How Wisconsin helped shape two of the best players in the NFL
February 09, 2022 | Football, Andy Baggot
Former Badgers Taylor, Watt among the favorites at upcoming NFL Honors
BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — There are a handful of reasons why Alec Ingold has been chosen to help narrate this particular story about the Wisconsin football program.
For one thing, he lived its details.
For another, he knows its principle characters.
For yet another, he can appreciate its magnitude.
During his career with the Badgers, which spanned 2015-18, Ingold watched intently as Jonathan Taylor and T.J. Watt evolved into his renowned All-America teammates.
Now that the three are playing in the NFL, Ingold has seen Taylor and Watt become consensus All-Pro headliners.
When the league unveils its major award winners for the 2021 season on Thursday, there's a strong possibility that the Offensive Player of the Year will be Taylor, a second-year running back with Indianapolis, and the Defensive Player of the Year will be Watt, a fifth-year outside linebacker with Pittsburgh.
Taylor, a second-round draft pick of the Colts in 2020, led the NFL with 1,811 rushing yards, 338 carries, 2,171 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns.
Watt, a first-round draft selection of the Steelers in 2017, equaled the single-season NFL record for quarterback sacks with 22.5.
One prominent media outlet, The Sporting News, has already christened Taylor and Watt as its players of the year. The publication uses NFL players and coaches as voters.
The official award winners, as determined by a pool of Associated Press selectors, will be revealed Thursday at 8 p.m. (CT) during the two-hour primetime NFL Honors special on ABC and NFL Network from Los Angeles.
AP voters have been choosing the NFL players of the year since 1972 when Washington running back Larry Brown and Pittsburgh tackle "Mean" Joe Greene were singled out. In all that time, there has never been an instance where players from the same school were chosen in the same season.
UW might well be the first.
"It gives you a great deal of pride being from Wisconsin, but it also gives you a sense of validity to the process of development that we all go through there," said Ingold, an undrafted free agent now a third-year fullback with Las Vegas. "Nothing is handed to you at Wisconsin and I feel like, regardless of how talented you are or not, there's a level of discipline, of grit, of courage, of determination that needs to be understood before you make it to the NFL.
"It makes you proud to be from the same school as those guys."
When Paul Chryst took over as UW coach in 2015, he inherited a roster that included Watt on offense and was a year away from having to out-recruit Harvard for Taylor.
"Personally, you're grateful just to be around people like that," Chryst said. "To see what they're doing now, you can't help but be happy for them and proud."
Taylor and Watt have also been mentioned in the debate over the NFL Most Valuable Player, a discussion dominated by Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Ingold said Taylor and Watt have embraced a daunting degree of difficulty to get where they are.
"Athletically? It's extremely, extremely difficult," Ingold said of life in the NFL. "It's the highest level of competition. They're in the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent at what they're doing.
"Character-wise and emotionally? Personally I think it might even be tougher, but that's what makes them different. They're made to do both."
9 different Badgers scored @NFL TDs this season
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) February 9, 2022
So we made a video to brag about it 🤗 pic.twitter.com/kRS0iKi11v
Not only would Wisconsin be the first college program to have simultaneous players of the year, it would be the first to produce siblings as recipients. J.J. Watt, a defensive end for Arizona, preceded his younger brother into NFL prominence. J.J. was NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, 14 and '15 after an All-America career at UW from 2009-10.
Taylor, from Salem, New Jersey, and T.J. Watt, from Pewaukee, are perfect examples of how the Badgers go about their business as a developmental program.
Both were modest three-star recruits coming out of high school, which suggests they needed time for development before seeing the field on a consistent basis. Both are cut from the same bolt of cloth when it comes to character and drive. Both were celebrated by UW teammates and coaches for their consistency and work ethic. Both seized on opportunities to make their mark.
When Taylor came to fall camp in 2017, he was situated behind four experienced veterans. But he startled onlookers with spectacular runs against the No. 1 defense in a scrimmage, was a starter two weeks into his rookie season and wound up setting a Football Bowl Subdivision record for freshmen with 1,977 rushing yards.
