Jeff Howe

There’s an argument to be made that the 2000s under Mack Brown, not the 1960s under Darrell Royal, are the best decade in the history of the Texas football program. Only Boise State tallied more wins than the Longhorns’ 110 victories from 2000-09 among FBS clubs. Texas only won two conference championships during the decade. But the Longhorns suffered an upset loss in the Big 12 title game in 2001 and were denied rightful entry to the 2008 game (it’s hard to explain to someone who wasn’t around or didn’t follow college football at the time that a system of computer rankings rendered Texas’ 45-35 win over Oklahoma in arguably the best in the history of the series moot). The Longhorns won at least nine games in each of those 10 seasons, including nine consecutive seasons (2001-09) with at least 10 wins. Texas was a legitimate national championship contender in three of those seasons (2001, 2004 and 2008) and finished no worse than 12th in any final Associated Press Top 25. The 2005 national championship team is one of the best in college football history. The argument for Vince Young as the greatest college football player of his era (or any other, for that matter) is strong. Young, Brown, Derrick Johnson and Michael Huff are in the College Football Hall of Fame. The likes of Cedric Benson, Justin Blalock, Quentin Jammer, Casey Hampton, Colt McCoy, Brian Orakpo, Jordan Shipley and Rod Wright helped the program gain and maintain national relevance for those 10 seasons. If the 2008 squad had its date with destiny against Florida, or if McCoy played the entirety of the title game against Alabama the following season, a second national championship in the decade might be enough for the 2000s to unseat the 1960s as the golden age of Longhorn football. Still, in this discussion, second place isn’t a bad place to be, if that's where one chooses to rank those 10 seasons. *** The No. 60 is chock-full of Longhorn legends, especially with Derrick Johnson wearing it in his last game at DKR (a 26-13 win over Texas A&M, which helped secure a Rose Bowl berth against Michigan at the end of the 2004 season). With that said, the discussion on the greatest No. 60 in school history starts and stops with Tommy Nobis. Recognizing Nobis on Tuesday, which coincides with the 60-day mark until Texas kicks off the 2026 season, puts into perspective how special the No. 60 has been on the Forty Acres and caps off an incredible run of Longhorn legends who wore a jersey number in the 60s. For starters, the 60s are bookended with Nobis and Dan Neil, a College Football Hall of Fame nominee and two-time first-team All-American (1995 and 1996) who wore No. 69 during his four seasons (1992-96), is impressive. What’s even more eye-opening is that if Neil is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (he’s been on the ballot three times, most recently in 2025), he’d be the fourth Longhorn offensive linemen in the Hall of Fame who wore a jersey number in the 60s, joining Bud McFadin (No. 61), Bob McKay (No. 62) and Harley Sewell (No. 66). *** If you’re trying to assemble the Mount Rushmore of Texas offensive linemen, you could do it entirely of guys who wore jersey numbers from 60 through 69. Along with the three College Football Hall of Fame inductees and Neil, Blalock was a two-time All-American who started all 51 games in his Longhorn career. Blalock’s primary competition to be considered the best No. 63 in school history is Mike Williams, a consensus All-American in 2001 (like Doug Dawson was in 1983, when he wore No. 66 and was a captain for a team that came painfully close to winning a national championship) who was the fourth overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft. Jake Majors' (No. 65) school record 57 starts over parts of his five seasons (2020-24) could be in jeopardy with five-for-five eligibility looming. Although Majors and Lyle Sendlein (No. 62) wouldn’t be considered for the Mount Rushmore, their names would be up for discussion when picking a center for an all-time Texas offensive line. *** There was more debate than I anticipated over which all-time No. 64 the OTF community preferred: Casey Hampton (1996-2000) or Kasey Studdard (2002-06)? While I’m a Studdard fan then, now and forever, it’s hard to put Hampton’s dominance into its proper context for those who were too young to remember the two-time first-team All-American’s career or didn’t see one of the best defensive line products the state of Texas has ever produced. Hampton led the Longhorns in total tackles with 101 in 1999 and 78 in 2000 (tied D.D. Lewis for the team lead), making him the first Texas defensive lineman to lead the team in tackles in consecutive seasons. A nose tackle who was constantly facing double- and triple-teams, Hampton recorded 39 of his 54 career tackles for loss over his last seasons and was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2000. The best example of what Hampton meant to the Longhorns (and later the Pittsburgh Steelers, the franchise with which Hampton won two Super Bowls, was named to Pro Bowls and was voted to their all-time team in 2007 after he was picked in the first round of the 2001 draft) came in the wake of a 64-13 loss to Oklahoma in 2000. A flustered Brown told Royal that he felt the team quit in the loss to the Sooners, while singling out how hard Hampton played, Royal let Brown know that his assumption wasn’t correct. "Teams don't quit,” Royal said. “Some players may have given up, and it may look like that. But some of your guys may have gone out and played the best games of their careers." View full news story

