Auburn, Ala. ? A basketball standout and state champion high jumper in high school, Courtney Taylor is used to athletic success.

And that has given the wideout for ninth-ranked Auburn something valuable.

“It’s a cocky attitude,” he said. “You’ve got to have some cockiness in you to play receiver. It just comes down to the will of whoever wants the ball more.”

But, even with the previous success, it’s taken time for the loquacious Taylor to gain his swagger on the football field.

But he’s got it now, and his performance last week against No. 13 LSU showed why. Taylor made two key catches on Auburn’s game-winning drive in a 10-9 victory.

First, he gained 14 yards on a fourth-and-12 to keep the drive alive. Then, on third-and-12 with 1:14 to play, Taylor caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Jason Campbell to give Auburn the win.

“He’s come a long way in a year,” Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. “He didn’t have a lot of confidence last year. He’s a good athlete, and if you put a basketball in his hands he’d have a lot more confidence than he would a football up to this point. He dominated when he was in high school (in basketball). Being a football player, it’s taken him a little while to understand the speed of the game.”

The Tigers need Taylor to start understanding.

The team’s receivers were viewed by some as a weak link this season, plagued by dropped passes.

But with Taylor, who has eight catches for a team-high 126 yards, and Anthony Mix emerging as bona fide threats, Auburn has a complement to its vaunted running game.

“This kid has a lot of ability,” offensive coordinator Al Borges said of Taylor. “I told you if there was a player that would surprise everybody by the end of the season it would be him. I hope this game was a little bit of a coming out party for him because he has a world of ability.”

Auburn receivers coach Greg Knox noted that competitiveness on the basketball court, too.

“I saw that during the recruiting part of it while watching him play basketball,” Knox said. “If the game was close, he wanted the ball in his hands. He’s always been a competitive young man.”

Taylor also had another big catch that was less noticed. After LSU consumed nearly seven minutes on its opening drive, Auburn failed to gain anything on its first two plays and was about to have to put its weary defense back on the field. Instead, Campbell hit Taylor on a 17-yarder for a first down.

Cornerback Junior Rosegreen said Taylor predicted he was going to have a big game.

“He told me before the game even started, ‘I’m going to take this game over,”‘ Rosegreen said.

He was a running quarterback at Carrollton High School, where he also averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds for the basketball team.