BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MIAMI — Ron Dayne has uncovered some flaws in freshman tailback Jonathan Taylor.
Too formal, too polite, too respectful.
Laughing, he explained, "I keep telling him, 'Stop calling me Mr. Dayne. Call me Ron.'"
Well, there is a matter of respecting your elders. Dayne is 39, Taylor is 18. Plus, Dayne, the 1999 Heisman Trophy winner, has already been where Taylor wants to go.
"He seems like such a nice kid, just a normal kid, a down-to-earth kid," said Dayne, returning the respect to the record-setting Taylor. "You could never tell that he was a star running back."
Dayne believes the country will one day be on a first name basis with Taylor — at the very least "JT" — and the Orange Bowl is the ideal platform to spread the word on his blend of power and speed.
"I would tell him, 'Go down to Miami and have fun and play like you've been playing all year,'" said Dayne. "You might even have your biggest game of the year in the last game of the year."
Dayne subscribes to the commonly-advanced theory that the final game of one season can be a springboard into the next, especially for a player like Taylor, in the eyes of the Heisman voters.
"Without a doubt," Dayne said, "a lot of people are going to notice him next year that may not really have noticed him this past year. More people will be looking to see who he is."
Taylor is already on the Heisman radar.
Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield was the clear-cut winner, but Taylor finished sixth and collected 58 points (including two first-place votes).
"When I was a freshman, I didn't even get mentioned for the Heisman and I was one of the leading rushers in the country," said Dayne, sighing.
In 1996, Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman over Iowa State's Troy Davis, who rushed for 2,185 yards, 76 more than Dayne, a late bloomer. He didn't start until the fifth game.
In a curious move, the NCAA still doesn't acknowledge that Dayne rushed 30 times for 246 yards and three touchdowns in Wisconsin's 38-10 victory over Utah in the '96 Copper Bowl.
The win counts. But Dayne's rushing total doesn't, not in the NCAA's official yardage tabulation. Neither does his combined output (482 yards) from the Outback Bowl and two Rose Bowls.
Even though Dayne ran for 2,109 yards in 13 games as a freshman, he has been given credit for only 1,863 — 16 more than Taylor has rushed for in 13 games this season.
Taylor needs 79 yards against Miami to surpass Adrian Peterson's freshman rushing mark of 1,925 that includes 82 yards from his appearance in the 2005 Orange Bowl, a 55-19 loss to USC.
Why does the NCAA recognize Peterson's postseason numbers and not Dayne's? Because the cutoff line was 2002. Any bowl stats prior to that season aren't factored into the mix.
For the record, Dayne averaged 162.2 yards per game and 6.5 per carry as a freshman. Taylor is averaging 142.1 ypg and 6.8 ypc. Dayne went over 200 yards five times. Taylor has done it three times.
Dayne flourished on the bowl stage with one exception. Operating behind an inexperienced offensive line in the 1998 Outback Bowl, he was held to 14 carries and 36 yards in a 33-6 loss to Georgia.
That was the aberration, not the norm, given his other postseason performances; a "200" hat trick. Besides the 246 against Utah, he had 246 against UCLA and 200 against Stanford.
Dayne is anxious to see how Taylor responds against Miami after getting shut down by Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. Taylor had 15 rushes for 41 yards.
How did Dayne handle such moments during his career?
"That's when I would get super close with my linemen," he said. "I'd tell them, 'This is not just about me. They shut US down. They didn't just shut ME down.'"
Dayne plans on getting together with Taylor during the offseason to discuss "ball security." As a pro, he had that discussion with New York Giants teammate Tiki Barber, who had a fumbling issue.
"He (Taylor) gets a little excited when he thinks it's going to be a big run and he kind of swings the ball," Dayne said. "When I show him, he'll know what I'm talking about.
"Once you tell him something, he learns it and knows what to do."
So Close Yet So Far
In the third quarter of the Big Ten title game, Taylor found some rare daylight against the Ohio State defense and tried to get outside by bouncing his run from the hash marks to the boundary.
But linebacker Jerome Baker made a terrific play and brought him down from behind. Although it was Taylor's longest run of the night — 7 yards — it had the potential to be so much bigger.
"Coach Settle always talks about football being a game of inches," Taylor said of UW running backs coach John Settle. "Maybe if I had more balance, I would have broken it off. One more step …"
As soon as Taylor got back to Madison, he sought out a strength staff assistant and began focusing on improving his balance in the workouts leading up to the Orange Bowl. Such is his diligence.
"The longer I'm here at the University of Wisconsin, the more I learn as a coach," said Settle, who's been on two UW staffs for a combined eight seasons. "This year, I learned another lesson.
