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Dave Wilson, ESPN Workers Author
AUSTIN, Texas — Peter Taaffe noticed it early. Little Michael Taaffe, within the second grade, had a glance in his eye in his first Pop Warner soccer practices within the West Lake Hills space of Austin.
Michael was competing towards third- and fourth-graders and was already exceedingly aggressive — the results of being the youngest of 4 siblings all concerned in youth sports activities. On the finish of follow, when the coaches made the youngsters run wind sprints and most simply wished to get them over with to go house, Peter observed 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 relied on it,” Peter mentioned, laughing. “I assumed, this man’s wired slightly bit in another way than everybody else.”
Steve Sarkisian heard about it early. When the Texas coach arrived in Austin in 2021, he admits he did not actually know freshman Michael Taaffe. Sarkisian hadn’t recruited Taaffe whereas nonetheless at Alabama, as he had another stars on his present Longhorns workforce.
However then once more, not many coaches did. Taaffe was a non-scholarship walk-on who endured grueling tryouts simply to make it this far. However there was a standard thread within the early returns from Sarkisian’s first summer time, when he was attending to know his workforce earlier than coaches may watch player-run exercises.
“Each participant would come again, and I might say, ‘Hey, how’d it go? How was 7-on-7?'” Sarkisian mentioned. “They at all times would convey up Michael Taaffe. ‘Taaffe obtained one other interception at the moment. Taaffe did this, did that.’ And I am like, who? I knew him … however I did not actually know him.”
Sarkisian is aware of him now, as does the remainder of the nation. This season, the 6-foot, 195-pound junior defensive again began all 14 video games for the Longhorns and was named a second-team All-America by the Related Press after rating second on the workforce with 63 tackles (5.5 for loss) with two interceptions. Taaffe has damaged up seven passes, and has two sacks, a compelled fumble and a fumble restoration. And he has helped Texas — ranked 116th in go protection final season — flip its secondary right into a energy, rating second nationally in passing yards allowed at 156.9 whereas permitting simply 13.3 factors per sport.
Taaffe has been a vocal chief, incomes a spot on the workforce’s management council earlier than he ever performed a sport in faculty. He has been a Texas evangelist, together with being the host for Arch Manning‘s recruiting go to, promoting him on what it means to be a Longhorn.
“I attempted to provide him my two cents of why he ought to come to Texas,” Taaffe mentioned.
“I stored getting in his ear slightly bit, and I believe the coaches observed that, so that they put me with him…. It was a variety of one-on-one discuss, about how are we going to get there?” Taaffe mentioned final 12 months of the go to. “Simply me and him, how are we going to convey Texas soccer to the place it must be?”
Taaffe has been a big-play star, together with grabbing an interception that arrange Texas’ landing within the 17-7 rivalry-renewing win over Texas A&M that earned the Horns a spot within the SEC championship sport and stored their playoff hopes alive.
And he is been a steadying drive, even for nook Jahdae Barron, who gained the Thorpe Award as one of the best defensive again in faculty soccer. Barron credit Taaffe with main the cost — and retaining him in line, joking that he makes Taaffe mad daily in follow.
“Taaffe, he simply retains all people going, regardless of the adversity that we face,” Barron mentioned. “He is at all times there simply harping on all people, simply ensuring we’re staying engaged and mentally targeted. That dude is superb…. He loves us unconditionally, regardless of the errors we make, regardless of if we get on his nerves.”
And Texas will want Taaffe’s versatility Jan. 1 within the College Football Playoff quarterfinals on the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (1 p.m. ET, ESPN) towards Arizona State and its dynamic working again Cam Skattebo, the primary FBS participant 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 towards Clemson, which was led by previous good friend and former Austin Westlake teammate Cade Klubnik. With 1:17 left within the fourth quarter and Clemson dealing with fourth-and-6 on the Texas 26, Taaffe put an enormous hit on Tigers receiver T.J. Moore, forcing an incompletion and basically ending the sport. He instantly ran to rejoice with Bevo.
It was a second that Taaffe dreamed of as a child, when he hoped to develop into the fifth era of his household to attend Texas. His grandfather, Eddie Johnson, was an All-American swimmer for the Longhorns in 1957 and made positive Michael was steeped in Longhorn lore.