Before turning pro, Taylor became the first player in FBS history to surpass 6,000 yards in his first three seasons and won the Doak Walker Award twice.
Taylor is the latest in a procession of elite running backs to move from UW to the NFL since 2000. At present, there are seven former Badgers ball-carriers earning NFL paychecks, which is why Wisconsin is regarded by many as Running Back U.
"The thing about having a standard is you don't compromise for anything," Ingold said. "RBU is a standard when you walk into the running back room at Wisconsin. There's a legacy and a tradition that you need to uphold and that carries so much weight. It's everything you do, from the weight room to practice to games to when you're done.
"It doesn't care about your feelings. It doesn't care if you're sore and beat up. If you're tired from studying for exams, it doesn't matter. You have to rise to the occasion every single day and that's what RBU really is and what that room is all about."
Watt, meanwhile, spent his first two years in the program as an injury-prone tight end before Chryst and his staff moved him to the other side of the ball as an outside linebacker.
Justin Wilcox spent the 2016 season as the UW defensive coordinator before taking over as the head coach at Cal. During his brief stay in Madison, he worked with seven linebackers who reached the NFL, including Watt.
"Man, was I fortunate — were we fortunate — to have that group and especially a guy like him," Wilcox said. "What an unbelievable player he's become. I feel fortunate to have been in that place at that time, to be around the players and that staff."
Wilcox recalled a moment during a 49-20 Big Ten Conference victory at Purdue when Watt diagnosed a pass play, intercepted a high, arcing throw and returned it for a touchdown that put the Badgers ahead for good. Wilcox said he and the other coaches shared a laugh on the headsets.
"That was some really great coaching on our part," Wilcox deadpanned.
Wilcox said Watt stood out by the way he prepared each week.
"When we would go to practice, he would be out early working on ball drills. During special teams — when he wasn't on one — he'd be over on the blocking sled with his helmet on striking the sled," Wilcox recounted.
"He was always working on getting better at football. Practice, the meetings, the workouts, he was such a driven person. When you take that with the toughness he played with and the competitiveness and the physical traits, that's what you get: An MVP-type player.
"It's been a lot of fun to watch that guy develop into one of the best — if not the best — defensive player in the NFL."
Ingold faced the Steelers earlier this season and caught up afterward with Pittsburgh's four UW products: T.J., Derek Watt, Joe Schobert and Isaiahh Loudermilk. A year after playing against the Colts and Taylor, Ingold has stayed in touch via phone.
"I'm sending him a lot of congratulations texts lately," Ingold said.
Ingold, from Green Bay, was asked if Taylor and Watt were cut from the same rough-hewn material.
"I think a lot of us are," Ingold said, referring to UW players then and now. "That goes all the way through recruiting, the guys we recruit."
Any surprise at all that Taylor and Watt have reached these heights?
"Not at all," Ingold said. "You see it every single day. You see it in the way they show up in spring practice. You see it when they show up on the first day of camp. You see it when they show up and it's the week of a random game in the Big Ten.
"The consistency that those guys showed while we were in the locker room together is what's led them to continuously improve with everything."
What does it say about Wisconsin football that two of its most selfless, most diligent products are on the verge of becoming the two best players in the NFL?
"It starts with the individuals," Chryst said. "A lot of people had a hand in helping them, but you're talking about two really incredible people that are obviously gifted athletically, but probably one of the greatest gifts was the ability to just work. What I am proud of is that each one's had a different path."
Chryst has always marveled at Taylor because he had such a thirst for growth. "There's such a sincere desire to get better," Chryst said.
Watt, meanwhile, is a great example for all, whether it's players at Wisconsin or people in general, "because he believed in himself and went to work," Chryst said.
Taylor and Watt have sent a loud, though unspoken, message to those in the UW locker room and beyond.
"If they do it, it can be done here again," Chryst said. "It gives others a path. You can be the best in the conference or best in the nation or the best in the NFL. Talk about a high bar.
"Both are truly in the pursuit of excellence and that's pretty special."
Only 4 schools in the country produced a pair of players with at least 110 tackles this season
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Alabama, Georgia, LSU, 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐍
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