Wisconsin Junior HB Jonathan Taylor declared for the NFL draft on Friday. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as Taylor easily grades out as a 1st round choice in this spring's draft, and is widely expected to be the first HB off the board. Taylor ended his career with a heartbreaking loss to Oregon in the Rose Bowl, but managed to join just Troy Davis as the only two players in college football history to rush for back-to-back 2,000 yard seasons.
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Taylor started right out of the gates as a freshman, and set the NCAA freshman rushing record in the process with 1,977 yards. He was named Big TEN Freshman of the Year and made the NCAA All-American 2nd Team.
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He followed that up with over 2,100 yards (2,194) as a sophomore and scored 16 TDs. His 2019 campaign was another outstanding one as he finished with 2,003 yards and a career-best 21 rushing TDs, while adding another 252 yards and 5 TDs receiving. Both were easily career bests. He was a unanimous choice for 1st Team All-American HB in each of the past two seasons, and was also named the Doak Walker Award winner - given to the nation's top RB - for a second year in a row.
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Taylor joined just Ricky Williams (1997, 1998) and Darren McFadden (2006, 2007) as the only two-time Doak Walker Award winners. He rushed for more yards than any player in the history of college football through their junior year, and became just the 7th player to gain 6,000 or more career rushing yards. He scored 55 total TDs in 41 career games and leaves Wisconsin (also known as HB U) as the second-leading rusher behind only NCAA career rushing leader Ron Dayne.
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It was an impressive collegiate career turned in by Taylor, and I know I'll be looking forward to see what he can do in the NFL. Now that the Junior from Salem, NJ has made it official that he's off to the pros, let's take one final look back at his accomplished college career - by the numbers:
2 - Number of players in NCAA football history to rush for back-to-back 2,000 yard seasons (Troy Davis, 1995 & 1996); Jonathan Taylor (2018, 2019)
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6th - Taylor's ranking on the NCAA all-time career rushing list
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2 - Times he was named a unanimous 1st Team All-American (2018 & 2019)
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0 - Players who have rushed for more yards than Taylor during their Freshman season
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0 - Players in NCAA football history who have rushed for more yards during their first three seasons than Taylor
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3 - Number of players who have won two Doak Walker Awards (Ricky Williams, Darren McFadden, Jonathan Taylor)
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6,174 - career rushing yards
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150.6 - average rush yards per game for his 3-year career as a starter
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12 - number of career 200-yard + rushing games
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3 - number of games in a row in which he ran for 200 yards or more in 2019 (Iowa, Nebraska, Purdue)
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321 - career-best mark for rushing yards in a single game (@ Purdue in 2018)
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50 - career rushing TDs
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926 - career rushing attempts
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6.7 - yards per carry on those 926 attempts for his college career
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2,254 - total yards from scrimmage as a Sophomore
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2,255 - total yards from scrimmage as a Junior
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