Former Ohio State LB ignites Tory Taylor Heisman campaign

NBC Sports’ Joshua Perry is an enlightened one. The former Ohio State linebacker stated his case for Tory Taylor’s Heisman campaign.

Iowa punter Tory Taylor is simply remarkable.

The punting wizardy that he put on against the Wisconsin Badgers was truly a performance for the ages.

In a 15-6 defensive struggle, Taylor’s 10 punts for 506 yards proved to be one of the contest’s true game-changers. The Aussie saw six of 10 punts downed inside the Badgers’ 20-yard line.

As Iowa’s offense struggled along with six straight drives that only netted three yards of total offense in one stretch, Taylor’s right leg helped keep the Wisconsin offense at bay. Time and time again, Taylor boomed punts that put the Badgers in nasty starting positions.

His punting highlight reel versus Wisconsin is pretty impressive.

“When you have confidence in your punter, it gives you some options in terms of play-calling and situational awareness. It didn’t look like there was going to be a lot of scoring the way it was going.

“The impact he has on our team and the games is reminiscent of Reggie Roby, who was a huge part of our success in 1981. If you got a guy who is really stellar like that, it’s a real luxury,” Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said of Taylor.

On the season, Taylor has 46 punts for 2,235 yards. That averages out to 6.6 punts per game with a 48.6 yards per punt average. The 6-foot-4, 232 pound senior has had 18 punts downed inside opponents’ 20-yard lines. Or, more than one in every three punts.

Taylor has greater than 500 more punting yards than Iowa has total offense as a team. He accounts for 319.3 punting yards per contest, while the Hawkeyes’ offense averages 247.4 yards of total offense per game.

Insert your jokes about the Hawkeyes’ offense here, but that’s more to illustrate the effect that Taylor has on a game-by-game basis in regards to field position for Iowa. The Hawkeyes aren’t 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten without Taylor’s contributions in constantly flipping the field.

Others have made the Tory Taylor for Heisman jokes. But, how about a serious discussion?

NBC Sports analyst and former Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry is ready to embrace the Heisman talk for Tory Taylor. His college football hot take is that Tory Taylor should be a part of the Heisman discussion.

“We all know J.J. McCarthy, the frontrunner to win Heisman out of any of the guys in the Big Ten, but I think we need to put Tory Taylor, the Iowa punter, in that conversation. He affects winning for his team more than any player in America,” Perry said to his social media following.

It sounds crazy at first, but, after you think about and dissect some of the numbers, is it really all that crazy? Why can’t Taylor win this award?

OK, OK, we all know he won’t. The Heisman just doesn’t get awarded to punters. But, I appreciate the politicking on Taylor and Iowa’s behalf.

Taylor is making the rounds as a midseason All-American according to a number of different outlets. USA TODAY Sports included Taylor among its midseason All-America team. Both CBS Sports and ESPN did, too.

Based on the midseason buzz, it feels like Taylor is trending toward winning the Ray Guy Award. Let’s hope that’s the case. Taylor’s contributions to Iowa’s wins over the past four seasons have been significant.

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