Valid point, but for me, the dominance of the early Wishbone years overrides the dip.

I wanted to make sure I got this up before we crossed the 60-day threshold in our countdown to kickoff.

I'm fascinated by Coach Royal's run in the 1960s and into the 1970s. If you haven't had a chance to watch the Wishbone documentary that ESPN ran last year, it's a must-watch for Texas fans, college football fans or football fans in general. As special as the 2000s were under Mack, Coach Royal did the best job of maximizing what Texas could be at its peak.

Darrell Royal, who would’ve celebrated his 102nd birthday on Monday, led Texas through what, to this point, is the golden age of football on the Forty Acres. The 1960s were so good to Texas that the Longhorns, not Alabama, should’ve been CBS Sports' pick for college football’s best program during Royal’s first full decade on the job. The sport was a different animal when Royal led the Longhorns to an 86-19-3 record, winning the Southwest Conference five times and claiming national championships at the conclusion of undefeated seasons in 1963 and 1969 than it was in the 2000s when Mack Brown won 110 games (the second-most FBS wins in the decade) and a national championship. It’s on a different planet today, with Steve Sarkisian (whose squad kicks off the 2026 season in 60 days) looking to break through after guiding Texas to a 35-8 record during a three-season run that included two trips to the College Football Playoff and a conference title. Still, what Royal’s program accomplished during the 1960s goes beyond the record book. That includes a few painfully close calls that would’ve added more hardware to the trophy case had things broken a different way. The 1961 Longhorns were ranked No. 1 and in the midst of an undefeated season when a controversial hit on All-American running back Jimmy Saxton in a 6-0 loss to TCU derailed what could’ve easily been a run to Royal’s first national title. Texas settled for a 10-1 record and a No. 3 ranking in the final Associated Press poll, scoring a 12-7 win over Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl. It was one of four seasons during the decade in which the Longhorns recorded a top-five finish without claiming a piece of the national title. Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide benefited from the misfortune of Royal’s Texas teams more than anyone, splitting the 1961 national championship with Ohio State and sharing the crown with Arkansas in 1964. Although the Razorbacks snapped the Longhorns’ 15-game winning streak with a 14-13 win in Austin en route to an undefeated season, the AP and UPI ranked Alabama No. 1 at the end of the regular season, making the Crimson Tide national champions. Texas made its case to be considered the nation’s best on New Year’s Day, when Tommy Nobis led the defensive charge that denied Alabama’s Joe Namath the end zone on fourth-and-goal late in a 21-17 victory in the Orange Bowl, which was college football's first-ever prime-time telecast. Again, the Longhorns settled for a 10-1 record and a No. 5 final ranking from the AP voters. But it’s what Royal and Emory Bellard did in 1968 that makes Texas the team of the decade. Implementing the Wishbone after an underwhelming three-year stretch during the 1965 (6-4), 1966 (7-4) and 1967 (6-4) seasons, the decision to put James Street under center during what would eventually be a 31-22 loss to Texas Tech (and an 0-1-1 start to the 1968 season) kickstarted one of the most memorable runs in college football history. Texas went 9-0 with Street in the driver’s seat of the Wishbone, including a 36-13 rout of Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl to finish with a 9-1-1 record and a No. 5 finish in the final AP rankings, the first year in which the poll conducted a vote after bowl games were played (the UPI followed suit in 1974). Ending the decade with 20 consecutive wins (part of a school-record 30-game winning streak), having President Richard Nixon proclaim the Longhorns as national champions after the historic 15-14 win in Fayetteville over No. 2 Arkansas and handing Notre Dame a loss in a Cotton Bowl game that marked the end of the Fighting Irish’s 45-year self-imposed bowl ban should be more than enough for Texas to secure the “Team of the Decade” label. The way Bellard and Royal changed offensive football forever with the birth of the Wishbone, however, is what puts the Longhorns over the top as the sport’s top dog in the 1960s. Long after Bryant and Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer adopted the offense to revive their respective programs, Mike Leach and Hal Mumme studied the Wishbone while developing what would eventually become the Air Raid offense. "One thing with the Air Raid that's very important is to make sure all the skill positions touch the ball," Leach told ESPN's Jake Trotter in 2018. "In the Wishbone, all the skill positions touch the ball. All the skill positions contribute to the offensive effort. From the Wishbone, we drew the concept of distribution." Almost 60 years after the Wishbone took the game by storm, its influence on modern-day football adds further credence to the idea that from the start of Royal's fourth season through the end of his 13th, Austin, Texas, was home to the best program in college football. View full news story

