Texas S Michael Taaffe wins two national awards for his stellar defensive play vs. Vanderbilt

Taaffe, a former walk-on from Westlake, is a true orangeblood. He grew up in Austin wanting to be a Longhorn. Now in his fourth season, Taaffe has 113 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, one sack, four interceptions, five pass break-ups, one forced fumble and one blocked punt.

His play Saturday was critical as the Horns were without injured safety Andrew Mukuba, another Austin product who transferred to UT from Clemson.

Ironically, Taaffe’s interception against Vandy came off a ball tipped at the line of scrimmage by another Westlake graduate Ethan Burke. A heck of a defensive play from one Chaparral to another, as it were.

“Well, it’s a very unique offense, something we haven’t seen since I’ve been here, and so it’s just hugely eye control, just doing your job, just not trying to be Superman, and just doing your job and plays will come.

“Shout out to Burke for tipping that,” he added. “I mean, that doesn't get an interception if it's not for Burke.”

Taaffe wasn’t too happy to hear his interception return didn’t go too far. “I’m a little sad. I’m a little hurt that I just heard Craig Way say that was only a nine-yard return. That's embarrassing on my end.”

Taaffe has taken great pride in watching the Longhorns climb to the top of the national defensive rankings. The Horns slipped from the No. 1 spot in scoring defense to No. 2 this week. But the Horns still have the nation’s top-ranked total defense in yards allowed per game (241.3).

“Obviously a bad taste in my mouth on the end of the game score,” Taaffe said. “We’re trying to be a defense that’s the best in the nation and that’s what the standard is for us, because that’s what we’ve said. I’m so glad that we won and we got out of here with the W but we're gonna go back to the drawing board.”