No average Joe: Wisconsin's Taylor is a star on the field and in the classroom

MADISON, Wisconsin - Jonathan Taylor is imagining himself as an average Joe.

In that vision, he works at Merrill Lynch as a financial planner, makes $70,000 per year, and provides for a wife and two children. He would like a retirement income of about $80,000 annually. The trick is figuring out how to get there - how much to put in his 401K and brokerage accounts so he'll have money to purchase that retirement home in 30 years.

All of the variables that go into planning that future are compiled into a wealth outlook presentation, which Taylor will present to coworkers as part of his summer internship at a Merrill Lynch office down the road from the Wisconsin State Capitol.

"The financial world is something that a lot of average people, they don't understand until you really go behind the scenes and learn exactly what is going on," Taylor said. "That's one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to go behind the scenes - so I could build my financial literacy, just because if I'm in that situation, I want to be prepared."

Taylor will soon have to make his own financial decisions, but he's no regular summer intern. Instead, he doubles as the most productive running back in college football.

In his first two seasons at Wisconsin, Taylor ran for a whopping 4,171 yards. That's more yardage than Herschel Walker racked up through his opening two years at Georgia, and also more than Ron Dayne - whose Heisman Trophy is displayed at Wisconsin's performance center - ran for in his first two seasons. In fact, Taylor accumulated more combined rushing yards as a freshman and a sophomore than any player in 150 years of college football.

The Badgers' sports information team has seized upon that fact, launching a media campaign with the slogan, "JT23: Bringing Running Back."

So, yeah, learning about financial planning isn't a bad idea in what's likely to be Taylor's final summer as a full-time college student.

For now, he triples as a philosophy major and thinks he'd be a paralegal after graduation if his football future wasn't so bright. A recent hour-long conversation with Wisconsin's newest Heisman hopeful bounced between topics: his roots in rural Salem, New Jersey, his secrets for staying durable (spoiler: abundant stretching), and his love of all things Madison - including the postcard view of Lake Mendota from the Memorial Union terrace, and the french toast at Sunroom Cafe.

The conversation also revealed what those around Wisconsin have long known: Taylor is as unique off the field as he is on it.

"He's a pretty special guy that way, and to me what stands out most is the way he carries himself," Wisconsin strength and conditioning coach Ross Kolodziej said. "To be as productive as he's been as a player on the field, it's unrivaled. And to still come in here and to work as hard as he's working - he's as hungry now and working as hard now as he's ever. But that's just him."

Small-town roots

Since 2015, Montrey Wright has held one of the most influential positions in Salem: high school football coach. Like Taylor, he grew up in the small New Jersey county of about 5,000 people near the Delaware border.

Wright described Salem as a "small poverty town with a lot of kids with talent who are eager to make it out and be successful." He said the nearest grocery store is in Pennsville, a town about 10 minutes north, and that Salem's community center recently closed.

The high school is the glue that bonds the community together. And as the coach, Wright took a vow to do everything he can to help local kids find opportunities. He's known Taylor since the latter was in elementary school. They attended church together, and Wright played football with Taylor's older brother.

For his part, Taylor didn't begin playing football until middle school. He grew up as the youngest of five children, and his family instilled the value of education above all. Taylor ultimately joined football for social reasons; his cousin, who signed up first, could no longer hang out because he had practice.

But by eighth grade, Taylor had real aspirations within the game. He wanted to be like Corey Clement, who starred for nearby Glassboro High School and had accepted a scholarship to play at Wisconsin. Clement, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, ran for 2,510 yards as a high school junior. It was a South Jersey single-season record until Taylor broke it five years later.

"Being where I'm from, Salem, Glassboro, he's made it," Taylor said of Clement. "He's doing his thing right now and everyone's looking up to him. … He's representing South Jersey very well. Just following him throughout his career, that's when I really started following Wisconsin is once he went there."

When Wright took over as head coach, Taylor was entering his junior season. And for a football team with 35 players - "one that's 35 strong," Taylor likes to brag - the game plan was often simple: Put the football in the star running back's hands.

The plan worked. Wright said Taylor eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing in the first six weeks of that junior year. And as the team's fastest player, he was also a sideline-to-sideline linebacker on defense.

"I'm like, 'OK, this kid's got it,'" Wright said. "He's getting the speed, his separation, he's understanding the game more, he's becoming a leader. So right there I said he's going to be a player, based on the mentality and the skill level he put on the field."

Taylor's rushing stats at Salem

Taylor dominated in the classroom, too. He joined Salem High School's International Baccalaureate program and took the ACT the morning after a football game.

Then, on Feb. 5, 2016, while still a high school junior, Taylor received a letter from Harvard football coach Tim Murphy. It began:

Dear Jonathan,

I hope that your junior year is going well. Please understand that while there may be many prospective football players who apply to Harvard, you are among a select few who we have already made a decision to support for admission. We are willing to do this because we are very impressed with your athletic and academic accomplishments and most importantly your personal qualities in terms of character, motivation, and work ethic. These are the same qualities that our current Harvard players exhibit. We are also willing to do this because we understand that Harvard is, if not your top choice, one of your top choices.

A copy of the letter remains in the office of John Mulhorn, Salem High School's principal. While Taylor's recruitment had not yet taken off - his Wisconsin offer came in May 2016, and he was at one point committed to Rutgers - the letter made him contemplate the enticing possibility.

