JT Taggart always wanted to play quarterback.
He was his team’s signal caller from youth football until eighth grade. The only thing that pulled him away was a monstrous growth spurt he hit just before high school, sprouting up to a towering 6 feet 7.
Taggart, a three-star tight end recruit from Calvert Hall who announced his commitment to Maryland earlier this month, blossomed into one of the state’s best players after moving to Baltimore when his father, Willie Taggart, became the Ravens’ running backs coach.
As the son of a coach, JT Taggart moved frequently. His college decision was the first time in his life his future was in his own hands. With a chance to finally experience some continuity, he chose the Terps.
“I wanted to be close to family,” he said. “Leaving them far away, it wouldn’t feel right.”
Willie Taggart was a head coach at five NCAA Division I schools before joining the Ravens. The Taggarts bounced around the south for seven years between Western Kentucky and South Florida. A brief one-year stint at Oregon preceded a two-season stretch at Florida State, then three more seasons at Florida Atlantic. John Harbaugh hired him in February 2023.
Each relocation brought disruptions and challenges for JT Taggart, who’s admittedly a man of few words. New schools meant new friends, teammates and coaches. For the first time in 2023, Willie, confident in the stability of his new role with the Ravens, told his son Baltimore would be a place they could finally settle as JT neared the end of his high school days.
“It was really difficult trying to make friends and build relationships with people,” he said. “It was probably the most difficult aspect of my life.”
JT Taggart lacked the connection to Maryland that born-and-raised in-state prospects hold. Calvert Hall supplemented that. Cardinals assistant coach Bernie Fiddler played for the Terps in the early 2000s when Mike Locksley served as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. Willie Taggart and Kevin Sumlin, Maryland’s tight ends coach, overlapped as Power Five head coaches in the 2010s.
The tight end is the 36th-best player in Maryland in the Class of 2025, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. At 6-7 and 225 pounds, Taggart also plays defensive end and basketball for Calvert Hall. He chose the Terps over West Virginia, Miami, Colorado and others.
“Maryland’s a great program,” Willie Taggart said at Ravens mandatory minicamp. “Coach Locksley’s done an awesome job down there. I want someone to finish what we started. I told Coach Locksley, ‘I’m handing him off to you. You gotta take him to the finish line now and help him continue to develop.’ We want Locksley to help him become a man.”
Maryland reeling in JT Taggart bucks its trend of poor results with recruiting Baltimore. Only 11 members of its current roster are from the city. The Terps have brought in just two of the state’s top 20 recruits in the past two classes, including none in the top 10 in 2024. Of that group, six are headed to rival Big Ten programs.
The university’s athletic department and Under Armour, founded by former Terps football player Kevin Plank, announced a new 12-year, $98 million partnership this week. It includes a name, image and likeness program that will allow players to earn money by promoting Under Armour products on their social media accounts.
1000% committed#terpsnation#goterps @CoachLocks @CoachSumlin @CoachSwaba @Rivals @247Sports @adamgorney pic.twitter.com/vLrOhZEFSZ
— JT “joker” Taggart (@jt_taggart) June 8, 2024
Despite the local corporation’s recent struggles — several Division I programs that once had similar agreements with Under Armour have split ties and turned to other equipment and apparel companies — Maryland surely hopes its partnership attracts more local talent. St. Frances four-star running back DeJuan Williams will play his freshman season with the Terps this fall. Highly coveted Spalding quarterback Malik Washington could be next.
None of that mattered for Taggart, though. All he wanted was to finally stay in one spot, a place he could choose and that kept him close to family.
“I’m not that much of a talkative person,” he said. “I don’t connect with somebody that fast. But when I talked with Coach Locksley, I felt connected immediately.”
![What a difference a year makes. Tsedeke Jakovics was not even a second team All-County selection following the 2023 outdoor track and field season. One year later, the Old Mill High distance runner is the Capital Gazette Athlete of the Year. Jakovics went from being a non-factor in the spring postseason meets in 2023 to performing at an extremely high level in 2024. He capped a strong outdoor campaign by capturing the Class 4A state championship in the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 53.40 seconds. Jakovics scored a total of 24 individual points at the 4A state […]](https://www.baltimoresun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CAP-L-OUTDOORTRACKATHLETEOFYEAR-p09.jpg?w=526 "What a difference a year makes. Tsedeke Jakovics was not even a second team All-County selection following the 2023 outdoor track and field season. One year later, the Old Mill High distance runner is the Capital Gazette Athlete of the Year. Jakovics went from being a non-factor in the spring postseason meets in 2023 to performing at an extremely high level in 2024. He capped a strong outdoor campaign by capturing the Class 4A state championship in the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 53.40 seconds. Jakovics scored a total of 24 individual points at the 4A state […]")
