When Jonathan Taylor arrived at Wisconsin in 2017, he was in position to see the field immediately. A three-star recruit from Salem, N.J., he knew the transition to college football would be challenging from the start, but he had a long-term goal off the gridiron, too: Not only did he want to anchor the Badgers’ famed ground game, he also wanted to try his legs on the track team one spring.
Taylor finished his freshman season with 1,977 rushing yards on 299 carries, the Big Ten’s leading rusher. The following spring, he was focused on building on that performance—there was no time for track.