COLLEGE STATION – Quinn Ewers' and Michael Taaffe’s dreams required different paths to the same destination. Ewers, a five-star prospect with a perfect rating, left high school focused on proving the critics right. Taaffe, an overlooked state champion who walked on at Texas, was determined to prove those same critics wrong. 

Both were born with burnt orange D.N.A. inside fervent Texas households. Both visualized becoming Longhorn Legends. And both hoped they’d lead the charge in rivalry games against Oklahoma and Texas A&M. To carry Texas back to national prominence and leave a mark on the Forty Acres.

The duo led Varsity past the Farmers, 17-7, on Saturday as the Lone Star Showdown awoke from a 12-year coma. Ewers, the star who was supposed to excel on this stage, was 17-of-28 for 218 yards, one touchdown, and one interception through the air in a gutty performance when he clearly wasn't 100 percent healthy. He also added 29 yards on four important carries. 

Missing the game didn’t feel like an option. Not for the kid who dressed as a Longhorn football player when he was a kid. His sprained right ankle was no match for a young man’s will to fulfill his destiny. 

“It’s definitely tough dealing with certain injuries,” Ewers said after the game. “You just want to be out there with your guys and you feel guilty when you’re not because of the hard work you put in.” 

Taaffe, the star who wasn’t supposed to be on the field with those level of players, recorded three tackles, an interception, and a tackle for-loss. The man they call “Mookie” has shed his skin as an underrated walk-on and emerged a bona fide star at safety with NFL stock rising faster than the market predicted when Taaffe was at nearby Westlake High School. 

A student of the game, he understood what the win over the Aggies meant for him and the kids who grow up as Horns. He turned down offers to G5 programs like Rice and FCS offers in the Ivy League to play for his dream school. He bet on himself. A wager that continues to cash. 

“Guys like Sam Ehlinger, guys who were all about the University of Texas, who would thrive in these types of environments, these types of rivalry games,” Taaffe began, “I just thought about guys like that because who knows what they would have done to get this opportunity. We gotta praise them for paving the way.” 

Ehlinger once proclaimed Texas back following a win over Georgia in the postseason. It was premature. The Bulldogs went on to win national championships while the Longhorns toiled away under Tom Herman. Even the arrival of Steve Sarkisian didn’t provide instant results. He needed a quarterback and Ewers wanted to return home. 

Ewers reclassified to the 2021 class after his junior year at Southlake Carroll and enrolled at Ohio State. He decommitted from the Longhorns after the Oklahoma loss – the year Ehlinger was alone to sing “The Eyes on Texas”. NIL was a new frontier and Ewers was offered a large amount of money from Levi’s – enough to forego his senior year of high school in a state that didn’t allow prep stars to capitalize in the free market. 

He's thrived since uniting with Sarkisian in Austin. He led Texas to a Big 12 championship and the program’s first berth into the College Football Playoffs. He’s beaten Oklahoma, Arkansas, and A&M in the same season. He’s even done something his former Ohio State teammates can’t – beat Michigan. He’s engineered Texas’ first season in the SEC, clinching a spot in the SEC championship game and a rematch against Georgia after the win over Texas A&M.

“He grew up wanting to be the quarterback of the Longhorns,” Ewers’ dad, Curtis, said. “It is hard to explain how special it is to achieve that dream. No one can take that away from him the rest of his life.” 

Both Taaffe and Ewers remember watching with their family as elementary-aged fanatics when Justin Tucker kicked Texas past Texas A&M a dozen years ago. Now all grown up, the duo led their own charge in Aggieland. This game ended the same as the last, with the Longhorn faithful chanting “S-E-C, S-E-C”, but this time, there was no irony. 

“How good does this feel?” Taaffe asked after the game. “It felt really good to hear silence at the end.”