Collin Wilder

The University of Wisconsin has helped shape Jonathan Taylor into who he is today: “Back when I was doing visits in my senior year of high school, my parents and I were trying to make sure to find the right school that would give me the best chance to be as well-rounded a person as possible when I left. We drove up and down the East Coast looking at schools. There were lots of great programs with opportunities to get a good education, and I felt confident about all of them. But when I made the trip to Madison, something just felt … different about that place. I remember getting on campus, and I’m with my parents, and we saw Corey Clement. I’m whispering in my dad’s ear like, ‘Yo … that guy right there … he’s the dude.’ Corey is a South Jersey legend. He’s from Glassboro, about 30 minutes from where I grew up in Salem. When he was a senior in high school, I was in eighth grade. Whenever Clement was playing us, or close by, I’d head over to watch the game with some friends. Corey was breaking all sorts of records and just running all over teams. There aren’t a lot of guys from my part of South Jersey who make it to a D-I program. So to see this guy, who was almost like a real life superhero to me, and then to see how he was talking about the program and the success he was having there, it was huge for me. Like just to be able to think, I could follow the same path as Corey freakin’ Clement. I talked to him for a while. Then we toured the facility a bit and we made it to the ‘running back room.’ A place where the backs all meet to go over tape and discuss the next opponent. On the wall, there are the names of every Badger back who had been an All-America, and the ones who had made it to the NFL. I just looked at it in awe. Some of the names on there just blew my mind. Montee Ball. Melvin Gordon. Alan Ameche. Ron Dayne. That’s history. They gotta be doing something right here. Later in the day, we met with some other players and staff and they all just sort of had this way about them. Like, whatever was happening in Madison … it was special. I went back to Salem thinking that I was going to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime if I didn’t go to Wisconsin. And I was right. Going to Wisconsin was the opportunity of a lifetime. I met friends that I’ll have for the rest of my life. Learned lessons that will stick with me long after football is over. I discovered who I am, and even more importantly, who I want to be.” playerstribu.ne/JTaylor @JayT23 | @Colts | @BadgerFootball