ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell senior Jelani Taylor has been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Football Team on the first team it was announced today. Taylor becomes the first Big Red player to be recognized as a first team Academic All-American since Seth Hope in 2017 and the ninth overall in school history. He is one of three Ivy League players to capture spots on the first or second team.

A national finalist for both the William V. Campbell Trophy and STATS FCS Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Awards, Taylor was a force as a three-year starter at safety for the Big Red. A first-team All-Ivy League selection and candidate for the conference's Defensive Player of the Year, he led the team and was second in the Ivy League with 76 tackles. He also paced the squad in passes defended (14), interceptions (three) and forced fumbles (two). He ranked third in the conference in passes defended (14th nationally) and second in both interceptions (47th nationally) and fumbles forced. In Ivy games only, the safety paced the conference in tackles (62, 8.9 per game) and fumbles forced (two), was second in interceptions (three) and third in passes defended (13). The two-time first-team academic all-district pick added 2.0 tackles for loss, a fumble recovery for a touchdown and a two-point conversion breakup from his safety position and was named Ivy Defensive Player of the Week once. 

Taylor had a monster game at Harvard with 12 tackles, a half-tackle for loss, an interception and three pass breakups and returned a fumble 87 yards for a touchdown, the longest fumble return in school history, vs. Colgate. He was a hero against Brown, posting a game-high nine tackles, intercepting a pass and breaking up three others in a 37-35 win over Brown while also making a stop on a two-point conversion, getting a fourth down stop early in the second to turn the ball over on downs, and springing Eric Stoxstill-Diggs' 46-yard punt return for a touchdown with the key block on the return. He was credited with nine tackles, a half-tackle for loss, a forced fumble and an interception against No. 12 Princeton and registered a game-high 11 tackles with a forced fumble in the win over No. 12 Dartmouth. 

Taylor ranks in the top 30 all-time in Cornell history in tackles and his 30 passes defended is fifth in Big Red history. The 5-11, 195-pound native of Beecher, Mich., closed his career with 187 tackles, including 5.0 for a loss and 2.0 sacks, 27 pass breakups, four forced fumbles and three interceptions in 38 games. Taylor was a first-team Academic All-District pick as a junior after leading the team in tackles (72) and passes defended (nine). Three times he broke up four passes in a game, one off a school record.

Aside from dominating on the field, the senior co-captain has maintained a 3.94 grade point average in Hotel Administration. A five-time Dean's List member and 2018 Academic All-Ivy League pick, he tutored and advised students in Financial Accounting, Quantitative Analysis, and Anthropology of Money, serving student-athletes and multicultural students within the Hotel School with a goal to help them excel in their coursework. 

A member of the 400 Club for student-athletes with a semester GPA of 4.0, he was selected to receive the PSP Excellence Award and claimed the department's Richie Moran Award, given to a senior student-athlete at Cornell who has distinguished himself/herself through "academics, athletics and ambassadorship." Taylor served as a summer intern in the office of Cornell's Executive Vice President and CFO. A two-year member of the football team's Leadership Cabinet, he was chosen to represent Cornell at the Ivy League Football media day at ESPN.