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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Like many curious 18-year-olds, Jonathan Taylor has been trying to bring context to everything.
In doing so, the Wisconsin tailback has received help in the form of text messages from Ron Dayne, the 1999 Heisman Trophy winner.
"The fact that he chooses to send me a text," said Taylor, who has already joined Dayne on a UW short list of true freshmen who have rushed for over 200 yards in a game, "is humbling."
During an illustrious four-year career, the super-sized Dayne rushed for 7,125 yards (including bowls); a mind-boggling total that has yet to be exceeded by anyone at the FBS level.
Dayne didn't make his first career start until the fifth game of his freshman season (1996) and went on to run for 2,109 yards (65 percent of the team's rushing total, 42 percent of the total offense).
On Taylor taking over as the starter in only his second collegiate game, Dayne said, "I'm just so proud of him to get out there as a freshman and do his thing because I know how tough it is."
Tough is relevant to a College Football Hall of Famer like Dayne who averaged 195.8 yards in his nine starts as a freshman. Toughness is relevant to Dayne and the 5-foot-11, 214-pound Taylor.
"I like the way he runs over people," Dayne said excitedly.
In particular, he loved Taylor's 29-yard touchdown against Florida Atlantic. Darting to his left, he made one tackler miss in the backfield, made two more miss on the edge and ran over a fourth.
Revisiting the play whereby Taylor lowered his right shoulder and flattened the FAU defensive back without seemingly losing any speed, Dayne couldn't help but gush, "One of my favorite runs."
Obviously, he had been there and done that himself.
Meanwhile, Taylor finished with three scores and 223 rushing yards. But he also lost a fumble and it was the first thing that Dayne addressed in his postgame text to Taylor.
After playfully chiding him for the turnover, which came in the third quarter while Taylor was fighting for extra yardage at the end of a run, Dayne revealed, "He texted back laughing emojis."
But the more serious nature of Dayne's feedback was something that Taylor took to heart.
"When you play this game, you have to take the ups and downs," said Taylor, paraphrasing the Dayne text. "That's the joy of it; not just accepting the good but accepting the good and bad.'"
Along with stressing patience to Taylor in following his blocks — "It's important that he lets the game come to him" — Dayne has shared some other thoughts.
"He's always telling me to keep smiling," Taylor said, "and enjoy the game."
And, oh, yes, don't forget to give credit where credit is due — to his offensive line.
"Make sure you keep the big boys up front happy,'" Dayne instructed Taylor. "Make sure they feel loved. Smack them in the butt and tell them they're doing a great job. Take care of them."
Although Dayne was a physical anomaly as a tailback — weighing 267 pounds as a freshman — there are some things in Taylor's makeup as a runner that reminds Dayne of Dayne.
"It's probably his knack for the end zone," said Dayne, who rushed for 71 career TDs. "He's not looking to just get the first down. His eyes are looking down field. That's how I did it."
There's one undeniable connection between the 39-year-old Dayne and Taylor. Both are from the 8-5-6 (area code) in New Jersey; Dayne is from Pine Hill and Taylor from Salem.
Their respective high schools, Overbrook and Salem, are less than 50 miles apart.
"I call him Jers," Dayne said of Taylor. "Little Jers."
Jers? Little Jers?
"Jersey," he clarified. "Little Jersey."
Little Jersey?
"He's Little Jersey to me," said Dayne, laughing. "That's what I call him when I talk to his dad."
Why is that? Why Little Jersey?
"Because I'm still Big Jersey."
• • • •
Salem High School head coach Montrey Wright had no trouble picking out his favorite Taylor running highlight even though he had so many to choose from.
He could have picked Taylor's 78-yard touchdown against Woodstown which broke the single-season South Jersey rushing mark (2,510) set by Glassboro's Corey Clement, the former UW tailback.
Or he could have picked Taylor's 31-yard run in the same game that eclipsed the modern-era state record (2,605) held since 1990 by Hoboken's Tyrell Dortch, the former Michigan State tailback.
In twice rushing for over 300 yards (368 and 344), there were plenty of special runs in those games. But he singled out the second play against Woodbury in the fourth game of Taylor's senior year.
"He broke up the sidelines with three kids on his back and he just threw one kid off and went for the score," Wright recalled. "That was the one play where you had to say, 'This kid is a beast.'"
