Texas football: Michael Taaffe uses voice to lead on and off the field

ATLANTA — Texas football player Michael Taaffe showed up  Tuesday to the Omni Hotel in a crisp gray suit.

To accentuate the look at SEC media days, he wore a gold-trimmed watch. And lest anyone forget who Taaffe plays for, the Longhorns pin on his left lapel served as a reminder.

"I probably would say I'm kind of a nerd," Taaffe said. "I don't know all the cool stuff. I try, too, I've got Louis (Vuitton shoes) on my feet."

But what stood out about Taaffe's outfit was the senior safety's tie. It was, of course, burnt orange. Stitched into the tie were 27 sets of initials. Taaffe explained that 26 of them belonged to the Camp Mystic campers and counselors who were lost in the Central Texas flooding earlier this month. The first initials on Taaffe's tie honored camp director Dick Eastland, who also died.

Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that flooding across the state July 4 had claimed 135 lives. The Camp Mystic tragedy in particular, though, has become a cause for Taaffe, who was raised in Austin. Camp Mystic is located about 100 miles outside of Austin, and he said he and his family have ties to people who have attended that all-girls Christian summer camp as well as its neighboring camp for boys.

On July 10, he signed autographs and took photos with fans at a P. Terry's near the Texas campus as the local hamburger chain raised $150,000 throughout its citywide locations for relief efforts. At SEC media days, Taaffe saw another opportunity to raise awareness with the tie that Austin-based clothing store Anderson Parker designed for free.

"I just thought I wanted to shed light to the SEC, to everybody around the country, on what's going on in Texas," Taaffe said. "At the end of the day, football is important, football is cool, football brings us joy and excitement to the country, but this is more than football. I wanted to show how important that is to us. We've been praying continuously for those families, for the community, and I wanted to try to help those families any way that I can."

A picture of Taaffe’s tie that was published on the Texas athletic department’s Instagram account generated more than 17,000 likes. The post drew responses from UT fans, former Texas tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders, supporters of rival schools and even the mother of a camper.

“As an Aggie alum, we call this ‘Good Bull.’ Great tribute to those victims and great representative of our state,” one comment read.

Taaffe goes from being a Texas fan to a team leader

Taaffe acknowledges and understands that he has a "unique platform" at the University of Texas and he's using it. He also has come to realize that he has a voice.

Taaffe grew up as a fan of the Longhorns. That is not a secret. He has publicly discussed how he once wanted to be Texas' quarterback and that Taaffe Thanksgivings as a kid meant watching the Texas-Texas A&M game at the family ranch in El Campo. He was a 6-year-old sitting near the end zone at the Rose Bowl when Colt McCoy was injured in the 2010 national championship game. As a teenager, Taaffe got kicked out of the Cotton Bowl by security after sneaking onto the field to get a glimpse of pregame warmups. 

Taaffe considers the Ehlingers to be family friends. He was at the Superdome when Sam proclaimed to America that Texas was back, and he passionately defended Jake when a sign at last season's College GameDay broadcast in College Station appeared to mock the late UT linebacker's death.

He's even been on the receiving end of some good-natured trash talk from McCoy. Taaffe said he will no longer try to gauge whether Texas fans are wearing his No. 16 jersey or the No. 16 that belongs to UT quarterback Arch Manning after McCoy approached him ahead of last year's Cotton Bowl and said, "How's it cool to know that there's so many 16 jerseys out in the stands, and not one of them, besides your parents, has Taaffe?"

"I was like, 'Thanks, Mr. McCoy. I really appreciate it,'" Taaffe said with a laugh.

So it shouldn't have been a surprise when Taaffe announced in January 2021 — using an edited graphic that featured a picture of him as a young UT fan — that he would join the Longhorns as a walk-on. A two-time defensive MVP of a UIL state high school championship game for local powerhouse Westlake High, Taaffe had other options. He had previously committed to Rice. Columbia, Brown and Colgate also had offered.

At Texas, Taaffe became a starter and eventually an All-American. On Tuesday, he joined Manning and linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., as UT's three player representatives at SEC media days.

"Probably the coolest story on our team right now is Michael Taaffe," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. "His lifelong dream was to be a Longhorn and walks on at the University of Texas. All he did was work hard. He never put a ceiling on himself. I think in his mind he always expected to be an All-American safety at the University of Texas as a captain representing us at SEC media days. I think that's how this guy thinks and that's how he's wired."

Even as a walk-on, Michael Taaffe had a voice

Toward the end of his second season, Taaffe was awarded a scholarship. Taaffe had started to see playing time on special teams by then, and he had even started once on defense. But perhaps more notably, Taaffe was already a member of the football program's leadership council and Sarkisian had previously noted that the "team gravitates to him."

"Not many people would have bet that he'd be able to come in and be put on scholarship as quickly as he was, but I think it's a testament to who he is as a man, his work ethic, his belief in himself," Sam Ehlinger told the American-Statesman in 2023.

While walk-ons at major college programs are often seen and not heard, that was not the approach taken by Taaffe. Being quiet is not his nature. In his opinion, his job is to bring the juice.

When asked when he first felt comfortable speaking up, Taaffe recalled a practice during his first year at Texas. Taaffe was working with the UT scout team, but encouraged his teammates after a break to, "Let's go, let's get up!" 

"I look over, I'm talking to (fourth-year defensive tackle) Keondre Coburn, and I was like, 'I probably shouldn't say that,'" Taaffe said.

Taaffe later received a pep talk during his sophomore year from then-senior running back Roschon Johnson. Taaffe didn't believe that his voice carried much weight in the locker room, but Johnson encouraged him to speak up because he had earned the respect of his teammates through his work ethic.

"Roschon is the one of the best leaders I've ever been around. So to hear that from him, that's when I knew, like, all right, this is my time," Taaffe said.

Years later, Taaffe has developed into an on-field leader that Sarkisian sometimes has to "muzzle" during practices in order to get others comfortable with their communication skills. He's a frequent spokesperson for the team at media availabilities. Texas rotates its game captains, but Taaffe served in that role for six of the final seven games of the 2024 season.

"The reason why his voice resonates is because of the work he puts in," Hill said. "During the workouts and all that, he leads the group. He's leading everything. He's the first one communicating, first one here. It's easy to follow a guy like Mike Taaffe, because he's always doing the right thing and making the right moves."

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Michael Taaffe honors Camp Mystic flood victims at SEC media days