OTF Premium Texas' 2026 regular-season schedule includes potentially historic group of opposing quarterbacks

[Jeff Howe]

Will Muschamp’s return to Texas coincides with a 2026 schedule chock-full of top-tier quarterbacks.

Before SEC play begins with a trip to Tennessee on Sept. 26, the Longhorns will sandwich a pair of accomplished, decorated FBS quarterbacks (Texas State’s Brad Jackson and UTSA’s Owen McCown with their second meeting in nearly 380 days against Ohio State’s Julian Sayin.

John Mateer (Oklahoma), Trinidad Chambliss (Ole Miss), Sam Leavitt (LSU) and Marcel Reed (Texas A&M) join Arch Manning, South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers and Georgia's Gunnar Stockton as the most experienced, productive and proven quarterbacks in the SEC. With talented-yet-unproven signal-callers like Kamario Taylor (Mississippi State) and KJ Jackson (Arkansas) on the schedule, along with potential impact transfers like Aaron Philo (Florida) and Austin Simmons (Missouri), this could be the best collection of quarterbacks Texas has faced in the regular season since Muschamp’s first go-round on the Forty Acres.

In 2008, Muschamp’s inaugural Longhorn defense faced seven quarterbacks in the regular season who were either drafted, were on an active NFL roster at some point in their career or made an NCAA-recognized All-America team in college.

Sam Bradford (Oklahoma) and Robert Griffin III (Baylor) were the only eventual first-round draft picks Texas faced en route to a 12-1 record, a win over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl and spending three weeks ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25. Still, Rusty Smith (Florida Atlantic), Zac Robinson (Oklahoma State) and Stephen McGee (Texas A&M) were drafted; Chase Daniel was in the NFL for 14 seasons (won a Super Bowl as a member of the New Orleans Saints); and Graham Harrell was a part of a championship in Green Bay in 2010.

Seven future NFL quarterbacks are the most the Longhorns have faced in the regular season in the program’s previous 20 seasons. It’s not, however, the only season in which Texas had to navigate a schedule with multiple elite quarterbacks on the opposing sideline throughout 12 regular-season games.

In 2007, the year before Muschamp joined the Longhorns, the program faced six quarterbacks in the club: Bradford, Robinson, Harrell, McGee, Andy Dalton (TCU) and Josh Freeman (Kansas State).

Texas faced four future NFL quarterbacks in 2011 (Griffin, Oklahoma’s Landry Jones, Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden and Texas A&M’s Ryan Tannehill) and a fifth (Kansas State’s Collin Klein) who left college as a second-team All-American and a third-place finisher in the Heisman Trophy voting (behind Johnny Manziel and Manti Te’o in 2012).

The Longhorns’ 2014 schedule featured five quarterbacks with the aforementioned qualifications: BYU’s Taysom Hill, UCLA’s Brett Hundley, Baylor’s Bryce Petty, Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes II and TCU’s Trevone Boykin. The same is true of the regular-season slates in 2015 (Mahomes, Boykin, Cal’s Jared Goff, Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield); 2016 (Rudolph, Mayfield, Mahomes, Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer and Cal’s Davis Webb); 2019 (LSU's Joe Burrow, Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts, TCU's Max Duggan, Kansas State's Skylar Thompson and Iowa State's Brock Purdy); 2021 (Duggan, Purdy, Texas Tech’s Tyler Shough, Oklahoma’s Caleb Williams replaced Spencer Rattler in the first half of the Red River Shootout and Kansas State’s Will Howard); and 2023 (Howard, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, BYU’s Kedon Slovis and Texas Tech’s Behren Morton).

Whether Texas has faced a better group of starting quarterbacks in the regular season over the last two decades is up for debate. What can't be disputed, however, is the nature of the challenge ahead of Muschamp and the Longhorn defensive staff, who must put their best foot forward amid a minefield of playmaking quarterbacks and top-notch offensive play-callers to help Texas return to the College Football Playoff.

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[Jeff Howe]

I was inspired to look into this after our OTF Sideline Debate over the weekend. @Bobby Burton and @Rod Babers mentioned the 2008 range for the last time Texas faced quarterbacks like the ones on the 2026 schedule.

Here's that discussion in video form:

 

[Burnt Orange Horn]

Texas has fortunately invested in DL, Edge and DB.  LB should be more than adequate.

🤘🏻🤘🏼🤘🤘🏽🤘🏾🤘🏿

[Jeff Howe]

I don't know how high the ceiling is for the quarterbacks on Texas' schedule, but it feels like the floor is pretty high. Muschamp's defense doesn't get any breaks before SEC play in that regard.

[Jeff Howe]

Rod and I also got into this discussion on Football Theory, with the conversation centered around Muschamp's defense getting off to a good start:

 

[CJ Vogel]

Fun read,Jeff!

McCown, Sayin, Reed, Mateer, MacIntyre, and Taylor were all in Thibodaux this weekend for the Manning Passing Academy.

Plenty of talented arms and quarterbacks on the schedule. 

[hookem1014]

Find a way to get to the playoffs and that experience from our regular season schedule will pay off🤘

[Jeff Howe]

FWIW, I mistakenly omitted 2019 from the list. Texas faced five future draft picks in the regular season: Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Max Duggan, Skylar Thompson and Brock Purdy.

[CJ Vogel]

2 minutes ago, Jeff Howe said:

FWIW, I mistakenly omitted 2019 from the list. Texas faced five future draft picks in the regular season: Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Max Duggan, Skylar Thompson and Brock Purdy.

Sneakily very stacked.

[Joe Zura]

If we can survive the QB’s and this schedule and make the playoffs we will be beyond battle tested and watch out anyone in our way in the playoffs