“He took the household to each sport,” Michael’s dad, Peter, mentioned. “We obtained there two hours earlier than, weren’t allowed to go away throughout halftime so they might watch the band. Rising up in Texas, that is simply what you research, American historical past and Texas historical past. After which for us, you additionally studied, by proxy, Texas soccer historical past.”
Michael grew up watching gamers like Justin Tucker and Sam Ehlinger star for each his highschool and for Texas, hoping to comply with 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 present teammate and quarterback) within the state title sport after the 2020 season.
However Taaffe did not have a straightforward highway to highschool success. Westlake is a powerhouse, the sort of place the place each child ran aggressive wind sprints on the finish of second-grade soccer follow. He was on the lower-level B groups in eighth and ninth grade, then the subsequent 12 months, was on the sophomore workforce, thought-about the B workforce of the junior varsity, in accordance with his highschool coach, Todd Dodge.
Between his sophomore and junior years, he grew to about six ft tall and have become a starter on varsity. In his remaining two seasons, he was the defensive MVP of Westlake’s state championship victories: as soon as as a nook and as soon as as a security.
“I’d enterprise to say that is the primary time that is ever occurred in 6A soccer historical past,” Dodge mentioned.
Dodge mentioned Taaffe was “our Travis Hunter,” as a result of he wanted him to additionally play huge receiver as soon as the 2020 playoff run began. Taaffe’s 47-yard catch from Klubnik within the state semifinals arrange the profitable rating towards Galena Park North Shore, the No. 4 workforce in USA At present’s nationwide rankings. Taaffe completed the season with 60 tackles, 5 interceptions, 18 catches for 297 yards with 3 touchdowns, and 19 punt returns for 365 yards.
However his senior 12 months was 2020, and he could not make any faculty visits due to the pandemic. All he may present coaches was sport footage, so he was up towards an absence of curiosity.
“Not solely am I an ignored white defensive again that is small, but additionally it was throughout COVID and I could not present my skill at camps,” he advised former Longhorn stars Alex Okafor, Derrick Johnson and Jeremy Hills on the third & Longhorn podcast.
However he did have curiosity from Ivy League faculties, and FCS groups. Lastly, in November, he obtained an FBS provide from Rice, and he dedicated. Round that very same time, Texas had a bye week, and the Taaffe and Ehlinger households, who have been shut mates, spent the weekend collectively.
“Why aren’t you attempting to go to Texas?” Sam Ehlinger, then the Longhorns’ beginning quarterback, requested Taaffe, who mentioned he did not even assume it was an possibility.
“You completely have the power, you have simply obtained to allow them to know you need it,” Ehlinger responded.
Weeks later, after his second straight MVP efficiency within the state championship, he obtained a name from Texas. It wasn’t a scholarship provide, however a door was opened for a most well-liked walk-on spot, which does not assure something aside from the coaches admitting they know your identify. Taaffe bypassed a scholarship from Rice to guess on himself.
For Dodge, Taaffe’s journey is one he’ll use in teaching ceaselessly.
“He is the right story,” Dodge mentioned. “While you’re a highschool soccer coach and also you’re working a program that begins once they’re within the seventh grade and fogeys get bent out of form when their child’s on the B workforce once they’re in seventh, eighth or ninth grade, you place ol’ story like Michael Taaffe in your pocket and also you throw that on the market…. I imply if there’s anyone that ever earned themselves a scholarship and deserves one, it is Michael Taaffe.”
Taaffe was a semifinalist for this 12 months’s Burlsworth Trophy, given to one of the best participant nationally that started his profession as a walk-on, which was gained by Oregon’s Bryce Boettcher.
Marty Burlsworth, the older brother of the late Brandon Burlsworth, the All-America Arkansas offensive lineman who’s the namesake of the award, mentioned Taaffe’s story is much more necessary this 12 months with the talk round the way forward for walk-ons in faculty soccer.
As a part of the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement that brings income sharing to varsity soccer gamers, there might be a tough cap on roster sizes, which doesn’t exist now, resulting in uncertainty about what number of spots there can be for non-scholarship gamers sooner or later. The common faculty soccer roster at the moment is restricted to 85 scholarships, however most groups have 125 or extra gamers. New restrictions will cap each workforce’s roster at 105, that means most groups should make cuts. Guess who would be the first to go?
