Tory Taylor helps Hawkeyes kick the stuffing out of Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. — Never argue with the RAYGUN T-shirt maestros. Grudgingly, it’s time to admit yet another of their phrases is gospel.

Punting is winning.

It comes with a qualifier, though. Punting like Iowa’s Tory Taylor does it is winning. It’s also sublime. Amazing, actually. If you’re on the receiving side of those punts as Wisconsin was Saturday, it’s really annoying.

Iowa’s 15-6 victory over the Badgers Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium was built on the shoulders of the Hawkeyes’ defense, as the ‘6’ clearly states. But that defense had the wind at its back for four quarters, thanks to Taylor’s punts blasting through the atmosphere and pinning the home team deep.

Taylor is the best 26-year-old Hawkeye player of all-time. He’s also in the conversation with Reggie Roby for best all-time punter, which is saying a stuffed mouthful given the legend Roby was for Iowa four decades ago.

In 1981, Roby set an NCAA record by averaging 49.8 yards for the Iowa team that forever changed how Hawkeye football is viewed by going from football purgatory to the Rose Bowl in one big swoop. Then he led the nation at 48.1 yards the next year.

Taylor not only averages 48.6 yards this season, but just one of his 46 punts has been a touchback. Iowa is a close second to Vanderbilt nationally in net punting, the stat that matters more than if a guy is kicking great yardage but kicking into the end zone a lot.

Saturday, Taylor had to punt 10 times. He averaged 50.6 yards, and gave the Badgers awful field position on a day in which that was vital. Because of Taylor, three Wisconsin drives began at its 6 or worse.

“It just opens up our playbook,” said Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins. “Anytime we can get out there and the ball’s on the 9 and knowing they’ve got to march 90 yards to score on us, it just gives us confidence.”

Wisconsin wouldn’t have marched 90 yards on a possession if the game had lasted until midnight. First-year UW offensive coordinator Phil Longo isn’t at North Carolina anymore, he doesn’t have Drake Maye playing quarterback here, and he didn’t face defenses like Iowa’s in the ACC.

The Badgers using the Air Raid offense instead of the grunt-and-groan style they’ve employed since Barry Alvarez was in his 40s is like AC/DC playing ballads. Longo may make it work here one day. That day sure wasn’t Saturday.

Iowa strictly played caveman football this day, and it was the sound choice. The Hawkeyes had their usual paltry total yardage, 237. But 200 of those yards were on the ground, including an 82-yard second-quarter touchdown run by Leshon Williams that was Iowa’s longest rush in 26 years.

The 7-0 lead got shaved to 7-6 in the second half, but the Hawkeyes gave no more to backup Badger quarterback Braeden Locke and his mates.

Iowa won despite going three-and-out eight times, something that would seem to border on being mathematically impossible if you didn’t know this 2023 team. It’s been outgained six times in seven games, it’s rattling around at the bottom of several categories in the national offensive rankings, and it’s 6-1.

You can’t have offensive non-production like this and not get embarrassed unless you have salty defense and a punting god.

“Iowa football is kind of special teams, defense, things like that,” Taylor said. “I mean, that’s a no-brainer.”

Special teams, defense, things like that. And when the offense simply uses half of the clock and doesn’t turn the ball over once, it can win even with a 37-yard passing day.

Yeah, 37 passing yards. Another week, another nutty Iowa offensive statistic to keep the national yakkers laughing. With a 12-6 lead and a third-and-11 at their 46 with less than six minutes left in the game, the Hawkeyes rushed for a yard, then punted.

Was that crazy? Hardly. The way this game was going, it would have been crazy to do anything else.

Naturally, Taylor’s punt was fair caught at the Wisconsin 13, and naturally, Iowa’s defense stopped that drive in Badger territory when Aaron Graves forced a Locke fumble and Higgins recovered it.

If Taylor isn’t the Big Ten’s Special Teams Player of the Week for the second-straight week and fifth time of his career, something’s rotten in Schaumburg.

It’s one thing to punt well with occasional bombs. Taylor hits bomb after bomb, and they always explode without touching a sliver of the end zone.

He came to Iowa to learn how to kick in weather that isn’t ideal. The Aussie has become the master of climate.

“I kind of love playing in these conditions because you really find out who’s legit and who’s not, and who really wants to be out there,” Taylor said. “Who’s a good punter, who’s not.”

He said he watched a little SEC football before making the ride to the stadium, and “It’s 85-degree weather with not a breath of wind. Yeah, they’re hitting good balls, but you really kind of find out your true potential when you’re playing these games.”

Taylor was punting more than adequately in the first three games of this season, but insists otherwise, saying “I wasn’t really hitting the balls I wanted to be hitting. But I really felt like I’ve kind of taken a big step probably the last two or three weeks and started hitting the balls that I want.”

Because of Taylor, Iowa’s defense went out to the Wisconsin 4 on the Badgers’ first possession, and to the 6 two other times. That’s clearly not what you want if you’re facing that defense.

“If you’ve got a guy who’s really stellar like that,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said, “it’s a real luxury for you.”

The 27 hours of travel Hawkeyes special teams coach LeVar Woods made to Melbourne in January 2020 to get to know Taylor and his parents was some of the best recruiting money Ferentz’s program ever spent.

While Taylor is one of Woods’ special teams players, you might as well also call him an honorary member of Phil Parker’s defense.

“He rides on our buses,” Higgins said.

Frankly, he deserves to get two seats by himself.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com