AMES - For Iowa State offensive tackle Jake Taylor, the turn from frustration to gratitude has been anything but simple.
Now healthy and already voted one of six captains for the season, Taylor has emerged from a stretch defined by injuries, family concerns and setbacks that could have flattened his career. Instead, the 6-6, 310-pound redshirt junior is back in a place where his teammates see him as a leader - and his coaches see the payoff of a long, difficult climb.
Iowa State offensive line coach Jake Thornton summed up Taylor’s path with a joke that carries real weight.
“I like to joke with (Taylor) and say, ‘You could have closed your eyes and pointed on a map and that school would have (taken) you,’” Thornton said of the oft-injured Taylor, who’s healthy now and was recently tabbed by his teammates to be one of six captains this season. “To go from that to also getting to OU and doing really well and starting a lot of games for a really good program, to having a couple injuries and a couple setbacks, and to now get back to where he is? He’s just got an unbelievable journey of adversity.”
Taylor arrived at Oklahoma five years ago as a consensus four-star recruit and played a significant role in parts of three seasons there, including four starts in 2024. But the road got rough. He dealt with “a couple family issues,” including a health scare with his mother.
“She’s all good now, thank God,” he said.
After that came a partial tear of the ligaments around his patella. Taylor tried to push through it, then suffered a broken rib the next day. He kept going for a while, but eventually had to shut things down and focus on getting right for the long term.
“I’m a tough S.O.B.” Taylor said.
“I could play through pain, but when it (inhibits) your ability to play - our second-string guy was gonna be able to play better than I could, so I had to (make) that decision. Last year, it just kept nagging at me.
I kept pushing but at a certain point, we said, ‘Screw it. My career is more important than the season.’
Did all the procedures to get it done. Properly healed now, thank God.
But being able to get up from an injury is everything. Injuries put you in a bad state of mind.”
That experience changed him, Taylor said. The edge and angst gave way to something steadier: gratitude.
Thornton said that shift showed up in the daily work.
“The nod at captain definitely came from his consistency day in and day out,” said Thornton, who leading the offensive lines at Auburn (2023-25) and Ole Miss (2021-22). “The best thing Jake does is if he has a bad day, or a bad practice, or a bad rep, he owns up with that in front of his peers. He’s not hiding from anything, and when you do that over the course of eight or nine months, people really gravitate toward that.”
That kind of accountability helped make Taylor a captain in Jimmy Rogers’ first year as head coach, and Taylor said he set out to earn that respect. He came into the program intent on becoming a leader and leaving a mark on the place.
“I was trying to prove a point,” said Taylor, who ranked as a top-20 offensive lineman nationally out of high school according to several recruiting services. “I was trying to be that leader.
I want my house to have Iowa State on there, on my walls, stuff like that. So I want this university to be my life.
I want to promise myself to this university I’m gonna do everything I can, leave my nuggets, leave my knowledge, everything I know, to leave this place better than when I (arrived).”
For Taylor, that message is no joke. It’s personal, and it’s genuine - and now it’s backed by a clean bill of health.
“My gratitude’s off the charts,” Taylor said. “I’ve never been more invested than I am right now.”
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