"That was actually a tough decision because you have a chance - it's Harvard - to be set for your life," Taylor said. "You graduate from Harvard, a job is coming, no matter what you want to do. Especially if you're a good person, you know that if you have a Harvard degree behind you, you're going to get a job. So that was a tough decision deciding whether I wanted to get a full-on, excellent academic career, or go to a Power 5 school and have a great athletic experience. I kind of wanted a balance between the two."

To make his choice, Taylor said he researched using about 10 different websites and saw Wisconsin ranked as a top-20 academic institution on some of them. When he combined that information with the Badgers' reputation for developing running backs, including Clement, he chose Madison.

"When you talk, what you put out in the world is a powerful thing," Wright said. "And (Taylor) spoke, he spoke about that when he was a kid. He put it out there, and it just happened."

'All he needs is a sliver'

At the start of Wisconsin's 2017 fall camp, the coaching staff appeared prepared to redshirt its freshman running back.

There were plenty of reasons. Because of his International Baccalaureate testing obligations at Salem, Taylor hadn't arrived in Madison until June, missing a chance to enroll early. Because of "35 strong," he hadn't been exposed to a complex playbook in high school. And because he was just 18 years old, he hadn't scratched the surface of his physical potential.

"The speed was there but you could tell, raw," said Kolodziej, the strength and conditioning coach. "The strength, you could see he was going to be a very strong individual, but it was not what it is now."

The coaches had their plan - but then they watched the Badgers' first scrimmage. Looking back, the story of that day seems almost mythical. And when Taylor's teammates recall it, you can tell it's not the first - and certainly not the last - time they will tell the tale.

Here's how running back Garrett Groshek weaves it: On Taylor's first play, he took a handoff to the left and then cut back right. At that point, Groshek is pretty sure Taylor met safety Natrell Jamerson - "the pound-for-pound strongest person I've ever met" - and bounced off his tackle attempt like it was two-hand touch.

"Then it was a footrace and nobody was close," Groshek added.

Later, coaches gave Taylor a chance with the first-string offense. He proceeded to take a screen pass more than 50 yards for a score. A teammate approached Groshek and quipped: "Either he's really good, or we're going to be really bad on defense."

And so, a legend was born.

"That first scrimmage, it's like, maybe he might be the best guy we have," Kolodziej said. "That's where I think he just opened up some eyes when we went live and that speed really caught people's attention. And he's got such unbelievable balance and ability to kind of run through stuff. Even when he gets some contact, he can still keep his feet, and obviously he's had the most productive two years ever."

Indeed, Taylor caught the attention of the college football world right away. In just his second game, he took the ball 26 times for 223 yards and three touchdowns against Florida Atlantic. His body was still developing, but his workload was fully grown. There were 25 carries at Nebraska, and 30 versus Purdue. Then there were 58 - leading to 340 combined yards - in an eight-day span against Iowa and Indiana.

As Wisconsin completed a 12-0 regular season, followed by a loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten title game and a win over Miami in the Orange Bowl, Taylor drove the offense with 1,977 rushing yards, breaking Adrian Peterson's FBS freshman record. He finished fourth in the country in total carries with 299.

Then, as a sophomore in 2018, Taylor led the nation in both carries (307) and rushing yards (2,194).

"We just want to give him a sliver," said Wisconsin center Tyler Biadasz, an All-Big Ten pick in 2018. "Obviously, we want to give him a huge hole - it'd be great. But all he needs is a sliver and he can make something out of nothing."

A bright future

The value of hard work hasn't been lost on Taylor, even as his accolades have piled up.

Last winter, when he was home for break, he took a job - his first real job, he said - as a custodian at Salem High School.

Mulhorn, the principal, said the district often offers part-time custodian work to alumni who come home from college. The job serves three purposes: It keeps them out of trouble in a small town, puts a little money in their pockets, and helps the school keep tidy.

"It's a nice thing they do," Taylor said.

Last year, the high school also allowed a national marching band group to practice at the facility. One of the members wore a Wisconsin shirt, but he apparently had no idea that the most recognizable face of Wisconsin's student body was there, simply assisting with equipment.

"I told the director later, because I didn't want to bring attention to Jonathan, 'You can tell that kid from Wisconsin that Jonathan Taylor was helping him with all the instruments,'" Mulhorn said.

"A kid like (Taylor), sometimes they can just hide somewhere. He's always looking to help people."

As for what's next, Taylor lets his father handle planning for a professional football career, and there's much work to be done if this is the runner's last season as a Badger. Some project Taylor to be a first-round pick in 2020, and he'll likely want to turn pro if he handles another 300-carry workload this year.

With that future in mind, this summer wasn't just about understanding the financial world. Taylor organized his Merrill Lynch internship around his football schedule. He focused on speed drills and getting in and out of his breaks quicker. And on the morning of his wealth management presentation, Taylor squatted more than the maximum weight achieved by Biadasz, his center.

He's also entering his junior season with a chance to make history. The NCAA's official career rushing record belongs to former San Diego State back Donnel Pumphrey, who ran for 6,405 yards from 2013-16. (Dayne and Tony Dorsett both ran for more yards overall, but their bowl statistics are not counted in the NCAA's official record book.)

Taylor, who needs 2,235 more yards to break Pumphrey's record, might just set the mark in only three seasons. Doing so could take him to the Heisman Trophy presentation come December - and then to the NFL draft stage in the spring.

All that won't be easy, but Taylor is no average Joe.

Mark Cooper is theScore's NCAA writer.