Meet Harrison Taggart, the man filling Ben Bywater’s shoes for BYU
With star linebacker Ben Bywater sidelined, BYU football is hoping that Oregon transfer Harrison Taggart can step up in a big way.
Here’s a look at Taggart’s budding college football career, as well as his Corner Canyon legacy.
What happened to Ben Bywater?
Bywater will miss the rest of the 2023 season due to a shoulder injury that he sustained on Sept. 23.
He and the team had been holding out hope that he could heal and return in a few weeks, but, on Monday, he announced that he needed season-ending surgery, as the Deseret News previously reported.
“It is one of those things where I was really trying to push it. But at the end of the day I still can’t move it,” Bywater said to “KSL Sports Zone” on Monday.
Who will replace Bywater?
Taggart is the next man up for BYU, since he was one spot behind Bywater on the depth chart for “Mack” linebackers.
He got his first start for BYU in the Cincinnati game on Sept. 29, one week after Bywater injured his shoulder. He recorded 11 tackles against the Bearcats, which was a career high, according to BYU football.
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Who is Harrison Taggart?
Taggart joined BYU in June via the transfer portal after spending the 2022 season with Oregon. He played just nine snaps for the Ducks on defense and appeared in only three games, enabling him to take a redshirt year for last season.
By joining the Cougars, Taggart was able to move closer to where he grew up and closer to his sister, Madelynne, a hurdler for BYU.
“I am really, really close to my sister,” Taggart told the Deseret News this summer. “She is probably my best friend.”
In high school, Taggart was a standout defender for Corner Canyon, and remains that school’s all-time leading tackler. Perhaps surprisingly, BYU didn’t make an offer to the four-star recruit.
“I didn’t talk to a single BYU coach coming out of Corner Canyon. I really didn’t get it. Obviously I would have been interested in BYU,” he told the Deseret News.
Taggart instead chose between Oregon, Utah, UCLA and some other top programs. He signed with the Ducks, but quickly grew frustrated by coaching changes, including in the inside linebackers’ room.
“During my year and a half there, I had three different linebackers coaches, which made it hard because all the coaches want different things,” Taggart told the Deseret News in June.
He pointed to BYU linebackers coach Justin Ena as a reason why he chose to join the Cougars.
“I really wanted some stability, and coach Ena was that stability,” he said.
Taggart’s profile on the BYU team site lists him at 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds.
