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Just two players remain from Steve Sarkisian's first season

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook07/24/25josephcook89
Michael Taaffe
Michael Taaffe (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Steve Sarkisian has to speak publicly a lot as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns. Whether it’s on shows with personalities like Josh Pate and Greg McElroy, or at speaking events for coaches, or at big media events like SEC Media Days, he’s well-served by having some talking points to fall back on.

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He hit a lot of the high notes from those talking points last week at SEC Media Days and at the Texas High School Coaches Associations’ Coaching School. He spoke about how a rise in team GPA coincided with increasing win totals. He spoke about how that increase in wins put more picks into the NFL.

He spoke about how players helped to change the culture at Texas and turn a 5-7 team into one that made the College Football Playoff semifinals in back-to-back seasons.

Sarkisian doesn’t have to refer to 5-7 much anymore, but he added a new wrinkle to his comments and reflections on the 2021 season last week when he was in San Antonio. Speaking to his excitement about the 2025 season, Sarkisian explained how there are just a few players left from his dismal opening campaign as head coach of the Longhorns.

“I’m excited about this season – and it is a little bit different – because the reality of it is I think I have one player left on our roster that was 5-7, and that’s Michael Taaffe,” Sarkisian said. “The majority of the players on our roster, the big bulk of the players on our roster, don’t know anything but playing conference championship games, going to the College Football Playoff, and playing in the semifinals. Different challenges. Early in our years we were trying to convince our guys we were worthy of winning with the work that we put in.”

Sark was one-for-two with how many were left over. Taaffe was just a walk-on defensive back in 2021, wearing No. 36, not on scholarship, and a few years away from All-American play. The other player left on the roster in 2025 that was there in 2021? Walk-on linebacker and Highland Park product Marshall Landwehr.

Though not the contributor Taaffe is, Landwehr is on both punt teams and both kickoff teams. He logged six tackles last season with four of them on special teams.

He and Taaffe represent the last vestige of a Texas program that Sarkisian hopes is in the past. Because of how the walk-on system works, Sarkisian did pick Taaffe and Landwehr to join Texas’ walk-on corps. But at the same time, they represent just how far Texas has come.

Those two players were hoping to bring Texas back to prominence. The rest of the roster? They joined mostly to keep Texas at the highest level of the sport.

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When Taaffe and Landwehr move on, it’ll mark the end of an era of Texas football. Their presence though functions as the last bridge to a time the Longhorns view as in the distant past.

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