tried to do it a couple quarters but I was not feeling the best," Dotson said of Eastern Washington's season-opening loss at Incarnate Word, 31-21.

"It's been very tough," Taylor said this week as the Eagles prepare for their season-ending matchup at Cal Poly on Saturday. "I think after Incarnate Word, I was kind of speechless."

Taylor said he believed the Eagles should have won that game.

"I didn't play a great game, so that was bitter," Taylor said. "And then the accident happened in Boise."

One week after the loss in San Antonio, Taylor suffered the injury that defined his season, a concussion in the fourth quarter at Boise State that led to a precautionary hospitalization in Boise, where he and his family were flooded with texts, posts and well-wishes.

Taylor remembers telling his mother to text EWU head coach Aaron Best that he'd be ready to play next week. He knew it wasn't really true, but he wanted to make one thing clear:

"I still had that fire in me," Taylor said.

That fire hasn't gone out for Taylor. Even though he won't play, he'll make the trip to Cal Poly this weekend. He expects that it will be a tough day.

"But my mindset going into it is that I'm going to do what I can to help the guys and do what I can to help them win," Taylor said. "As of now it will be my last time, and it's something I didn't think would come. I had dreams of taking this thing as far as I could."

Dotson's fire hasn't gone out either. He, though, plans to appeal for a medical redshirt so that he can play again in 2026.

Both took part in the senior day celebration before Eastern's final home game last week at Roos Field, each of them donning letter jackets instead of jerseys.

"It was definitely different," Dotson said. "It's not the senior year I was expecting, for me or Jared, and it was weird that it happened to both of us. I've played probably three years without Jared ever in my whole football career, so it was difficult."

Yet neither looked back on the season with disdain or with a sense of failure. It wasn't the season they wanted, but it was hardly a lost one.

Earlier this week, offensive coordinator Marc Anderson offered all the players who have exhausted their eligibility to say a few words to the offense. Taylor accepted.

"I told them this year, by my personal standards, didn't go how I planned it to," he said. "But the things that I went through, they don't realize how much they mean to me."

A position shift

That much was clear to Taylor when, three weeks after the Boise State game, the redshirt senior quarterback suited up again to start against Montana State.

"I wish you guys could have seen when you first saw me come back," Taylor said he told teammates. "Seeing their eyes light up, you could see it was pure excitement to see I was OK and I was back around the guys."

Ever since the end of the 2024 season, when it became clear that Taylor was lined up to start at quarterback this season, coaches and teammates raved about Taylor's leadership qualities. This was to be the year that Taylor, who had excelled mostly by running the ball in 2023 and 2024, would showcase his ability to throw passes. To be the complete dual-threat quarterback.

But that dream never materialized. Against Incarnate Word, Taylor completed 21 of 38 passing attempts for 183 yards but no touchdowns. When asked after the game which throws he wanted back, Taylor said "all of them."

Before suffering the injury against the Broncos, Taylor completed 14 of 28 attempts for 102 yards, and in his initial return three weeks later at Montana State, he completed 5 of 12 throws for 59 yards before being pulled from the game at halftime. Those were the last throws he attempted.

Two days after the Montana State game, Anderson, offensive analyst Sam Holman and the Eagles' five quarterbacks met to watch game film. Taylor said he understood why he didn't play after halftime, and he was OK with the decision. But in the middle of the meeting, Taylor turned to the group and asked, "What do you think of me playing running back?"

It wasn't something Anderson expected to hear, but he was on board.

"The lack of ego," Anderson said. "You don't often see that, where guys truly put the team first and do whatever they can to help out and do what they think will give everyone a chance to be successful. I was caught off guard for sure, but it speaks to the type of kid he is and how much he wants to win."

Taylor thought the move solved a lot of problems. It freed up redshirt sophomore Nate Bell to start at quarterback. It leaned into Taylor's ability to be a power running back.

And so, four weeks later, Taylor returned to the field and ran 11 times for 23 yards and Eastern's only two touchdowns in a 23-20 victory over Weber State, their first road win of the season.

But it wasn't all good: Taylor suffered another concussion. That game would be his last.

"That was not easy," Taylor said.

'I've grown up with these guys'

And yet, just a few weeks later, Taylor said he is OK with the decision.

"I understand I have a long life to live, and there's more to life than football," he said.

The amount of love that coaches have for the players at Eastern is real, Taylor said. He's felt it throughout this season, and it's something he said he hasn't been around since high school, when he and Dotson played together at Lakewood High School in Arlington, Washington.

"I feel like I've grown up with these guys, and I don't believe that's everywhere," said Taylor, who also played with Dotson at Feather River College in Quincy, California. "It's been a tough couple of weeks. It's been hard accepting what it is (to not play), but I think I've done it."

Taylor finished the year with 50 rushes for 160 yards and four touchdowns, as well as 344 passing yards on 40 completions across 78 attempts. They aren't eye-popping numbers.

But the team has improved, something that shows in their overall record (5-6) and their Big Sky mark (4-3), both of which are the program's best since 2021.

They will head into next season with a pair of quarterback options in Bell and redshirt freshman Jake Schakel, who replaced Bell when he was injured against Sacramento State. Schakel was one final play from leading the Eagles to an upset over second-ranked Montana, and then he led the team to a 27-7 victory over Northern Colorado last week.

Dotson finished the season with just the six carries and 14 yards he gained against Incarnate Word. He hopes to be back next year, competing for carries with a trio of running backs — redshirt junior Marceese Yetts, redshirt freshman Kevin Allen III and true freshman Wilson Medina — who have impressed at various points this season.

"I think about it as, like with our quarterback situation, having too many good players is a very, very good problem to have," Anderson said.

Dotson said this season has given him a chance to see the game from a coach's perspective, and it has made him appreciate the running back room's connectivity even more.

"We have dudes who can play, top to bottom," Dotson said. "We're all really good friends, all have good relationships with each other, and it's cool to see them growing up, to see the offensive linemen growing up. To see them take that next step pushes me as well."

Playing another year wasn't the ending Dotson expected, and Taylor didn't expect this season to go as it did, either.

But the lack of a glorious ending wasn't because Taylor lacked guts.

"On the field, Jared gave everything he absolutely had," Anderson said. "Utlimately, he's a phenomenal person. He loves football so much. He's also going to have a phenomenal life after football."

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