From walk-on to CFP standout, Michael Taaffe has keyed Texas' turnaround on defense

AUSTIN, Texas -- Peter Taaffe saw it early. Little Michael Taaffe, in the second grade, had a look in his eye in his first Pop Warner football practices in the West Lake Hills area of Austin.

Michael was competing against third- and fourth-graders and was already exceedingly competitive -- the result of being the youngest of four siblings all involved in youth sports. At the end of practice, when the coaches made the kids run wind sprints and most just wanted to get them over with to go home, Peter noticed his son would shift gears.

"Michael had this look on his face and he was not going to lose. He was going to be first, and his life depended on it," Peter said, laughing. "I thought, this guy's wired a little bit differently than everyone else."

Steve Sarkisian heard about it early. The Texas coach admits he didn't really know Michael Taaffe. Before Sarkisian arrived in Austin, he hadn't recruited Taaffe at Alabama, as he had some other stars on his current Longhorns team.

But then again, nobody really had. Taaffe was a non-scholarship walk-on who endured grueling tryouts just to make it this far. But there was a common thread in the early returns from Sarkisian's first summer in Austin, when he was getting to know his team before coaches could watch player-run workouts.

"Every player would come back, and I'd say, 'Hey, how'd it go? How was 7-on-7?'" Sarkisian said. "They always would bring up Michael Taaffe. 'Taaffe got another interception today. Taaffe did this, did that.' And I'm like, who? I knew him ... but I didn't really know him."

Sarkisian knows him now, as does the rest of the country. This season, the 6-foot, 195-pound junior defensive back started all 14 games for the Longhorns and was named a second-team All-America by the Associated Press after ranking second on the team with 63 tackles (5.5 for loss) with two interceptions. Taaffe has broken up seven passes, and has two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. And he has helped Texas -- ranked 116th in pass defense last season -- turn its secondary into a strength, ranking second nationally in passing yards allowed at 156.9 while allowing just 13.3 points per game.

Taaffe has been a vocal leader, earning a spot on the team's leadership council before he ever played a game in college. He has been a Texas evangelist, including being the host for Arch Manning's recruiting visit, selling him on what it means to be a Longhorn.

"I tried to give him my two cents of why he should come to Texas," Taaffe said. "He [knew who I was]. I was just a freshman walk-on and he just acknowledged that I played at Westlake and had my success there.... We just started texting, and it was easy because he's a likable guy. He's a really awesome guy. It's fun to be around him.

"I kept getting in his ear a little bit, and I think the coaches noticed that, so they put me with him.... It was a lot of one-on-one talk, about how are we going to get there?" Taaffe said last year of the visit. "Just me and him, how are we going to bring Texas football to where it needs to be?"

Taaffe has been a big-play star, including grabbing an interception that set up Texas' touchdown in the 17-7 rivalry-renewing win over Texas A&M that earned the Horns a spot in the SEC championship game and kept their playoff hopes alive.

And he's been a steadying force, even for corner Jahdae Barron, who won the Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in college football. Barron credits Taaffe with leading the charge -- and keeping him in line, joking that he makes Taaffe mad every day in practice.

"Taaffe, he just keeps everybody going, no matter the adversity that we face," Barron said. "He's always there just harping on everybody, just making sure we're staying engaged and mentally focused. That dude is amazing.... He loves us unconditionally, no matter the mistakes we make, no matter if we get on his nerves."

And Texas will need Taaffe's versatility Jan. 1 in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (1 p.m. ET, ESPN) against Arizona State and its dynamic running back Cam Skattebo, the first FBS player with 1,500 rush yards and 500 receiving yards in a season since 2016.

ON SATURDAY NIGHT, Michael Taaffe sealed Texas' first-round 38-24 win against Clemson, which was led by old friend and former Austin Westlake teammate Cade Klubnik. With 1:17 left in the fourth quarter and Clemson facing fourth-and-6 on the Texas 26, Taaffe put a big hit on Tigers receiver T.J. Moore, forcing an incompletion and essentially ending the game. He immediately ran to celebrate with Bevo.

