Jonathan Taylor says winning the West, beating Minnesota the focus of Wisconsin

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,716
Reaction score
15,969
Points
113
per Dustin:

This spring, Wisconsin has already set some early goals for next season, with a focus on getting back to playing Badger football.

“We just talked about, we gotta get back to what we play, Wisconsin football,” said star running back Jonathan Taylor. “That comes with hard work, smart, tough, dependable guys, taking it game by game.

Taylor was a bright spot for the Badgers last season, rushing for 2,194 yards to lead the NCAA. He also rushed for 16 touchdowns on his way to the Doak Campbell Award.

But individual accolades isn’t exactly what Taylor’s focused is on at this time. Right now, his attention is on improving as a player and giving Wisconsin the best chance to win games next fall. Taylor, like everyone else, just wants to win.

“Last year, we didn’t finish off how we wanted to,” Taylor said. “First things first, we gotta win the West. Gotta win the [Paul Bunyan] Axe. Those things, you gotta take it game by game and first things first is winning the West.

The loss at the end of the season to Minnesota stung particularly hard, as it was the first time in 14 years the Badgers lost to the Golden Gophers. It wasn’t exactly how Wisconsin envisioned the season ending.

“Going out of last year toward the end, we kinda didn’t play true to ourselves,” Taylor said. “Guys gotta make sure everybody is doing their assignment so that we can come back, go game by game, win the West and build upon that.”

https://saturdaytradition.com/wisco...est-beating-minnesota-the-focus-of-wisconsin/

Go Gophers!!
 

It's good feeling to have guys like Taylor say things like this. It's a rivalry again.
 

I hope it's dozens of years before they hold the axe again.
 


bottlebass said:
I hope it's dozens of years before they hold the axe again.
Click to expand...

Makes perfect, obvious sense why you or someone would say this.

But IMO it just isn't a fair hope to have. I think with both schools committing top dollar to fielding winning teams, and all other things being reasonably equal between the programs ... the best we can hope for is a true rivalry where things trend towards winning 5 out of every 10 years.
 


That's great! No longer taking us for granted.
 

I love it! I also like how getting back to basics for WI is winning the West...I hope that happens for MN some day.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
It's good feeling to have guys like Taylor say things like this. It's a rivalry again.
Click to expand...

Well, he also discounted the loss with the "didn't play true to ourselves." comment. My hope is they have that feeling of losing the Axe over and over...
 

Should be an interesting match up come November. Clearly something for both teams to think about.
 



Gophers_4life said:
Makes perfect, obvious sense why you or someone would say this.

But IMO it just isn't a fair hope to have. I think with both schools committing top dollar to fielding winning teams, and all other things being reasonably equal between the programs ... the best we can hope for is a true rivalry where things trend towards winning 5 out of every 10 years.
Click to expand...

Fine I hope they never get to hold the axe again!
 

Who knew a year removed from being in the hunt for a natty they'd be all:

Man I hope we can at least beat Minnesota....
 

The Doak Campbell Award, huh? I wondered who won that award when I didn't get it last year. Of course the Doak Campbell is the award for having the most paper clips of anyone in my office.

I knew he had won the Doak Walker Award, though. Cool for him that he has two Doaks now.
 

Doak Campbell was of course the president of the Florida State College for Women which seems an appropriate award for a Sconnie player in 2018. Better luck in ‘19.
 



PMWinSTP said:
Well, he also discounted the loss with the "didn't play true to ourselves." comment. My hope is they have that feeling of losing the Axe over and over...
Click to expand...

I'm astonished that no one has dropped the always-popular line that Wisconsin "didn't want to be there". Then again, since the game was played in Madison, that's really not an option...
 

RememberMurray said:
I'm astonished that no one has dropped the always-popular line that Wisconsin "didn't want to be there". Then again, since the game was played in Madison, that's really not an option...
Click to expand...

Well, like Georgia once they lost their bid to the championship game they just said “see ya next year” and got steamrolled by Texas. Let’s summarize the obvious: t’s 100% lack of motivation if the media darling loses, and 100% dominance, better talent, better coaching if they win.
 

RememberMurray said:
I'm astonished that no one has dropped the always-popular line that Wisconsin "didn't want to be there". Then again, since the game was played in Madison, that's really not an option...
Click to expand...

Well.... maybe not. Would be an interesting pitch to recruits, though: these players committed to WI, but now they really don’t want to be there.
 

Nice to see the Gophers appearing on the Badger spoken radar. To their credit, they didn't let up the entire time throughout that streak and they kept it a rivalry game, even when the Gophers were flailing to field a decent team for several of those 15 years. And that goes for their fans too. They seemed to be as thrilled to win and rub it in when it was 13 in a row as they were when it was 2 in a row. Here's to hoping the Gophers now turn things to the point they get their own win streak, big win streak, or at least hold serve going forward.
 

No more taking the Gophers for granted and rubbing in salt year after year.

For those Gopher fans who witness the history making take back of The Axe at Camp Randall, that must be euphoric. There were a lot of stunned people nationwide. They are noticing the Gophers.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Makes perfect, obvious sense why you or someone would say this.

But IMO it just isn't a fair hope to have. I think with both schools committing top dollar to fielding winning teams, and all other things being reasonably equal between the programs ... the best we can hope for is a true rivalry where things trend towards winning 5 out of every 10 years.
Click to expand...

Dont be a dream crusher
 

Gophers_4life said:
Makes perfect, obvious sense why you or someone would say this.

But IMO it just isn't a fair hope to have. I think with both schools committing top dollar to fielding winning teams, and all other things being reasonably equal between the programs ... the best we can hope for is a true rivalry where things trend towards winning 5 out of every 10 years.
Click to expand...

No, that's not "the best we can hope for."

When Alvarez took over at Wisconsin, he didn't bring with him a "well, that's the best we can hope for" attitude. Instead, he brought a winner's mindset.

We need to think big. That's the only way to achieve great things. Mediocrity is not the goal.
 

RememberMurray said:
No, that's not "the best we can hope for."

When Alvarez took over at Wisconsin, he didn't bring with him a "well, that's the best we can hope for" attitude. Instead, he brought a winner's mindset.

We need to think big. That's the only way to achieve great things. Mediocrity is not the goal.
Click to expand...
I think we should look to Iowa State as a model program.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk
 

Bring it. Better dead than red. Go gophers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 




You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom