Tory Taylor's Legend at Iowa Growing

Hawkeye Punter Continues Showing His Value

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Tory Taylor is in his third year as Iowa’s punter, which is also his third year of playing American football, so you would figure he would know the rules by now.

Then a punter from South Carolina State tried punting after he had passed the line of scrimmage last Saturday, which is a no-no.

The play was pointed out to Taylor during the Hawkeyes’ special teams meeting after the 7-3 win over South Dakota State last week, and Taylor didn’t realize such a play would result in a penalty.

“I’m pretty guilty,” Taylor said on Tuesday. “I actually didn’t realize you couldn’t do it. I’m like, ‘Aw, (expletive), I would have done that.’”

You live and learn, and Taylor, who tried to punt the ball off the turf in a game during the 2020 season, has figured out plenty.

“It’s a complicated game in itself, and I just try to simplify it,” Taylor said.

Taylor has become somewhat of a hero for Iowa fans. A lot of it has to do with his personality, and a lot of it has to do with the fact he has become somewhat of a savior for the Hawkeyes’ offensive woes.

Taylor averaged 47.9 yards on 10 punts. Seven were downed inside the South Dakota State 20.

Yet, asked to rate himself on a 1-10 scale, Taylor said his game was “a 7 ½.”

“Sometimes it’s going to go your way and sometimes it doesn’t,” Taylor said. “There’s going to be games when I’m hitting really, really good balls, and sometimes it will just take a bounce the wrong way. Kind of like on Saturday, I wasn’t hitting the best balls, but they just kind of work out.”

Taylor is the leader of a unit that wants to be together, and to him, that means something.

“Guys on the punt unit, what I really appreciate about it, is they want to be on there,” he said. “You kind of see at other schools it’s like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to go punt.’ I feel like there’s a little bit of excitement because we feel like we’re going to go out there and make a play. Especially here, if you can pin them deep, it’s where offenses go to die. It’s pretty exciting going out there.”

So, add Taylor’s attitude to why fans like him so much.

“Every game’s a new game,” Taylor said. “But for me, I’m a ‘confidence’ player. You look at the guys who go out there and play well, there’s a high degree of confidence. There’s a big difference between confidence and arrogance. But I’ll tell you I’m a really confident person when I go out there.”

It’s why Taylor said he said to long snapper Luke Elkin, “We’ve just got to go out there for 10 seconds and dominate. There’s not much else to it.”

Taylor, from Australia, has learned to embrace Iowa, and starting with Saturday’s game it’s going to feel more like home for him than it has since he’s been here. A group of seven — Taylor’s parents, grandparents, two brothers, and the girlfriend of one of his brothers — are coming to Iowa City for the next three home games.

They’re seeing the United States for the first time — they landed in San Francisco, spent some time in Las Vegas, and plan on doing some other traveling during their time in Iowa City.

“It’s probably the one box I haven’t been able to tick since I got here,” said Taylor, who got to go home for a while last May. “It’s probably going to be a dream come true knowing they’re in the stands, finally able to watch me in person, which will be a really special moment for them. But more so just for me.”

He has warned them that it can get kind of noisy in Kinnick Stadium.

“I kind of just said, ‘Look, I’m telling you, it’s going to be crazy loud. Just be ready for it,’” Taylor said. “Like myself, I didn’t know how loud it was until last year.

“When you’re out in the middle of the field yourself, it’s pretty loud.”