No. 1 will forever belong to CJ Taylor as plans are being made to retire his jersey next Friday, Sept. 25 when Warren County plays host to Stone Memorial.
There are plenty of numbers that explain why nobody will wear No. 1 again at Nunley Stadium.
There are the 3,000 career rushing yards and 41 rushing touchdowns - and that’s just on offense. Defensively, there were nearly 200 tackles, six interceptions and countless forced fumbles.
Then there’s also an 8-0 start, a state ranking and a winning season that snapped a 30-year drought and a trip to the playoffs.
There is one number, though, that may explain it better than all the others: One. CJ Taylor is the one and only Mr. Football winner in Warren County history.
Next week, Warren County will make sure there are no more No. 1’s in the future.
Taylor's No. 1 jersey is set to be retired at Nunley Stadium, putting a permanent stamp on a career that changed Pioneer football. It will occur at the Sept. 25 home game against Stone Memorial.
Six years after Taylor walked off the field for the final time as a Pioneer, his number will join his accomplishments as something that won't be duplicated. And Taylor wanted it that way - He never hid what he wanted his legacy to be.
"I've always wanted to be remembered as the greatest Pioneer ever," Taylor said after winning Mr. Football in December 2020.
He certainly built a case.
Taylor was already an established two-way standout when Matt Turner took over the Warren County football program before the 2019 season. One of Turner's biggest decisions was putting the ball in Taylor's hands at quarterback and telling his dynamic playmaker to take control.
Over the next two seasons, Taylor did more than accumulate yards. He helped change the expectations surrounding Pioneer football.
Warren County won 12 games during Taylor's two seasons at quarterback. The breakthrough came during his senior season in 2020 when the Pioneers opened 8-0, secured their first winning season in 30 years and earned a playoff berth.
Taylor was the engine behind all of it.
The senior rushed for 1,768 yards and 23 touchdowns while adding 572 yards and six scores through the air. He was just as impactful defensively, finishing with 57 tackles, three interceptions, two sacks, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
By the end of the year, Region 3-6A coaches had named Taylor their MVP. The Tennessee Sports Writers Association selected him first-team All-State.
Then came the honor no Pioneer had ever received - Taylor was named Class 6A Mr. Football.
Warren County had produced football legends long before Taylor arrived. Jeff Womack - the only other Pioneer to ever have his number retired - put together rushing numbers in the late 1970s and early 1980s that still are in the state record books. Caleb Northcutt later became only the second Pioneer to surpass 3,000 career rushing yards.
Taylor joined them on his final night. Fittingly, he did it with one last explosion.
Warren County trailed Mt. Juliet in the fourth quarter of its 2020 playoff game when Taylor broke free for a 74-yard touchdown. The run briefly put the Pioneers ahead and pushed Taylor to the 3,000-yard mark for his career.
It was the last time he ever carried the football for Warren County.
There had been plenty of unforgettable runs before it.
On the first offensive snap of his senior season at DeKalb County, a broken play turned into Taylor weaving through traffic and exploding into the open field for a 52-yard touchdown. He finished the night with 253 rushing yards and three touchdowns, threw for another score, intercepted a pass and forced a fumble in a 30-24 victory.
College coaches started calling almost immediately.
Tennessee Tech offered first. Eastern Kentucky followed. Eventually the list included Army, Navy, Austin Peay, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
But Taylor was just getting started.
He rushed for 309 yards and five touchdowns against Blackman, willing Warren County to a 35-28 victory and its first win over the Blaze. Blackman coach Kit Hartsfield had already seen his share of Division I talent. After seeing Taylor, Hartsfield called him the best and most dynamic player his team had faced.
"He is the total package: fast, wiggle, strength and toughness," Hartsfield said at the time. "He refused to lose."
That description could have served as the summary of Taylor's senior season.
He ran for 188 yards and two touchdowns against Siegel as Warren County clinched the winning season it had chased for three decades. He rushed for 170 yards and two scores as the Pioneers shut out Cookeville 24-0. He had 185 rushing yards against eventual state champion Oakland before finishing his career with 200 yards and two touchdowns in the playoffs.
And Taylor almost never left the field.
He was Warren County's quarterback, its most dangerous runner and one of its biggest hitters on defense. He returned kicks, intercepted passes, forced fumble and when Warren County needed the ball in the hands of its best player, everybody in the stadium knew where it was going.
It usually didn't matter.
Taylor left Warren County as a consensus three-star prospect and signed with Vanderbilt, where the player who once seemed capable of doing everything at Nunley Stadium proved his talent translated to the SEC. He played 42 games for the Commodores, made 29 starts and finished with 181 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, five interceptions and four forced fumbles. He scored two defensive touchdowns and eventually became a Vanderbilt team captain.
His final college season included another fitting piece of symmetry. Taylor helped Vanderbilt beat Alabama, became the Jim Thorpe Award Player of the Week following the Commodores' win at Auburn and intercepted a pass in Vanderbilt's Birmingham Bowl victory over Georgia Tech. He finished his college career wearing the same number he made famous in McMinnville.
No. 1.
The Vanderbilt career adds to Taylor's football legacy, but it isn't the reason Warren County is retiring his jersey. That case was made before Taylor ever left Nunley Stadium.
Six years ago, Taylor said he wanted to be remembered as the greatest Pioneer ever.
There will always be debates about the greatest players to come through Nunley Stadium. Different generations will have different answers, and names like Womack will always carry enormous weight in Warren County football history.
But once the jersey is brought out one last time next Friday, there won't be any debate about No. 1. That one belongs to CJ Taylor.
When contacted by the Waren County Way, Taylor admitted he was ecstatic when he learned Warren County was officially retiring his jersey.
"It's an honor for sure," Taylor said. "I always thought of it when I was younger. You always want to be remembered. And since I was little, I was on the hill, running around, eventually wanting that number to be retired or wanting to be a guy that people looked up to.
"So it's definitely an honor to be remembered in this way."
The number Warren County is retiring carries its own story. Taylor didn't always wear No. 1. His favorite number was originally No. 2, but that changed after losing his brother when Taylor was still in elementary school.
"My brother passed away on December 1st. And there's a lot of reasons why number one is my favorite number," Taylor said. "There's this stigma that if you wear number one, people that wear number one are ‘The one.’ If you wear that number, you have to perform. So I like the pressure that that brought.
"And then, also, I can have a remembrance of my brother. He thought highly of me whenever I was young. He would tell his friends that I was the one in the family that was the athlete, the one that was going to change things for my family.
"So, it only made sense for me to switch."
Taylor knows some people may have viewed the confidence that came with wearing No. 1 differently. He never shied away from it.
"People look at it as a cocky thing," Taylor said. "Growing up, I had this chip on my shoulder that I felt like I was the best."
But when Taylor thinks about why No. 1 became his number, the answer goes deeper than confidence.
"I would say more or less, remembrance of my brother," Taylor said.
Now the number that meant so much to Taylor will belong exclusively to him at Warren County.
Taylor has returned to Nunley Stadium occasionally since leaving for Vanderbilt, but he knows next week's trip won't feel like any of the others.
"This will be a little different," Taylor said. "Probably a little emotional, but I have a lot of my family and friends that made this day possible. They're there with me, so it'll be a night for sure."
Click this link for CJ Taylor’s full thoughts on his jersey retirement in a column he provided to the Warren County Way.
