NFL coaches return to their roots, and, in some cases, their alma maters Steelers Notebook: Starters get a quarter vs. Panthers

Ike Taylor watches tape, mounds of it, but he can't bring himself to watch television, not with his beloved New Orleans drowning on the evening news. The Steelers cornerback knows big hits when he sees one and his hometown just took the biggest he ever imagined.

"Every year, they kept saying a big hurricane is going to hit, ever since I was born. This time, it hit," Taylor said yesterday.

"The city is done; it's going to take awhile to recover. I can't even watch TV."

Taylor turned into an emotional human computer the past two days, filtering information good and bad that poured over him as if launched from a broken levee: Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast Monday ... Taylor's family escaped unharmed ... little word on the West Bank home Taylor shares with his aunt and uncle ... Bill Cowher praised Taylor's play yesterday ... Taylor beaten deep by Cedrick Wilson on the last play in practice.

Uncle Herman Francios and Aunt Judy, who brought him up and live with him in that new two-story in New Orleans, hightailed it to Memphis with other members of Taylor's family ahead of the hurricane. They're safe but making contact is difficult.

"I'm trying to call and there's nobody to call because area code 504 is wiped out," Taylor said. "Even if you called me, my cell number's 504, so you can't get through. I have to call you."

Yesterday, Cowher called Taylor out at a news conference, in a positive way. Taylor and Ricardo Colclough have alternated in practices and in games with veteran starting cornerbacks Deshea Townsend and Willie Williams.

"Those four guys -- Deshea, Willie, Ike and Ricardo -- have played very well," Cowher said. "I would feel very comfortable with any of those four."

	TOMORROW What: Steelers (2-1) at Panthers (2-1) in final preseason game. When: 8 p.m. Where: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C. TV/Radio: KDKA/WDVE-FM (102.5), WBGG-AM (970) and the Steelers Radio Network.

Taylor's come a long way from a 2003 fourth-round draft choice from Louisiana-Lafayette with all the talent but none of the refined skills necessary to play cornerback in the NFL.

He had blazing speed and good quickness but his technique needed much help.

He turned wrong on passes, flapping at them just after the ball landed in the receiver's hands.

Yet Taylor soaked up information, studied, applied what he learned and polished the rough edges. He's still not refined at the spot, but the more he played the better he became.

"I knew I had the talent," said Taylor, who, at 6 feet 1, 191 pounds, has great size for the position to go with his speed. "It was just a matter of bringing the talent and becoming a cover corner and being consistent every day.

"I just think playing corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers, you have a lot of responsibility. Coaches want you to cover, they want you to hit, they want you to set the corner for sweeps. And us corners, weighing 190, are going against linemen 325. Not many corners do that, I think that's what sets us apart from other corners."

Taylor also believes this year's secondary that includes starting safeties Troy Polamalu and Chris Hope no longer can be called the soft spot of the defense, the way it was two years ago.

"We have two young, great safeties, and we have corners with a mixture of older and young and we can all run and we know the game. We have a good chemistry. We can be one of the best secondaries."

Taylor, 25, has formed a unique chemistry with Dan Rooney, 73.

They often greet each other with the hip, closed-fist handshake. Taylor affectionately calls Rooney "pops."

One day on the sideline at training camp, as Taylor loudly complained about something with fellow defensive backs, Rooney playfully squirted him through a hose from the water cooler.

"He's a good, young man," Rooney said yesterday.

And one still hoping to have a house standing today on the West Bank in New Orleans. Sketchy reports were that only windows were damaged on his home, but the situation is, in more ways than one, fluid and information is hard to come by.

"I was texting a couple of my people and they said it's messed up," Taylor said. "That's the chance you take staying down there. Just like in Florida, you gamble. You can only dodge it for so long."

Like playing cornerback. Sooner or later, they're going to hit a big one on you, the way Ben Roethlisberger got him yesterday on a 50-yard pass to Wilson, or the 28-yarder Washington's Santana Moss caught Friday night.

Fortunately for Taylor, the good has outweighed the bad, and he hopes in the coming days it continues for him off the field as well.