"Never put limits on your players. Allow them the opportunity to learn and grow. And this young man exemplifies that. He (Taylor) came in as a freshman and went to work from Day One."
Settle accompanied Taylor to Atlanta and the ESPN College Football Awards, where Taylor was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, along with Penn State's Saquon Barkley and Stanford's Bryce Love, who was named the 2017 winner.
"Just being picked to represent Wisconsin among those top guys was an honor," said Taylor, who enjoyed "hanging out" with Barkley and Love. "I really didn't feel like the young guy in their company.
"I definitely believe we all have different styles. I'm really a downhill guy, physical. Bryce Love has that lightning speed. He's gone in a blink of an eye.
"When you look at Saquon, you see his killer instinct. He knows what to do with the ball every single time. We all have the same gene — we want to be great and make plays for our team."
Because of some weather concerns, and flight cancellations, the Wisconsin contingent in Atlanta rented a car and drove back to Madison, a 13-hour trip. Settle and Taylor sat together in the back seat.
"We stopped about four times to get out and stretch our legs, that was a must," said Taylor, who occupied his time with "music and snacks and talking to Coach Sett. We had a great conversation."
Mostly, they talked about finishing the season the right way.
"I feel like I've grown, on the field and off, this season," Taylor said. "Being independent and having to deal with time management more as a student, this university does a great job of helping you grow."
The Orange Bowl will be another stage in his maturation, he pointed out.
"It's one of the things that's going to carry me into next season," Taylor said. "We took our first loss, how are we going to bounce back? How we handle adversity will be a big indicator for all of us."
Don't Sleep On Ram
During his UW playing days, Mickey Turner was a hybrid: part fullback, part H-back. That background has provided him with more insight on Austin Ramesh's value to the offense.
During the senior banquet in early December, Turner, who's in charge of coaching the tight ends, shared his perspective on Ramesh, a fifth-year senior from Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin.
"I bet if you went down and asked them," he said of the Miami Hurricanes, "they don't know a whole lot about him. A lot of the teams that we played probably started out that way.
"But I guarantee you by the time the game is over, they're fully aware of who Austin Ramesh is. That safety from Iowa is probably still having a few nightmares."
That was Jake Gervase, and Ramesh flattened him twice with punishing blocks in the red zone. But the 6-foot-1, 255-pound Ramesh is much more than just a battering Ram.
The Badgers have been steadily expanding his role. Besides his 15 rushes for 82 yards and two touchdowns, he has caught three passes in the last two games, including a 25-yarder against Ohio State.
"Anytime you can get on the field and make a play," said Ramesh, who has appeared in 39 games, "whether it's blocking or making a play with the ball in your hands, it's awesome.
"It just shows that the coaches trust you as far as giving you the ball. I know what my responsibility is on every play, whether I have the ball or not, and it's just as important every time."
Coach's Corner: Ted Gilmore
"My most pleasant surprise?" pondered Gilmore, the UW wide receivers coach. "It is a surprise — but it isn't — as far as the 'Next Man Up Mentality.'
"We felt going into the season that we had some depth. And, obviously, we got tested on that more so than we wanted to. But we had guys step in and we didn't miss a beat.
"That was really good to see. It's encouraging and it has validated everything we thought."
The Badgers lost their leading receiver, sophomore Quintez Cephus, to a season-ending injury at Indiana (Nov. 4). Despite missing the last four games, he still leads the receivers with six touchdowns, two more than Troy Fumagalli and A.J. Taylor. Cephus' 501 receiving yards are second only to Fumagalli's 516.
Since undergoing surgery, Cephus has used a leg scooter to stay active with the team.
"He needs that as much as we need that," Gilmore said of Cephus' presence. "And I say 'we' as a group because everybody feeds off Q. Even though he's not playing, we still get his spark.
"It has been great for him because when you go through an injury you feel like you're not a part of things. He even asked, 'Coach, can I still come to meetings?' I said, 'Absolutely, I want you there.'
"It's good to have him around and it's not just our position group. If you really watch, the other guys love that young man. I don't care what position it is. Everybody feeds off him."
At one point, the Badgers also lost freshman Danny Davis for two games with an injury. Davis didn't play against Maryland and Illinois. Ironically his first game back — Indiana — was Cephus' last game.
"I think there was a two- or three-week period that he was cleared," Gilmore said of Davis, "but he still didn't have that explosiveness, and that's starting to come around.
"In my opinion, going into that Big Ten Championship Game, you started seeing that extra gear. He's starting to get his legs back underneath him and that same burst that we saw prior to the injury."
