Wisconsin sophomore running back Jonathan Taylor won the 2018 Doak Walker Award on Thursday night, given annually to the nation's top running back.

Taylor led the nation in rushing yards per game in his second year with the Badgers, rushing for 1,989 yards on 280 carries in 12 games for the Badgers.

Taylor burst on to the college football landscape last year as a true freshman, rushing for 1,977 yards in 14 games for the Badgers - averaging 6.6 yards per carry after earning his way on to the field with a strong performance in fall camp.

But despite Wisconsin's overall offense failing to live up to sky-high expectations, Taylor was even better in his second year - even as teams tried to slow him up to force the Badgers to pass the ball more often. Taylor's numbers rose across the board - and he even had games where he put the offense as a whole on his back to carry the Badgers to a win, as seen in his 321-yard, three touchdown performance in Wisconsin's triple overtime win against Purdue on Nov. 17.

Taylor is the fourth UW running back to take home the award, following in the footsteps of Ron Dayne (1999), Montee Ball (2012), and Melvin Gordon (2014). Taylor's win means Wisconsin now leads the nation with four individual Doak Walker Award winners, beating out Texas - which has had three players win the award, with Ricky Williams winning it twice.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.