He played college American football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, winning the 2023 Ray Guy Award and being named a unanimous All-American prior to being selected by the Bears in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL draft.

[1][2] Although he played Australian rules football growing up and was unfamiliar with its American counterpart, he became interested in the sport and attended clinics at Prokick Australia to try it out.

[3] Prokick's founders Nathan Chapman and John Smith recommended Taylor to the University of Iowa's special teams coordinator LeVar Woods, who recruited him to play college football.

[20] Despite his position, Taylor was widely credited with helping Iowa remain competitive amid anemic performances by the offense.

His punts regularly pinned the receiving team deep on their own side of the field, which allowed Iowa's top-ranking defense to prevent their opponent from scoring and keep games close.

[32] In Week 4 of the 2024 season against the Los Angeles Rams, Taylor pinned three of his five punts inside the 10-yard line.

[33] His role pinned the Rams and helped the Bears' "takeaway-crazed" defense seal the 24–18 win: Taylor's final punt with 1:13 remaining placed the Los Angeles offense at their own 8, meaning they would have needed to drive 92 yards to score the tying touchdown, but it ended with an interception.