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Taylor may have to console himself with a lucrative NFL contract.

I dunno Taylors numbers don't lie,they have to quit handing it to QB's every year.Conferences can give their MVP's to them.Chase sans the infractions would have been a good pick.Depends on Lamb's numbers and not familiar with Brown.No denying JB is having a season though

His issue is he's worse than last year and he's about 200 yards short of the nation's leading rusher, who is from a P5 conference. He's still been awesome, but not that next level.

I have mixed feelings about the QB dominance. On one hand, it's annoying, on another, they control the game more, are putting up more bonkers numbers in context and often add a running element (last year's winner was a 1,000-yard rusher). 

I think the expansion needs to come from the non-traditional spots. Had I a ballot, I might go Young-Burrow-Maybe Hubbard, maybe Lamb, maybe Davonta Smith. 

yup, couple big TV games to showcase his ability

gotta raise to the occasion if you want the trophy

usually the Hypesman winner has had at least one if not a few big time highlight plays


Black 41 Flash Reverse - YouTube

JT hardly had a sniff the week that he put 250 yards on Iowa--the most against the Hawkeyes in a long, long time (and the only back to clear 100 against them this season), in a rivalry game with Big Ten chase implications, and with several highlight runs (but no long TDs). He also put 203 on Michigan. He's leading the nation in scoring and second in rushing yards (behind a player who has faced one top-30 rushing defense against which he ran for 116 yards; JT has faced five and is averaging over 137 yards against).

His flaw is merely living up to very high expectations for a running back for a team known for running in a season and time in which quarterbacks are putting up crazy numbers for highly rated teams. 

Some notable comparisons:
Most rushing yards during a three season span:
1) JT
2) Donnel Pumphrey (SDSU)
3) Herschel Walker
4) Ricky Williams
5) Charles White

Most rushing yards in first three seasons:
1) JT (with 247 fewer carries than...)
2) Herschel Walker
3) Ron Dayne
4) LaMichael James

Career Big Ten Rushing Yards:
1) Ron Dayne
2) JT
3) Archie Griffin
4) Justin Jackson (NU)
5) Anthony Thompson

Most 200 Yard-rushing games
1) Ron Dayne (14)
2) JT (12)
2) Ricky Williams (12)
4) Marcus Allen (11)

Rushing Yards Per Game (min 2,500 career yards):
1) Ed Marinaro (Cornell)
2) OJ Simpson
3) Herschel Walker
4) Garrett Wolfe (NIU)
5) JT

JT is averaging 6.8 YPC for his career.
Heisman Trophy Winners YPC (Heisman season):
1) Mike Rozier (7.8)
2) (tied) Billy Sims & Barry Sanders (7.6)
4) Doc Blanchard (7.1)
5) Rashaan Salaam (6.9)
6) Archie Griffin (6.6)
7) Earl Campbell (6.5)--(JT, 2019, currently goes here)

Workmanlike is a pretty harsh view of what Taylor has done--and continues to do. The guy has been a beast. And he will likely put up big numbers against Minnesota this week. If the Badgers win, that will raise the profile a bit. If they lose, it won't. But it doesn't matter; he's never seriously been in the conversation. His "best" moment was as an outside possibility after he had 203 yards as the Badgers whupped Michigan.

So he is considered "workmanlike" because he's the latest of the Badgers strongest set of backs for a program known for running the ball. White, Gordon, Ball, and now JT have been the most NFL ready backs the Badgers have had, maybe ever. Moss might have been there, but for the cocaine, Fletcher was a good NFL back, Dayne was never right for the League, then...Anthony Davis and Calhoun are the only others that come to mind (maybe I'm forgetting someone, though).

And among that group, only Gordon had multiple seasons like JT's (to be fair, he was playing in a more crowded backfield to start)--and he's the only one with a better YPC average than JT.

He has hardly been merely workmanlike, and Wisconsin is hardly a MWC school (Hawaii). BUT, this is a quarterback era. So an Oklahoma QB (also playing for a bigger name than Wisconsin) will be in the discussion doing what Oklahoma QBs do, but not a Wisconsin RB exceeding what Wisconsin RB's do.

Also, and maybe it's the chip on the Wisconsin shoulder, but I think if he's a Michigan back--or Ohio State or Alabama--he would be high on the list, even though those programs have also been known to run the ball.

And yes, he is likely to console himself with a decent NFL salary.

Yeah, part of Taylor's seemingly uphill climb is the idea that Wisconsin RBs are plug-n-play.  It's not fair and shouldn't matter, but we can't unsee dozens and hours of images and highights and stats from the past 25 years of Badger RBs.