Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian gets big recruiting win with one of his most important players returning

Texas head football coach Steve Sarkisian and his coaching staff have largely taken losses to the NFL draft this offseason. On Tuesday, the Longhorns finally got some good luck: safety Michael Taaffe announced his return to the Forty Acres for the 2025 season.

As 247 Sports’ Jordan Scruggs notes, Texas is bringing back one of the most important players of the Sarkisian era with Taaffe’s return.

And it’s needed considering the defense’s various losses, as Scruggs pointed out.

“Taaffe has become one of the most important players to emerge under coach Steve Sarkisian, providing valuable leadership in the locker room to go along with the contributions he's made to a defense that was one of the best in the country in 2024. Taaffe has also helped the program's recruiting efforts, most notably hosting Arch Manning on his official visit in 2022 and being a big reason why Andrew Mukuba transferred to Texas after the Austin LBJ product spent three seasons at Clemson,” Scruggs wrote.

“Taaffe's return to Texas is a significant development for a defense that's losing longtime contributors Jahdae Barron, Alfred Collins, Vernon Broughton, and David Gbenda, who are either out of eligibility or are ready to try their hand at a career in the NFL.”

Losing great players is a product of effective recruiting and developing those recruits correctly. Keep the NFL factory going, and there figures to be more top talent signing up for it year after year.

As long as Sarkisian doesn’t make the NFL jump some believe is on the table, there should be stability on the Longhorns’ coaching staff. Defensive coordinator Peter Kwiatkowski pledged his allegiance to Texas by denying that he’s actively pursuing any NFL coaching openings.

“I have not actively aspired to be a head coach, no,” Kwiatkowski said when asked about his head coaching prospects, per 247 Sports.

“I've never actively chased head [coaching] jobs.”

Longhorn football is losing a good bit of its identity, but it’s keeping enough to keep the standard sky-high in Austin.