High number of carries doesn’t bother Wisconsin’s Taylor

NCAA-high 307 rushes last season

July 22, 2019 1:00 AM

Kevin Lewis,

Posted: July 22, 2019 1:00 AM

Updated: August 31, 2021 12:29 PM

by Kevin Lewis

Taylor isn't concerned about wear and tear on his body.
Taylor averaged 7.1 yards per carry in 2018.
The reigning Doak Walker Award winner led the nation in carries (307) and yards (2,194) last season.

Chicago — Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor led the nation with 307 carries last season. It resulted in an NCAA-best 2,194 yards, but that work rate comes with a high number of hard hits.

Despite his high number of carries, Taylor says he isn’t concerned about too much damage being done to his body.

“I think you worry about wear and tear when you don’t have a good routine,” Taylor said at Big Ten media day. “For me, I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of guys come before me, such as Melvin Gordon, Corey Clement, Montee’ Ball. And asking those guys ‘What was their routine? What did they do?'”

Taylor’s eligible for the NFL draft after the upcoming season, but he said it’s easy to ignore the outside noise. The reigning Doak Walker Award winner says there are plenty of ways for him to get better.

“If you didn’t have room for improvement, then you would already be first in everything, you would be number one in everything, you’d be on your way to the next level,” Taylor said. “It’s up to you to find out those areas of improvement that you can get better at in order to make yourself a better player.”

Taylor has 606 carries in two seasons at Wisconsin.