Why one Texas player called Kirby Smart a maniac

Texas Longhorns senior safety Michael Taaffe was one of three Texas players in Atlanta for the 2025 SEC media days. Taaffe along with the rest of Texas is confident ahead of the 2025 college football season.

The Longhorns have a lot to be confident about. Texas is returning a ton of talent and advanced to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff last season before falling to the eventual national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.

Texas did miss out on one of their goals, to win the SEC championship, last season because of the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia beat Texas in Austin in a dominant defensive performance for the Bulldogs and then went on to topple Texas in overtime in the SEC championship.

Taaffe and Texas will try to beat Georgia again in 2025, but this time it will be on the road. At SEC media days, Taaffe was asked what will be the difference this year to give Texas a huge SEC win.

"Coach (Kirby) Smart is one of the most competitive coaches I have ever been against in my life," said Taaffe. "Like, physically hearing him on the sideline when I'm playing defense. I'm like who is this maniac?"

"And it is their head coach trying to, you know, get a call or get something in and I think the team is embodied by the head coach. And he does a great job of embodying what their team is all about and to be honest, I think they out-physicaled us in that first game, so we gotta come with a physical nature and a sense of pride and knowing that if we want to get to where we want to go in December, then we gotta beat those guys," Taaffe said.

Georgia and Texas will meet in Sanford Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 15. The Georgia-Texas game will be UGA's final SEC game of the regular season and it could be a preview of the 2025 SEC championship.

Georgia and Texas' rivalry grew significantly on the same day Georgia and Texas took the stage at SEC media days. Texas beat out Georgia for five-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson and then flipped five-star Georgia defensive line commitment James Johnson.

The Dawgs and Longhorns have a budding rivalry and are both vying to be the best team in the SEC.

This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: Star Texas safety calls Georgia coach Kirby Smart a maniac