Kelvin Taylor still has playoffs and another season of high school football to distance himself from Emmitt Smith on the Florida record book.
File photo by Stuart Browning
junior
Kelvin Taylor surpassed
Emmitt Smith as Florida's career rushing leader in a 43-22 regular-season finale win over South Fork Friday night.
According to the
Palm Beach Post, Taylor did it in style, going for 388 yards and six touchdowns on 34 carries giving him 8,975 yards and 141 touchdowns for his career. The touchdowns is also a state mark.
Kelvin Taylor is the son of former
NFL standout Fred Taylor.
File photo by Stuart Browning
He's done it all on 1,011 carries.
Taylor, a rugged 5-foot-11, 209-pounder, broke the four-year mark of 8,804 yards by Smith who played for
Escambia (Pensacola) from 1983-86.
Taylor, the son of former NFL standout running back Fred Taylor, needed 217 yards coming into Friday's game to break Smith's mark but he shattered that.
In fact, Taylor scored on each of his team's first six possessions. On the Glades Day's fifth drive with 4:43 left in the half he broke off his record-breaking run rushing down the left side.
"I just told myself I want to break it during the regular season and then take care of business in the playoffs," Taylor told reporters after.
Taylor should distance himself from Smith with the state playoffs starting next week.
It should be noted that Taylor has piled up his numbers since the eighth grade. Smith's numbers were amassed from the ninth through 12th grades, so when Taylor finishes this season he and the NFL Hall of Famer will have played the same amount of prep seasons.
The NFHS, the national governing body, only recognize numbers accumulated from the ninth through 12th grade, so Taylor will not pass Smith, barring injury, until next season on its leader list.
All of that matters little to Glades Day coach Pete Walker. After Taylor's fifth touchdown, according to the
Palm Beach Post, Walker had a quiet conversation with his star back.
"I told him he's the greatest football player I've ever coached and he's the best back I've ever seen," Walker told the newspaper. "He's a once-in-a-lifetime kid."
And he gets him one more season.
See updates throughout the night. 
