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Braelon Allen, Jonathan Taylor react to each other’s big-game performances

Derek Peterson

By Derek Peterson

Published:

Wisconsin can lay claim to the title of “Running Back U” because one former tailback, sitting at home on a Saturday waiting for his Sunday job to start, can watch a current tailback absolutely go off and tweet about him, and then the current tailback can sit in front of a TV on Sunday and watch the guy who was just paying him a compliment destroy a professional defense the same way.

The Badgers had former tailback Melvin Gordon in town to be the honorary captain for the Nebraska game on Saturday, a not-so-subtle nod to Gordon’s 408-yard rushing performance against the Huskers years ago. And what Gordon was treated to was a 228-yard, 3-touchdown performance by freshman tailback Braelon Allen.

But Gordon wasn’t the only former Badger/current pro to be impressed by the 17-year-old Allen’s performance. Jonathan Taylor, one of the most productive tailbacks in college football history, seemed pretty excited about Allen.

And then Taylor turned around and put up a 185-yard, 5-touchdown performance of his own to help the Indianapolis Colts beat the Buffalo Bills 41-15.

Of course, Allen returned the love.

Taylor set records as a Wisconsin running back and he set records again on Sunday. Allen has been making a name for himself in the same way. With 173 yards rushing against Northwestern on Nov. 13, Allen became the first freshman Badger tailback with 6 straight 100-yard games in over a decade. His performance in Wisconsin’s 35-28 win over Nebraska bumped his season yardage total up over 1,000 yards, putting him in a class of Ron Dayne, James White, and Taylor as true freshmen to hit 1,000 yards rushing in the last 30 years.

Wisconsin running backs, nothing quite like ’em.

Derek Peterson

Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.