It was a moment that Taaffe dreamed of as a kid, when he hoped to become the fifth generation of his family to attend Texas. His grandfather, Eddie Johnson, was an All-American swimmer for the Longhorns in 1957 and made sure Michael was steeped in Longhorn lore.

"He took the family to every game," Michael's dad, Peter, said. "We got there two hours before, weren't allowed to leave during halftime so they could watch the band. Growing up in Texas, that's just what you study, American history and Texas history. And then for us, you also studied, by proxy, Texas football history."

Michael grew up watching players like Justin Tucker and Sam Ehlinger star for both his high school and for Texas, hoping to follow that path. He helped lead Westlake to Class 6A state championships in his junior and senior seasons, and had two interceptions of Southlake's Quinn Ewers (his current teammate and quarterback) in the state title game after the 2020 season.

But Taaffe didn't have an easy road to high school success. Westlake is a powerhouse, the kind of place where every kid ran competitive wind sprints at the end of second-grade football practice. He was on the lower-level B teams in eighth and ninth grade, then the next year, was on the sophomore team, considered the B team of the junior varsity, according to his high school coach, Todd Dodge.

Between his sophomore and junior years, he grew to about six feet tall and became a starter on varsity. In his final two seasons, he was the defensive MVP of Westlake's state championship victories: once as a corner and once as a safety.

"I would venture to say that's the first time that's ever happened in 6A football history," Dodge said.

Dodge said Taaffe was "our Travis Hunter," because he needed him to also play wide receiver once the 2020 playoff run started. Taaffe's 47-yard catch from Klubnik in the state semifinals set up the winning score against Galena Park North Shore, the No. 4 team in USA Today's national rankings. Taaffe finished the season with 60 tackles, 5 interceptions, 18 catches for 297 yards with 3 touchdowns, and 19 punt returns for 365 yards.

But his senior year was 2020, and he couldn't make any college visits because of the pandemic. All he could show coaches was game footage, so he was up against a lack of interest.

"Not only am I an overlooked white defensive back that's small, but also it was during COVID and I couldn't show my ability at camps," he told former Longhorn stars Alex Okafor, Derrick Johnson and Jeremy Hills on the 3rd & Longhorn podcast.

But he did have interest from Ivy League schools, and FCS teams. Finally, in November, he got an FBS offer from Rice, and he committed. Around that same time, Texas had a bye week, and the Taaffe and Ehlinger families, who were close friends, spent the weekend together.

"Why aren't you trying to go to Texas?" Sam Ehlinger, then the Longhorns' starting quarterback, asked Taaffe, who said he didn't even think it was an option.

"You absolutely have the ability, you've just got to let them know you want it," Ehlinger responded.

Weeks later, after his second straight MVP performance in the state championship, he got a call from Texas. It wasn't a scholarship offer, but a door was opened for a preferred walk-on spot, which doesn't guarantee anything other than the coaches admitting they know your name. Taaffe bypassed a scholarship from Rice to bet on himself.

For Dodge, Taaffe's journey is one he'll use in coaching forever.

"He's the perfect story," Dodge said. "When you're a high school football coach and you're running a program that starts when they're in the seventh grade and parents get bent out of shape when their kid's on the B team when they're in seventh, eighth or ninth grade, you put a good ol' story like Michael Taaffe in your pocket and you throw that out there.... I mean if there's anybody that ever earned themselves a scholarship and deserves one, it's Michael Taaffe."

Taaffe was a semifinalist for this year's Burlsworth Trophy, given to the best player nationally that began his career as a walk-on, which was won by Oregon's Bryce Boettcher.

Marty Burlsworth, the older brother of the late Brandon Burlsworth, the All-America Arkansas offensive lineman who is the namesake of the award, said Taaffe's story is even more important this year with the debate around the future of walk-ons in college football.