The first Woodbury tackler had both hands on the back-inside of Taylor's shoulder pads.
"It should have been a horse collar," Taylor remembered. "Somehow, I lowered my pads and I got out of it — he flipped over my back — and I took it to the house (66-yard TD).
"That was pretty crazy and definitely one of my favorite runs."
Without sounding the least bit cocky, he added, "I have a lot of favorite runs."
With Salem trailing, 16-14, in the fourth quarter, Taylor came through in the clutch with a 65-yard touchdown to push his team into a lead that it wouldn't relinquish in a "must-win" situation.
Salem had lost two of its first three games.
Taylor conceded afterward he played with urgency and a chip on his shoulder against Woodbury knowing it was his final year and his teammates were counting on their captain.
Despite having a 66-yard touchdown erased by a penalty, he still ran for 190 yards and three scores. On the final one, he hopped into the end zone, dragging a tackler who was clutching a leg.
Beast mode?
"After that, he solidified that name for himself," Wright said. "You'd watch him punish defenders by running guys over. Jonathan was the type of running back that loved delivering blows."
At the time (early October), Taylor was verbally committed to Rutgers. Near the end of the month, though, he de-committed and flipped to Wisconsin shortly after taking his Madison visit.
"That was real tough," Taylor said. "I was committed. It was not like I was just looking at them (the Scarlet Knights). And I know Jersey fans were pumped with Jersey talent staying in Jersey.
"But my dad told me, 'You've got to make sure you do what is right for you. How do you want to spend your next four years? What do you want?'"
Wright confirmed how much thought and deliberation that Taylor put into the decision largely because of the loyalty factor: a South Jersey native staying home to play for the state school.
"But the connection he had with Coach (John) Settle and the head coach (Paul Chryst) solidified him with Wisconsin," he said. "The connection, environment and family feel sealed the deal for him.
"I'm not saying that Rutgers didn't have those things. But Jonathan felt like he belonged instantly when he took that (Wisconsin) visit and talked to people there."
Taylor also cited the home visit during which Chryst, Settle and assistant coach Mickey Turner went out of their way to answer every question that he might have while making him feel at ease.
"They wanted to make sure that we were comfortable with them in our home," Taylor said. "Instead of us trying to make them feel that way. And that was a really great vibe."
The irony is that the Badgers had evaluated Taylor as a junior and didn't offer.
"We were watching film to see if he ran away from anybody," admitted Settle, UW's running backs coach. "Or, if he broke one, were people running him down?
"We saw some things that we liked but we didn't see enough speed. We liked his size, we liked his ability. But in this recruiting class, we felt that we needed a guy with top-end speed.
"We knew we had (Bradrick) Shaw coming back and we knew we had (Taiwan) Deal. We wanted a burner, so to speak. I think he (Taylor) understood. We were honest and upfront with him.
"We wanted to see some senior tape and see him play faster."
Taylor, who didn't start at tailback until his junior year of high school, didn't have any problem with that assessment or Wisconsin's concerns over his speed. "It was definitely fair to say," he said.
That spring, he ran with a new purpose on the Salem track team. He had yet to blossom as a sprinter, which was understandable since he didn't run track in middle school or as a freshman.
"There was no better way to work on my top-end speed than during the track season," said Taylor, recognizing the amount of work required, especially as a novice. "I dove into it headfirst."
As a junior, Taylor won the 100 meters (10.61) at the Meet of Champions earmarking him as the fastest athlete in the state of New Jersey, no small feat. He also won the event as a senior.
Former Michigan star Jabrill Peppers, who was out of Paramus Catholic, was the last sprinter to go back-to-back in the 100 at the Meet of Champions. That's fast company. Literally.
"The sport grew on me," acknowledged Taylor, who was named the South Jersey senior Male Athlete of the Year. "But it also showed how much time I have invested in the sport."
It didn't take long for Wisconsin to invest fully in Taylor by offering a scholarship.
"Jonathan came back," Settle said, "and played with that speed his senior year."
By then, the Badgers were sold on him. But Rutgers wasn't their only competition. Some other Power Five schools amped up their recruiting. And, then, there was the lure of Harvard University.
