Growing up in Austin, Texas safety Michael Taaffe has always known all about Longhorns football.

The 2021 Westlake graduate knew the Hook ’em sign since his days of playing Pop Warner. He knew the lyrics to “The Eyes of Texas,” he knew the chants, he knew the rich history of a program that has won four national championships and ranks fifth in all-time wins.

Taaffe also knew that programs like Texas don't usually offer scholarships to players like himself, an undersized defensive back whose smarts, savvy and overlooked athleticism helped Westlake win two state championships in high school.

And Taaffe didn’t care.

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“I grew up a Texas Longhorn just down the road,” said Taaffe, who’s grown into a 6-foot, 190-pound safety who plays an increasingly crucial role for the Texas defense. “And so I knew it (playing for Texas) really wasn't in in my line of sight going through the recruiting process. But I knew in my heart that's where I wanted to be.”

Taaffe has followed his heart along a circuitous path that included several scholarship offers from FCS schools to a preferred walk-on offer from Texas defensive backs coach Blake Gideon to, finally, a scholarship from the Longhorns last December.

And Taaffe is earning that scholarship. Last week against Houston, he helped fill in for an injured Jalen Catalon and recorded a career-high and team-high eight tackles as well as his first career interception while playing 35 snaps. Texas may need another big game this week from him against BYU, with Catalon questionable for a banged-up secondary.

“I said this back when I was a senior in high school: I came to the University of Texas to play, not just to be on the team,” Taaffe said. “And so that's what I tried to do these last three years, get on the field and make an impact and try to bring Texas back to where it always belongs and being in that national championship conversation.”

Todd Dodge, his former coach at Westlake, just chuckles when talking about Taaffe's attitude.

“He wasn’t (at Texas) just to put on the uniform and walk around campus and say ‘Hey, I’m a football player,’” Dodge said. “He was there to play. He was going to make a mark, whether it was on defense or special teams or anywhere.

"When I heard about his scholarship, the hair on my arms stood up and my chest was just thumping with pride. I was just so happy for him. And they didn’t give him a scholarship, it wasn’t a token ‘attaboy.’ He earned it.”

Taaffe turned into star at Westlake

Taaffe’s success doesn’t surprise Dodge, a member of the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame who won seven state championships before his retirement following the 2021 season, including three straight titles with Westlake from 2019-21.

Himself a former starting quarterback for the Longhorns in the 1980s, Dodge understands the rare physical prototypes that recruits from blue-blood programs like Texas seek. And he knows players like Taaffe — and lots of other players from Westlake, a longtime powerhouse that usually produces a lot more wins than FBS players — don’t often get the chance to chase their collegiate dreams at the highest level.

“We had a good run of (FBS) players recently, but Westlake doesn’t usually have those types of players,” Dodge said. “I usually want our guys to join those (FCS) schools instead of walking on somewhere, so they can get playing time. But like I told some of our coaches, if there’s anyone stubborn enough to walk on at a school like Texas and get playing time, it’s Taaffe.”

Known by his nickname of “Mookie” around the Westlake fieldhouse, Taaffe earned back-to-back defensive MVP honors in the 2019 and 2020 title games as well as some national attention with a viral highlight of a leaping interception of Quinn Ewers, then the quarterback of Southlake Carroll, which fell to Westlake in the 2020 Cass 6A Division I title game.

And does Taaffe ever give his good friend Ewers a little grief about that interception in 2020? Taaffe just grinned and shook his head during a recent chat with reporters.

“I think he was the first one to kind of acknowledge it,” Taaffe said. “He was like, ‘Hey, I didn't know you could jump that high.’ So we joke about it, but Quinn's one of my really good friends, so I don’t give hm too much of a hard time.”

Prior to his emergence as a key special-teams player and safety for the Longhorns, Taaffe drew the most attention for hosting current freshman quarterback Arch Manning on a famed recruiting trip in 2022. He just laughs off the impact he had on the eventual Texas signing of the five-star recruit, saying the pair just “hit it off.”

“He actually came up to me and knew who I was,” Taaffe said. “I was just a freshman walk-on and he actually acknowledged that I played at Westlake and I had my success there. So from then on, we kind of just started texting and I kind of just kept getting in his ear a little bit and give him my 2 cents of why he should come to Texas.”

And what stops did Taaffe make while giving Manning a tour of his hometown? His answers would sound familiar to generations of Texas fans who spent their college days around the 40 Acres.

“I can't quite remember them all, but I know (campus area hamburger favorite) Dirty Martin’s was one of them,” he said. “And I knew where the pretty girls were.”

Sarkisian: Taaffe's story can motivate others

Taaffe’s engaging personality helps form friendships, but his work ethic drew respect throughout the locker room.

“A lot of guys have a chip on their shoulder and understand that anything that they want has to be earned because it’s never given,” senior linebacker Jaylan Ford said. “I think that's kind of what starts setting people apart. And Taaffe understood that. I think he probably understood that in high school. He had to go work for everything that he wanted, and he's been working his butt off since he got here.

“You see a guy like that who went from walk-on to a scholarship to being considered a leader, that’s credit to his ability to keep working and grinding.”

Sarkisian said Taaffe’s path from a walk-on to a possible starter "can serve as motivtion to all our players."

“He’s just a guy who believed in himself and from day one, never took a backseat,” Sarkisian said. “From day one when we were in summer workouts, he wanted to be in the front of the line. From day one, when every opportunity he got to step in and be here as a true freshman and get on the grass, he found a way to make a play, he got an interception, he got a tipped ball. And in turn, he just continues to work. He's extremely smart. He's tough. He's a great teammate."

Saturday's game

BYU (5-2, 2-2) at No. 7 Texas (6-1, 3-1), 2:30 p.m., ABC, 1300

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Defensive back Michael Taaffe followed dream to Texas football