Gilmore has been pleased with the progress of Taylor ("He's growing up, no question") and Kendric Pryor ("He has come in and made plays; I've said it since Day One, the kid has a lot of ability").
But can Wisconsin's wide receivers, as inexperienced as they are, get separation against the Miami secondary? Can they win the jumpballs? The contested throws?
"They've got the same type of speed and the same athletes that Ohio State does," Gilmore said. "It's what you would expect from a Miami team. They run well. They've got length. They've got size.
"We've got to make some plays in tight coverage."
Note to Quote
Miami offensive coordinator and running backs coach Thomas Brown will check all the boxes in bowls involving Wisconsin as both a player and assistant (for and against).
In the 2005 Outback Bowl, Georgia, coached by Mark Richt, nipped the Badgers, 24-21, in Tampa. Brown, a senior tailback, rushed for 111 yards and a TD. He also caught four passes.
An early Brown fumble led to a UW field goal. But he more than made up for the mistake with a 29-yard scoring run and by gaining 49 yards on Georgia's final drive that ran out the clock.
In 2015, Brown was a first-year assistant on Gary Andersen's staff at Wisconsin. As the running backs coach, he was a witness to greatness: Melvin Gordon rushing for 2,587 yards and 29 touchdowns.
Brown, who was a part of UW's Outback Bowl victory over Auburn, was one of two coaches retained by Paul Chryst. The other was defensive coordinator Dave Aranda. But Richt juggled his staff at Georgia and that created an opening for Brown to return to his alma mater.
So, after playing against the Badgers in a bowl and coaching the Badgers in a bowl, Brown will now get the opportunity to coach against the Badgers in the Orange Bowl as part of Richt's Miami coaching staff.
Brown offered this scouting report on Wisconsin to HurricaneSports.com.
"I was only there for a year," he said of his stay in Madison, "but knowing some of the guys that are still on the team, they are extremely tough. They're not going to be flashy.
"They kind of surprise people when you watch them on tape, but those guys are going to be some of the toughest guys we are going to play in the country.
"They don't back down from anybody. They understand there are people that think that they're not athletic. But they know they're tough and they're going to make you play a tough football game."
First And 10: Miami
- Ranks No. 1 nationally in quarterback sacks (43 in 12 games) with average of 3.58. Had season high six against Duke; five against Notre Dame; four against Clemson. DE Trent Harris leads team with 8.5.
- The fabled Turnover Chain has been worn by 16 different players. Junior safety Jaquan Johnson has worn it the most (six times). Johnson, the leading tackler on defense, was voted team MVP.
- Defense has allowed only two opposing tailbacks to rush for more than 100 yards. Florida State's Cam Akers had 20 carries for 121 and Syracuse's Dontae Strickland had 14 rushes for 105.
- Canes have won second-half scoring battle in 19 of 25 games under coach Mark Richt. Plus-214 during that span. Have held opponents to 10 or fewer points in 17 of those second halves.
- Placekicker Michael Badgley is all-time leader in field goals with 76. This season has converted on 16 of 20 FGs, including game-winner in final four seconds against Georgia Tech. Career long is 57.
- Quarterback Malik Rozier has thrown for over 300 yards three times with a high of 356 against North Carolina. But struggled in losses to Pitt (15-of-34 for 187) and Clemson (14-of-29 for 110).
- After grading film, coaches will hand out a brick to deserving O-lineman who has made noteworthy block. The brick is painted in school colors with the name of player and score of game.
- Left tackle Kc McDermott, 33 career starts, was third-team All-ACC (only linemen with postseason honors). Left guard Trevor Darling has 39 starts; right guard Navaughn Donaldson is true frosh.
- Leading rusher Travis Homer replaced injured Mark Walton. Has three games over 100 (170 against Georgia Tech). Only offensive player to wear Turnover Chain. Recovered fumble on punt cover.
- Tight end Michael Irvin II has eight catches for 74 yards. Has big shoes to fill. Not only belonging to dad (Pro Football Hall of Famer), but to Christopher Herndon (40 catches), who has been lost to an injury.
Quote to Note
Sharing some general observations on the Hurricanes, on both sides of the ball, UW outside linebacker Garret Dooley said, "As an offense, if they get out in open space, they can make you miss. It's kind of similar to Ohio State because they have a dual-threat quarterback (Rozier) who can run the ball. It's definitely going to be a spread game. They're just very athletic. Especially as a defense. The Turnover Chain has been their thing and I know they're playing with a lot of pride and swagger. That's something as a defense that we have to take pride in as far as outplaying them."
