Wisconsin football: Jonathan Taylor caps masterful B1G career with more awards

Jonathan Taylor may just be the best running back to every don the cardinal and white of the Wisconsin Badgers.

Let that settle in for a minute.

While this is certainly a discussion for the offseason (when we’ll have more time to shout about things of this nature), what should be discussed now is the fact that Taylor was named the 2019 Ameche-Dayne Big Ten Running Back of the Year on Wednesday evening.

Taylor has had a magnificent career that includes: winning the 2018 Ameche-Dayne Big Ten Running Back of the Year, winning the 2018 Doak Walker Award (nation’s best RB), being a unanimous first team All-American in 2018, winning the 2017 Thompson–Randle El Big Ten Freshman of the Year award, is a three team consensus first-team All-B1G running back and isn’t even done winning stuff yet since there is more of this season left to be played!

Here are some other fun facts about Taylor, courtesy of the Wisconsin Athletic Department:

• No one has ever rushed for more yards over a three-year span than Taylor (5,932).
• Taylor joins Herschel Walker as the only players in FBS history to run for at least 1,700 yards in three consecutive seasons (and needs just 39 yards to become the first to reach 1,800 in three straight seasons).
• With 5,932 career rushing yards, Taylor already ranks second all-time in Big Ten history.
• Taylor’s career average of 152.1 rushing yards per game is fifth-best in FBS history.
• Taylor leads the country with 25 touchdowns scored this season.
• Taylor ranks second in the country in both rushing (146.8 ypg) and yards from scrimmage (163.5 ypg) despite playing half his games against teams that rank among the top 30 in rushing defense (the FBS’ leading rusher, Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard, has not faced a top-30 rushing defense this season)
• Taylor leads the country with 55 rushes of 10+ yards.

Taylor has also improved on the one area of his game that was a major question mark heading into the season: catching passes out of the backfield.

He has caught 22 passes for 201 yards and five touchdowns this season, hopefully putting to bed the fact that he might have to come off the field on third down in the NFL.

A number of other Badgers were named to the offensive all-B1G teams, listed here:

• RB Jonathan Taylor, first team, coaches and media
• C Tyler Biadasz, first team, coaches and media
• OT Cole Van Lanen, second team, media; honorable mention, coaches
• OT Logan Bruss, honorable mention, coaches and media
• WR Quintez Cephus, honorable mention, coaches and media
• TE Jake Ferguson, honorable mention, coaches and media
• QB Jack Coan, honorable mention, media

We will have much more on the illustrious career of Taylor in the coming weeks.