Louisiana Tech wide receiver Trent Taylor (left) catches a touchdown pass last season against Western Kentucky at Houchens-Smith Stadium. Taylor, a returning senior, caught 99 passes for 1,282 yards and nine touchdowns last season. (Austin Anthony/photo@bgdailynews.com)

IRVING, Texas – Yes, Trent Taylor is aware of the Wes Welker comparisons.

In fact, Louisiana Tech’s senior wide receiver said that when he first got to campus, they were all he ever heard.

“It got old pretty quick,” Taylor told the Daily News last week at Conference USA Media Days. “My freshman year at Tech, I think most people didn’t know my real name. They just called me ‘Wes.’

“… I’m a slot receiver, an undersized white guy. I see the similarities there.”

Taylor is a 5-foot-8, 180-pound possession receiver. His playing style bears resemblance to Welker, the 5-9, 185-pound slot receiver who’s been one of the NFL’s most prolific pass-catchers over the past decade.

Taylor also put up some Welker-like numbers last season for La Tech. He caught 99 passes (coach Skip Holtz expressed regret he didn’t get Taylor another to make it 100) for 1,282 yards and nine touchdowns.

Nine of those catches came in a Sept. 10 loss at WKU for 119 yards and one touchdown. That performance came after he torched the Hilltoppers in a 2014 Bulldogs win for 113 yards and three scores on another nine catches.

Taylor will get a third and final chance at WKU on Oct. 6 when Louisiana Tech hosts the Tops at Joe Aillet Stadium in Ruston, La. It’ll be a Thursday night game broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

“It’s going to be a huge game for us for sure,” Taylor said. “I think that atmosphere will be great there in Ruston. … I think the fans are looking forward to it and Western’s going to have another good team this year for sure.”

Taylor has a special extra motivation when he takes the field against the Hilltoppers. His dad, Greg Taylor, was a linebacker at WKU from 1982-85.

Greg Taylor’s first two years playing for the Tops coincided with the final two seasons in the coaching career of the school’s all-time wins leader, Jimmy Feix.

Trent Taylor was born in Corbin before moving to Shreveport, La., in elementary school. Most of his family still lives in Kentucky or Tennessee and he said he had 30 family members at Houchens-Smith Stadium last season to watch him play.

Greg Taylor wore “a neutral red shirt” to that game, his son said.

“Once again, (the WKU game) one I definitely look forward to and one that’s marked on my calendar for sure,” Trent Taylor said.

Holtz replaced Sonny Dykes as the Bulldogs’ head coach in 2013, the same year Taylor arrived on campus. He said that at first he wasn’t sure just what he had in the diminutive receiver.

“I had some doubts,” said Holtz, son of former Notre Dame national championship coach Lou Holtz. ” I was like, ‘He’s how tall?’ Then I met him and was like, ‘Golly, he’s a little shorter than I thought he was.’

“But then the first day you take a football and go out there on the field, every one of our coaches was like, ‘I’ll take him at safety, I’ll take him at inside receiver, I’ll take him at outside receiver.’ He’s a guy that everyone wants in their room because he is so competitive in what he does.”

Taylor, a product of Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, caught 28 passes as a freshman in 2013. That number increased to 62 in 2014 and then 99 last season.

Taylor’s 1,282 receiving yards were the sixth-most in a single year in La Tech’s history. His 191 career catches rank No. 7 all-time at the school.

For his efforts last season, Taylor was named First Team All-Conference USA. He was one of three C-USA receivers named to the First Team, joining Middle Tennessee’s Richie James and WKU’s Taywan Taylor.

“Trent Taylor, if we had a combine, everybody in this conference would not flock to talk to Trent when the combine was over and go, ‘Wow. Did you see his height?’” Holtz said. “’Did you see his speed? Did you see his vertical jump?’

“But that guy’s got an unbelievable heart and he may be one of the better competitors I’ve ever been around, not just on game days. He competes every day and will be one of the hardest workers all during two-a-days, all during practice. There’s an unbelievable amount of respect for that young man.”

Taylor and his Bulldog teammates were picked to finish second in the C-USA West Division this season behind only defending division champ Southern Miss. Those two teams will square off in their regular-season finales Nov. 26 in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Louisiana Tech lost three stars off a team that went 9-4 last season and beat Arkansas State in the New Orleans Bowl. Defensive tackle Vernon Butler, running back Kenneth Dixon and quarterback Jeff Driskel are all now in the NFL.

Senior Ryan Higgins, who backed up Driskel last season, is the new starting QB. Other key players include senior left tackle Darrell Brown, sophomore safety Xavier Woods (56 tackles, three interceptions in 2015) and sophomore defensive end Jaylon Ferguson (six sacks).

The September schedule includes road trips to Power 5 schools Arkansas and Texas Tech. The Bulldogs will host UTEP on Oct. 1, five days before the WKU matchup. By comparison, the Tops get a date with FCS opponent Houston Baptist that Saturday before the short week.

– Follow Daily News sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter @BradBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.