As part of the House v. NCAA settlement, there could be a cap on roster sizes due to revenue sharing, and there's uncertainty about how many spots there will be for non-scholarship players.

"Walk-ons will always be fan favorites because fans know the struggle, and they love and respect that," Marty Burlsworth said. "With rosters being so fluid, your walk-ons, for the most part, are the anchor of your team. They're the fabric of college football. For these guys to be able to have the opportunity to pursue a football career at their dream university is everything. College football needs to keep that."

IN MARCH 2021, Jackson Coker, one of Taaffe's best friends and a Westlake team captain who took him under his wing, died in a car accident on the way to a morning workout. In May of that year, another of Taaffe's best friends, Jake Ehlinger, Sam's brother and a fellow Texas walk-on, died of an accidental drug overdose when someone gave him a Xanax laced with fentanyl.

The Longhorns went 5-7, and Taaffe never saw the field. He admits it was a difficult year, because aside from the personal struggles, he was making plays in practice but couldn't improve his spot on the depth chart as guys with stars beside their names in recruiting rankings would get the benefit of the doubt.

But he was where he wanted to be, which made a huge difference. His "why" was always to return Texas to excellence, to be a part of the same type of teams he watched in the stands as a child. And he wanted to honor his friends while doing it. Taaffe wears 16 as a tribute to Coker, and he wore a pocket square with Jake Ehlinger's No. 48 on it as he walked into Kyle Field when the Longhorns played the Aggies.

In 2022, Taaffe played in 13 games and started against Kansas. The Longhorns improved to 8-5, and shortly before the Alamo Bowl, Sarkisian ended a team meeting by matter-of-factly saying, "One last thing: Michael Taaffe, you're on scholarship." The room erupted.

Last season, he was honorable mention All-Big 12, starting nine games, playing in 14, and helping Texas win a Big 12 championship -- its first conference title since 2009 -- and make the College Football Playoff. This year, he's an All-American trying to lead the Longhorns back to a national championship.

"[It's] crazy to think that I did envision this. I wanted to play for the University of Texas, not just to suit out," Taaffe said earlier this season. "Texas had their struggles when we grew up and we watched Texas, but I also grew up watching '09, the national championship [game] against Alabama, watching the '08 team and how they had all their success, and Colt McCoy. I always envisioned when I came here to play here that that was the goal. That wasn't just something that would be cool. That was the goal and that was what you worked for."

Taaffe said he is not sure if he'll return to school or give the NFL a shot after the season. He said he didn't come to Texas for any reason other than to try to win a national championship. He'll decide his future after that.

First, he'll have to help the Horns get past Arizona State, and he'll be one of the focal points in stopping Skattebo, who is second nationally in forced broken tackles with 102 and has 1,023 yards after contact this season. He's also averaging 43 yards per game receiving from Sam Leavitt, and 55% of his receptions have resulted in first downs.

But Sarkisian has confidence in Taaffe, no matter how he got to this point. Texas is a recruiting powerhouse with an NIL budget that rivals all but a handful of teams nationally. The Longhorns can reload with transfers, such as when they added Clemson transfer Andrew Mukuba alongside Taaffe. But Sarkisian can't get Taaffe out of the lineup. And he doesn't want to.

"He is a critical component of our defense when he's on the field," Sarkisian said. "We play better defense from a communication standpoint, an ability to be on the same accord with the other DBs, with the linebackers, his playmaking ability, his preparation mentally, the physicality that he's been playing with."

Sarkisian won't call Taaffe an overachiever. "We achieve whatever we do," he said. But he also said Taaffe has been a living example for his team of what can happen when you get an opportunity and you maximize it.

For his Taaffe's dad, though, all the attention and accolades aside, he just sees his son still running against the wind.

"He just has to win," Peter Taaffe said. "Like I said, his life depends on it."