Jeff Howe

It gives him negotiating leverage with the team that drafts him.

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.

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:

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.

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:

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. View full news story

He started as a linebacker and then moved to end before his sophomore season in 2003. He made an impact as a sophomore. Can you imagine Williams and Brian Pickryl on that 2005 defensive line?

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the last day the portal will be open. As is the case with other sports, it'll be Wednesday or Thursday when the last few stragglers trickle in and actually appear in the portal.

Casey Borba is officially back for 2027:

Today is the anniversary of the historic 2003 NBA Draft, which featured TJ Ford going No. 8 overall to the Milwaukee Bucks. A few years ago, I was listening to a Bill Simmons podcast with Chad Ford (ESPN’s draft guy in 2003), who told the following story about how Michael Jordan was in the process of buying the Bucks on draft night in ‘03. Ford said his sources in Milwaukee told him that the Bucks took the player MJ wanted with the eighth pick, which was TJ. MJ didn’t end up buying the team. Still, I think it’s a cool story:

Dylan Volantis and Sam Cozart were first-team selections. Aiden Robbins and Carson Tinney were named third-team All-Americans.

Ed Cunningham made meaningful contributions to Texas athletics long after his playing days:

Roger Roesler was underrated. As of a few years ago, he still held Round Rock High School's shot put record.