Iowa punter Tory Taylor's leadership lessons for teammates go well beyond football

IOWA CITY — Iowa punter Tory Taylor had no shortage of jokes as he participated in Tuesday’s outdoor practice while wearing a microphone.

“It’s good to be outside, Coach Wallace,” the punter said to linebackers coach Seth Wallace. “It’s about time you and the defense toughened up.”

Ken O’Keefe’s recent retirement from quarterbacks coach didn’t make him immune to Taylor’s humor.

“I hope when I’m retired I’m not — well, no offense — but I hope I’m not doing what you’re doing,” Taylor said to O’Keefe while the retired coach watched practice.

Cornerback Riley Moss? “You’re a one-eyed American,” Taylor retorted, as Moss asked about the meaning of the Australian slang word “bloke.”

Former punter/holder Ryan Gersonde is “not even third” in the rankings of Australians at Iowa because he’s “sure there’s been another Australian better than you.”

Don’t let the punter’s quips on camera fool you. The same guy cracking jokes at the expense of some coaches and teammates also is working to be a leader in the specialists’ room.

“It's really not so much a football thing,” Taylor said. “Sometimes it's more so just like life experiences. … I'd rather be a good person than a good football player, and I think that's really important for other guys to see.”

The kindness aspect of that task comes easily for Taylor.

“It’s really not that hard to be nice, is it?” Taylor said.

While Taylor will be a junior in 2022, his 25th birthday is fewer than three months away, so he has more life experiences to pull from than some of his teammates.

When Taylor was a senior in high school, some of his teammates like T.J. Hall were in fifth grade.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Taylor said.

Having more life experiences helps Taylor keep tough losses in perspective. As he sees it, “life’s too short” to dwell on it — possibly a good lesson for more than just his teammates.

“It kind of cracks me up when all the Iowa fans get so upset after a loss,” Taylor said. “We're not the ones sitting at home drinking a beer and eating a hot dog on the couch. … We want to win more than anybody else.”

Taylor’s leadership is especially important at a position group where a minor mental mistake could come at a major cost.

“The thing about being a specialist is it’s all mental,” Taylor said. “The linebackers and stuff, they’re crashing pads and running into one another. For us, it’s more like a mental game.”

Taylor’s leadership role is logical for someone who has made as much of a difference on the field as the Australian has since stepping foot on campus in 2020.

The soon-to-be junior will be the only upperclassman specialist to have played a snap in an Iowa uniform.

He won Big Ten Conference Punter of the Year in 2020, but he missed out on the award in 2021 amid an influx of impressive punting talent in the conference.

“It’s kind of annoying, to be honest,” Taylor said with a laugh.

Woods said having to be the leader is something Taylor is “not overly comfortable with right now” — Taylor similarly believes it is “not at all” natural to him — but it’s necessity.

“Guys are going to look to him regardless,” Woods said Wednesday. “He’s a little bit older, a little bit more mature — a little bit.”

He emphasized “a little bit” after remembering his punter’s jokes from the day before.

Seriously though, Woods has seen an improvement in Taylor’s leadership.

“He's taken a little bit different approach in the sense of how he communicates, not only with me or with the unit,” Woods said. “He's looking at ways to represent other guys as well, so I've seen him take a step forward.”

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