As Texas football safety Michael Taaffe trudged off Kroger Field Saturday in Lexington, Ky., after a hard-fought 16-13 win, he gave a fist bump to linebacker Anthony Hill Jr.
The pair of defensive stalwarts for the Longhorns each played more than 80 snaps against the Wildcats. Sure, they showed some bumps and bruises while speaking with the media after the game. But they also flashed plenty of pride.
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NO. 22 TEXAS AT MISSISSIPPI STATE
When/where: 3:15 p.m. Saturday in Starkville, Miss.
TV/radio: SEC; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM (Spanish)
And why not? The defense spent two-thirds of the game on the field — Kentucky had the ball for 39:23 compared to 20:37 for Texas — but only allowed one touchdown. The Wildcats managed just 4.6 yards a play, a paltry figure considering the number of snaps.
“It was a physical game,” said Taaffe, who had 10 tackles while playing a team-high 89 snaps. “People had to dig deep and try to keep playing another play, make them snap the ball again. But, you know, we practice way harder than the games are. We’re built for these moments.”
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Anthony Hill Jr,: ‘We don’t get tired’
So is the Texas roster, apparently. There’s been some outside hand-wringing and internal concerns about the construction of the offense, especially on the line. But the defense doesn’t come with such worries, based on the number of bodies that head coach Steve Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski threw on the field against the Wildcats and may have to again use during this week’s trip to Mississippi State.
Twenty-five players saw action for the Texas defense, and all but four of those recorded double-figure snaps. Taaffe paced the team in plays, but safety Jelani McDonald (86 snaps), Hill (83), cornerback Malik Muhammad (81) and cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau (76) all had at least 75 snaps.
“We practice hard, man, we don’t get tired,” Hill said after racking up 12 tackles and an interception.
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Texas pass rusher Trey Moore sacks Cutter Boley (8) on Oct. 18, 2025 at Kroger Field in Lexington.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Hill was still pumped full of game-time bravado, but he quickly added: “I mean, of course we do. But we really do practice hard. So, in these moments, we’re ready for it to go play 86-88 snaps. We’re ready to execute. We have a lot of guys, a lot of bodies to rotate in just to stay fresh.”
In more conventional games that depth means defensive players can play full throttle, knowing there’s little dropoff when the next defender rotates in. But after seeing an average of 62 snaps a game on defense through the first six weeks of the season, the Texas defense had to use their depth to survive Saturday’s war of attrition against Kentucky.
“Rotation is always a big thing,” said Hero Kanu, who led all of the Longhorns’ defensive tackles with 50 snaps. “You take on blockers, run to the ball. It’s a fast game. In case you do not know, a human being can’t play 86 plays at full speed all times. So having this depth all over the place is amazing for us. It allows us to get a breather.”
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And that high snap count goes both ways, Kanu said.
“Their offensive line gets tired, too, let me tell you that,” he said. “And then we’ve got a fresh wave of guys coming in. So, the energy, it’s really contagious.”
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Ethan Burke: Most depth the senior has seen on Texas defense
Senior edge rusher Ethan Burke has played in 49 games since arriving on campus from nearby Westlake High School in 2022. He says this year’s defense boasts more depth than other units he’s played on at Texas.
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“We’ve got a lot of guys who can go,” Burke said. “I definitely get it and understand keeping everyone fresh and rolling everyone in and try and catering to everyone’s strengths.”
Burke, who played 37 snaps against Kentucky, also said the Longhorns seemed to get stronger as the game wore on. They certainly flexed their muscle on a goal-line stand in overtime, when tackle Cole Brevard (39 snaps) and Taaffe led a charge that stuffed Kentucky running back Dante Dowell for no gain on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Four plays later, Texas kicker Mason Shipley nailed a 45-yard field goal to win the game.
“We could have kept rolling,” Burke said. “I think in the overtime, we fed off the energy of the crowd. I think playing away (on the road) sometimes is good for us. There are people that act like it’s supposed to be difficult, but I think myself and most of our team feed off of that.”
That attitude comes from plenty of energy, which in turn results from the team’s depth, Sarkisian said.
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“We take a lot of pride in our (defensive) style of play,” Sarkisian said. “We play fast; we play physical. I think we play really smart defense, too, and (the players) understand situations as they come. We do try to play a lot of players. Taaffe or Anthony Hill probably played the most snaps (against Kentucky), but a lot of the other guys, they were rotating quite a bit, and so that allowed them to be a little bit more fresh.”
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