“Stroll-ons will at all times be fan favorites as a result of followers know the battle, they usually love and respect that,” Marty Burlsworth mentioned. “With rosters being so fluid, your walk-ons, for probably the most half, are the anchor of your workforce. They’re the material of school soccer. For these guys to have the ability to have the chance to pursue a soccer profession at their dream college is the whole lot. School soccer must preserve that.”
IN MARCH 2021, Jackson Coker, considered one of Taaffe’s greatest mates and a Westlake workforce captain who took him beneath his wing, died in a automotive accident on the best way to a morning exercise. In Could of that 12 months, one other of Taaffe’s greatest mates, Jake Ehlinger, Sam’s brother and a fellow Texas walk-on, died of an unintentional drug overdose when somebody gave him a Xanax laced with fentanyl.
The Longhorns went 5-7, and Taaffe by no means noticed the sector. He admits it was a tough 12 months, as a result of except for the non-public struggles, he was making performs in follow however could not enhance his spot on the depth chart as scholarship gamers with stars beside their names in recruiting rankings — Taafee had none — would get the advantage of the doubt.
However he was the place he wished to be, which made an enormous distinction. His “why” was at all times to return Texas to excellence, to be part of the identical sort of groups he watched within the stands as a baby. And he wished to honor his mates whereas doing it. Taaffe wears 16 as a tribute to Coker, and he wore a pocket sq. with Jake Ehlinger’s No. 48 on it as he walked into Kyle Discipline when the Longhorns performed the Aggies.
In 2022, Taaffe performed in 13 video games and began towards Kansas. The Longhorns improved to 8-5, and shortly earlier than the Alamo Bowl, Sarkisian ended a workforce assembly by matter-of-factly saying, “One last item: Michael Taaffe, you are on scholarship.” The room erupted.
🚨 Scholarship Alert 🚨
Congrats Michael Taaffe, you are now on scholarship! 🤘 @MichaelTaaffe4 pic.twitter.com/y2MEV3xcRI
— Texas Soccer (@TexasFootball) December 17, 2022
Final season, he was honorable point out All-Huge 12, beginning 9 video games, enjoying in 14, and serving to Texas win a Huge 12 championship — its first convention title since 2009 — and make the School Soccer Playoff. This 12 months, he is an All-American attempting to steer the Longhorns again to a nationwide championship.
“[It’s] loopy to assume that I did envision this. I wished to play for the College of Texas, not simply to swimsuit out,” Taaffe mentioned earlier this season. “Texas had their struggles once we grew up and we watched Texas, however I additionally grew up watching ’09, the nationwide championship [game] towards Alabama, watching the ’08 workforce and the way that they had all their success, and Colt McCoy. I at all times envisioned after I got here right here to play right here that that was the objective. That wasn’t simply one thing that will be cool. That was the objective and that was what you labored for.”
Taaffe mentioned he’s not positive if he’ll return to highschool or give the NFL a shot after the season. He mentioned he did not come to Texas for any purpose aside from to attempt to win a nationwide championship. He’ll resolve his future after that.
First, he’ll have to assist the Horns get previous Arizona State, and he’ll be one of many focal factors in stopping Skattebo, who’s second nationally in compelled damaged tackles with 102 and has 1,023 yards after contact this season. He is additionally averaging 43 yards per sport receiving from Sam Leavitt, and 55% of his receptions have resulted in first downs.
However Sarkisian has confidence in Taaffe, regardless of how he obtained up to now. Texas is a recruiting powerhouse with an NIL funds that rivals all however a handful of groups nationally. The Longhorns can reload with transfers, akin to once they added Clemson switch Andrew Mukuba alongside Taaffe. However Sarkisian cannot get Taaffe out of the lineup. And he does not need to.
“He’s a vital part of our protection when he is on the sector,” Sarkisian mentioned. “We play higher protection from a communication standpoint, a capability to be on the identical accord with the opposite DBs, with the linebackers, his playmaking skill, his preparation mentally, the physicality that he is been enjoying with.”
Sarkisian will not name Taaffe an overachiever. “We obtain no matter we do,” he mentioned. However he additionally mentioned Taaffe has been a residing instance for his workforce of what can occur while you get a chance and also you maximize it.
For his Taaffe’s dad, although, all the eye and accolades apart, he simply sees his son nonetheless working towards the wind.
“He simply has to win,” Peter Taaffe mentioned. “Like I mentioned, his life is determined by it.”