"Anytime you have an opportunity to get an education like that (from Harvard), you've got to check it out and evaluate it," said Taylor, who considered all the pluses of getting an Ivy League degree.
"Harvard was a nice place and full of great people. But I knew what I wanted for myself. I wanted a balance between academics and sports. That was the kind of college experience I wanted."
Education has always been stressed in his home, starting with his mom, Elizabeth Taylor, a registered nurse; and his father, Jonathan James, a construction worker.
"Even when I first signed up for football," he said, "they always told me, 'You won't be able to do this your entire life, so we want to make sure you take care of your school work.'"
A bad grade, even in the eighth grade, he recalled, might have consequences. Like missing a football practice as a penalty. His older brother and three older sisters all reinforced that thinking.
"My sisters were always very protective of me," he said.
Wright has known the family since Jonathan was 6. They attend the same church.
"He was always athletic, always had a lot of energy and always had a smile on his face," Wright said. "For him to turn out to be the kid he has turned out to be, I'm not surprised.
"We are extremely proud of Jonathan Taylor in Salem. Words can't even explain how we feel about him here. He gives people an example of what our small town (pop: 4,824) is all about."
Salem High School's most famous alum is from its Class of 1968: former Penn State tailback Lydell Mitchell, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and a nine-year NFL veteran.
Mitchell came back to Salem for a game last October and spoke to Wright's team after a 46-35 victory over Pennsville during which Taylor had touchdown runs of 63 and 75 yards.
Mitchell also met individually with Taylor, complimenting him on his "character." He liked the way Taylor handed the ball to the official and celebrated with teammates after scoring.
He also liked his commitment to hitting the books. As a junior, Taylor qualified for enrollment in Salem's International Baccalaureate program, a challenging pre-college curriculum.
"It's a very rigorous program, one of the best in the country," said Wright, a Salem alum. "I watched Jonathan get A's and B's and still continue to do what he did on the football field.
"He had the student-athlete part down to a T when he was in high school. He spent countless hours all night doing homework and then came to practice the next day bringing the same energy.
"It's hard for a teenager to do that. But he did, and it was wonderful to see."
Taylor took every challenge in stride. As part of the Baccalaureate program, he opted for choir as his elective. And before a game during his junior year, he was in a group singing the national anthem.
"I knew we had concerts, spring and winter, and things like that at the school," he said. "But I didn't know I would have to sing before a football game. The crowd was pretty shocked."
So was Taylor. But he still rushed for 165 yards in a win over a previously unbeaten foe. He confessed to not being much of a singer. "But we ended up with the W," he said of his priorities.
Reflecting on the Baccalaureate program, he said, "I definitely feel like it prepared me for college. The things I'm doing now, I've done in high school. So, I'm glad that I took it."
Taylor is intrigued by chemistry. Team chemistry and biochemistry. Some other good habits have carried over to Wisconsin, notably his film study.
"He'd come to our coaches meetings on Sundays and watch film and game plan with us," Wright said. "That says a lot about his character. He wanted to be a leader, he wanted to get better.
"Jon wanted to be that guy that knew everything that was going on so he could get a feel for what was going to be open to us and he always wanted to sit down and hear what we had to say.
"It was pretty impressive to see how much information we were giving him and how much coaching he was taking to get better at his craft."
Settle noticed the same things as soon as Taylor stepped on campus.
"That's kind of why he had the chance to play early and often," Settle said. "He had great study habits, stayed in the (play) book and asked questions."
Taylor has been a quick study. After getting stopped on the goal line against Florida Atlantic — three straight runs resulted in one yard — Settle spliced together a video of some NFL players at work.
Tailbacks like Melvin Gordon, Ezekiel Elliott and Marshawn Lynch were featured.
"Coach Sett wanted me to see guys with low pad level," he said. "Sometimes the hole is not going to be there, so you have to get your pad level down and burst through.
"It definitely helped me. During our next game (at BYU), I had another goal-line situation. And I made sure I executed every single thing I had seen so far."
Taylor scored on a 1-yard run. To date, it's Settle's favorite run. "He has taken to coaching," Settle said. "And that's what impresses you — to have a young guy be that in tune with what's going on."
The best may be yet to come.
"We really haven't seen him get out and run," said Dayne, "and show his speed-speed."
Big Jersey was gushing again.
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