Shoutout to Tillman Holloway and his face mask that looked like it was made out of Legos.

I can ask Rod because he has most of the data. It's not so much that man coverage or lack thereof is my issue. I didn't like how, against Florida and Georgia, for example, those quarterbacks were given way too many advantage throws on critical downs where the front/pressure and the coverage didn't mesh.

Schematically, Nansen should mesh better with Muschamp than he did with PK. More man coverage, more aggressive in general is Nansen’s style. I was hoping Nansen’s arrival would help PK evolve, but it didn’t happen.

Regarding the NFL draft numbers for Texas offensive line signees from 2003-14, I didn't include Tony Hills because he was recruited as a tight end. Also, guys like Donald Hawkins, Trey Hopkins and David Snow probably should've been drafted during that stretch, but they weren't, and I didn't include guys who made NFL rosters as undrafted free agents.

One thing I didn't mention in the article is that Flood does a good job of cross-training his linemen. It not only helps the team manufacture depth so that Texas always has the best five available linemen on the field, but it also lets players figure out their best fit. That will help expedite the process of putting Camara in the best spot early in his career.

Even though a lot has changed since Steve Sarkisian and Kyle Flood got to Alabama in 2019 and started evaluating, recruiting and developing offensive linemen in college football together, Ismael Camra will get them back to their roots. The 6-foot-6-inch, 335-pound Gilmer product’s Fourth of July commitment to Texas is the Longhorns' biggest, most highly-touted member of a five-man offensive line class. Look no further than Sarkisian’s celebratory social media message as confirmation that even though the staff isn’t married to the acquisition philosophy that bigger is always better, they’ll make an exception for a prospect with Camara’s upside. There are a few approaches Texas could take regarding Camara’s developmental track. Which one might depend on the makeup of the offensive line in 2027, specifically whether right guard Brandon Baker and right tackle Melvin Siani return. If Baker has the kind of season in which he’d be wise to strike while the iron is hot regarding the NFL draft, Camara could have a clearer path to the field at guard. Likewise, Siani’s departure (along with the expected exit of probable 2027 first-round pick Trevor Goosby), would likely push Camara to tackle (unless Baker were to come back for his senior season and kick back outside to tackle), where he’d compete with the likes of Andre Cojoe, Jordan Coleman, Jonte Newman, John Turntine III and fellow 2027 signee Brian Swanson (along with a potential plug-and-play transfer portal addition) for two open tackle spots. Regardless, how Sarkisian and Flood brought Evan Neal along under Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa might be the blueprint for how to maximize Camara’s development. With Jedrick Wills and Alex Leatherwood occupying the tackle spots for the Crimson Tide in 2019, Sarkisian and Flood put Neal into the starting lineup as a true freshman at left guard. When Wills left for the NFL, Neal moved to right tackle for Alabama’s 2020 national championship club, which was spearheaded by Sarkisian’s historic offense. Neal, who moved to left tackle when Flood followed Sarkisian to Texas, was the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft by the New York Giants. While Neal’s outcome is a best-case scenario for Camara, what matters is that there’s proof of concept if the Longhorns want to let Camara adjust to the speed of the game and the physicality at guard before sliding him out to tackle. There was a time when an offensive lineman choosing