{"id":89354,"date":"2025-12-16T01:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89354\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T01:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:36:11","slug":"michael-taaffe-opting-out-wont-play-for-longhorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89354\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Taaffe opting out, won’t play for Longhorns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas football <\/a>safety Michael\u00a0Taaffe<\/a> won\u2019t be suiting up for the Longhorns when they play Michigan in the Citrus Bowl<\/a> on Dec. 31, a team spokesperson confirmed to the American-Statesman on Monday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taaffe announced Monday morning that he intended to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft \u2014 the only true option for Taaffe with his collegiate eligibility expiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he\u2019ll be passing on a chance to play one more game in burnt orange, prioritizing his health as he prepares for the pre-draft process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After heavily considering the draft last cycle, Taaffe instead decided to return to Texas for the 2025 campaign. He received All-American honors<\/a> for the second consecutive season, finishing with 70 tackles and two interceptions, even while missing out on two games due to a broken thumb suffered against Kentucky.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A former walk-on and Austin native, Taaffe finishes his Texas career with 222 tackles and seven interceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Longhorns could find themselves reaching down the depth chart quite a bit at safety when they meet the Wolverines in Orlando. Derek Williams Jr., another safety, will reportedly enter the transfer portal, leaving Texas thin. It could be a chance for five-star freshman Jonah Williams to get some reps.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas football safety Michael\u00a0Taaffe won\u2019t be suiting up for the Longhorns when they play Michigan in the Citrus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,537,536],"class_list":{"0":"post-89354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-texas-longhorns","12":"tag-texas-longhorns-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}