Just six weeks after a severe on-field collision left him temporarily paralyzed from the neck down, Utah State linebacker Harrison Taggart is walking again without a wheelchair, undergoing daily rehabilitation, and looking toward an uncertain athletic future, Deseret News reported.
The injury occurred on September 19, 2026, during the second quarter of a game against the University of Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, when Taggart dove into the legs of Utes running back Daniel Bray. What appeared to be a routine tackle resulted in a diagnosis of transient neuro quadriplegia, a temporary and reversible spinal cord injury caused by sudden compression and hyperextension of the cervical spine.
Medical personnel rushed to the field as Taggart lay motionless. His sister, Maddy, a track athlete at BYU, watched from the front seat of the ambulance as medics treated him. While Taggart was initially alert and communicative on the field, swelling soon built up in his spinal cord. When he woke up hours later inside an MRI machine at the University of Utah Hospital, he had lost all movement below his neck.
I couldn’t move anything from the neck down,
Taggart said, recalling the onset of severe pain and twitching in his fingers.
Taggart Rapidly Regains Movement and Transitions to Outpatient Rehabilitation
Feeling began to return to Taggart’s upper body late that night, and movement in his toes followed. By Sunday morning, he stood with assistance, and on Monday, he took his first shaky steps using a walker, as observed by Utah State head coach Bronco Mendenhall, who visited him in the hospital. According to the Deseret News, Taggart’s recovery progressed so quickly that he transitioned rapidly to outpatient rehabilitation at Neuroworx in Sandy, completing land and water exercises, balance board work, and functional training.
From @HarrisonTaggar4 -“Walking babayy! getting discharged today. I’ll continue to update yall through this crazy journey! I’ll be back” pic.twitter.com/IOWPMMVOLq
Doctors informed Taggart that his exceptional physical conditioning—including a 400-pound bench press and a 500-pound squat—was a critical factor in preventing a permanent catastrophic injury. They said if I weren’t as fit and strong and flexible as I am, it would have been a different outcome,
Taggart noted. They said I was a centimeter away from being a quad.
Support Across Rivalries and Future Outlook
The incident drew widespread concern across the college football community in Utah. Utah head coach Morgan Scalley, whose high school ties connected him to Taggart’s family, visited the hospital alongside members of the Utah State defensive staff and linebackers coach Shane Hunter, who walked from the stadium to the hospital after the game. BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, whose team had previously featured Taggart for two seasons before his stints at Cal and Utah State, also visited to offer support and prayer.
Taggart now spends his days walking a half-mile in his Draper neighborhood with his mother, managing ongoing nerve pain and tingling that doctors expect may persist. Although he began driving again in late October, his return to competitive football remains completely off the table for the current season, leaving the ultimate trajectory of his athletic career open.