Texas meant rolling the dice on their football career. Over 12 recruiting classes (2003-14) and 43 total signees (41 high school prospects and two junior college transfers), the Longhorns failed to develop a single NFL draft pick. Things started to shift ever-so-slightly in the last decade, thanks to Connor Williams (2015) and Samuel Cosmi (2017). Still, the long-awaited developmental boon has come under Sarkisian and Flood, with five recruiting classes (2018-22) in which the signees spent the majority of their time on campus under the current regime have produced five draft picks, including three from the 2022 haul (Kelvin Banks Jr., DJ Campbell and Cameron Williams). Whether it was how they brought along Neal and the other Crimson Tide players they coached, or what they've done with prospects they've inherited or recruited to Texas on their own, Sarkisian and Flood know what to do to get the most out of Camara. A big human with big-time potential, Camara should feel as though his bright football future is in good hands. View full news story

Playing nose in an odd front is a thankless job. He did it about as well as anybody has in the last 25 years in the NFL.

Happy Lex Luger Day, to those who celebrate!

The great ones make it look easy!

I feel like we have the same discussion every time Texas loses a portal recruitment. Here are some points worth filing away: 1. Texas isn’t broke when it comes to baseball spending. The baseball program is probably third or fourth in a 16-team SEC. It should come as a surprise to nobody that what LSU wants, LSU will get when it comes to money spent in baseball. Take that for whatever it’s worth. 2. Retention isn’t cheap. There’s a pool of available money for the roster and to keep Volantis, Cozart, A-Rod, Pack, etc. costs money. I know that’s probably not what some people want to hear, but that’s reality. 3. It’s incredibly shortsighted to think Schloss hired Marder only to get Laya. That’s not how this works. Like Sark, Schloss wants to have a program in which the foundation is high school recruiting and player development. Marder is on track to be a head coach and seeing how things work at a place like Texas is a step in that direction for his career. 4. With Laya picking LSU, Texas is going to offer the most it can. Whether the dollar figures guys are promised at other places come to fruition is another matter. Regardless, Texas is going to be as competitive as it can be. That’s one the Longhorns just didn’t win. 5. On Bino Watters, we might be able to get into the backstory of the recruitment at some point. For now, all I can ask is that you trust what @Blake Munroe and has reported, that it wasn’t money that made the difference. That’s not as simple of a loss as it might appear to be on the surface. 6. The bottom line is that the losses hurt. Yes, the staff has some young players on the roster (especially pitchers) they’re excited to see develop who they feel can fill some of the roster voids. Still, missing on Watters and Laya hurts, especially with them going to a conference opponents. More than one thing can be true though. Texas can lose some portal battles and have roster questions, but it doesn’t mean the program lacks funds/support to compete for championships. I’ve got concerns about the 2027 roster, but I believe the current staff can get the most out of what they’ve got, which would be enough to get back to Omaha.

Arthur Kaluma, who spent last season in the G-League with the South Bay Lakers, is with the Lakers for the Summer League:

Max Abmas is with the Utah Jazz (he's spent the last two seasons with the Salt Lake City G-League team):

Tramon Mark (and one-time Longhorn Devin Askew) is on the Suns initial roster for the Summer League.

That Baseball America dropped new portal rankings today. 🤘