BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Jonathan Taylor emerged from a near-vacant visitor's locker room at Raymond James Stadium late Friday night and immediately seized upon the subtle side of his Heisman Trophy campaign.
He'd just taken care of the obvious part with a ground-breaking show of versatility and instinct that propelled Wisconsin to a 49-0 battering of South Florida in the season-opener for both schools.
Taylor accounted for a career-best four touchdowns and averaged a first down every time he touched the ball for the 19th-ranked Badgers. It was the kind of performance that had the country buzzing about the junior tailback's Heisman candidacy.
It's why Taylor did three one-on-one interviews — including a quickie on the phone with a national sports talk radio show in the stadium tunnel — before heading to the postgame interview room to stand alone at the lectern and take questions about his fruitful, eventful outing.
It's a small measure of how much off-the-field energy is required to embrace a project like chasing the Heisman.
That undertaking gained substantial momentum on a night when Taylor did things he's not done before.
He carried 16 times for 135 yards and scored on runs of 37 and 38 yards. It was the 23rd time in 28 career outings that Taylor topped 100 yards and his ninth multi-TD effort.
He added two receptions for 48 yards and converted both into TDs, one from 36 yards out and the other from 12. They were the first career touchdown catches for Taylor, making him the first Wisconsin back to have multiple rushing and receiving touchdowns in the same game since Brian Calhoun did it in 2005 and the first with four TDs in an outing since Melvin Gordon had that many — as well as a school-standard 408 rushing yards — vs. Nebraska in 2014.
The performance by Taylor brought some heavyweight supporters to his Heisman cause. Reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Pat Mahomes, Badgers legend and Super Bowl champion Russell Wilson, Wisconsin icon and three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt and ESPN broadcasters Louis Riddick and David Pollack all gave glowing reviews via social media.
"He's special," Riddick said of Taylor.
The Twitter nod from Mahomes, quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs, caught Taylor off guard.
"Jonathan Taylor for Heisman!" it read.
"That's awesome," Taylor said when informed of the critique at the postgame press session. "I've got to look at that."
Taylor came into the new season with an already-formidable Heisman resume. He set Football Bowl Subdivision records for most rushing yards as a freshman (1,977) and as a sophomore (2,194). He's the only back in FBS history with at least 4,000 rushing yards after his first two years.
To enhance that profile, Taylor spent the offseason focused on becoming a more complete, every-down back. That meant becoming more reliable and dangerous in the passing game. That meant becoming more fluent in blocking and third-down assignments.
Taylor had 16 career catches for 155 yards, but no TDs, coming into the new season. He took care of that void with two plays that were memorable for different reasons.
The first highlighted Taylor's decisiveness and accelerator. He took a second-quarter screen pass from junior quarterback Jack Coan in the left flat, blazed through a chunk of daylight provided by offensive linemen Kayden Lyles and Cole Van Lanen, outmaneuvered a defender and rocketed to the end zone.
Taylor's second TD accentuated his awareness and relentlessness. With 9 seconds left in the first half, no timeouts and first down at the South Florida 12, Coan passed to Taylor near the right flat with two defenders nearby. Coan admitted it was a flawed decision because if Taylor didn't score, the Badgers would not have had time to kick a field goal.
"But we've got the best ballplayer in America," Coan explained.
After lining up wide right, Taylor turned after making the catch and the two defenders closed in. He made contact and launched himself toward the goal line while tumbling down backward. Taylor reached back over his head with the ball, breaking the plane of the goal line for the score with 2 seconds left.
Taylor said he knew the stakes when he caught the ball, the clock ticking down inside his head.
En route to averaging a career single-game-best 10.2 yards per touch, Taylor became the first Big Ten Conference back to have multiple TD catches and rushes in the same game since Mikel Leshoure of Illinois had three scoring runs and two TD receptions vs. Michigan in 2010.
"You work all offseason like I did and to have that receiving touchdown come to life, it motivates you to see that hard work paying off," Taylor said.
Junior tailback Garrett Groshek worked out with Taylor extensively during the offseason, including a spring break trip to Florida where they trained with former Badgers and Gordon and fellow NFL back James White. The idea was to cultivate an every-down mindset and arsenal.
"I think he showed today that he's not that one-dimensional back anymore," Groshek said of Taylor. "There's different ways that you can get him the ball. When it comes down to it, it's about what you can do for your team, and he showed tonight that he can do everything for us."
