Andrew Mukuba is playing his best ball as he prepares to battle his former team

Few players are entering the College Football Playoff on a hotter streak than Texas safety Andrew Mukuba.

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The senior ballhawk has flown all over the field in Texas’ last two games against Texas A&M and Georgia, registering 10 tackles, five stops, two pass breakups. Mukuba allowed -2 receiving yards in coverage in both games.

The Austin native introduced himself to the national stage in overtime of last Saturday’s SEC Championship game, when his ginormous hit on Georgia backup quarterback Gunner Stockton knocked the scampering quarterback out of the game. If that sort of impact happened 100 times to a scrambling quarterback, you’d expect a fumble on 99 of them. Unfortunately for the Longhorns, Stockton held on, and what could’ve been an SEC Championship-winning hit turned into a Georgia score one play later.

Mukuba has a claim to the title of best safety in the College Football Playoff, even with his teammate Michael Taaffe, powerhouse performers like Ohio State’s Caleb Downs and Lathan Ransom, or players like Malaki Starks and Xavier Watts from Georgia and Notre Dame, both with the potential to be first-round picks in the upcoming draft. But with a matchup against Clemson to kick off the championship run for Texas, this game will be less about the talent Mukuba possesses, and more about the mentality he must enter with playing against his former team.

Mukuba was the No. 6 safety and a top-120 player in a loaded 2021 class for the Clemson Tigers. With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting the recruiting process, Mukuba took a chance on Clemson having never met head coach Dabo Swinney before coming arriving in Clemson for the ‘21 season.

“I love Mukuba,” Swinney said. “He was in a very unique situation. I never met Mukuba ever until the day he showed up on campus. That was all COVID and all that. Never was able to go see him, never was able to visit campus. He wanted to come to Clemson. I just loved his spirit and I loved his heart. He was just a really neat kid.”

Mukuba spent the first three years of his college life in western South Carolina, accumulating honors like a selection to the Freshman All-American team. Mukuba looked poised to follow in the footsteps of Isaiah Simmons, whose hybrid style got him drafted in the top 10 of the 2020 NFL Draft. 

“Andrew was a great player for us. He did everything that was asked of him. He worked his butt off here,” Swinney said. “Certainly wish he had been able to finish here, but he did everything that was asked of him at Clemson. He gave a lot to this program, made a bunch of big plays.”

Mukuba spent his sophomore and junior years in Clemson, but he never was able to find the consistency he possessed in that freshman year. Stardom never came to the young safety, and it always seemed like there was a new trait that held him back each year. In his sophomore year, Mukuba gave up 13 more catches and 341 more yards in coverage than in his freshman year on the same number of snaps. Even when that was fixed, Mukuba missed 17% of his tackles. 

However, a transition back home to Austin and a year of development with defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski has turned him into a monster. Mukuba joins Arizona State’s Xavion Alford as the only safeties left in the College Football Playoff who have given up fewer than 30 yards after the catch, a testament to Mukuba’s development as a tackler and in coverage. He’s the only player left competing for a national championship that has 10 combined PBUs and INTs, and his 27.3 passer rating allowed is by far the best still playing.

“Andrew Mukuba is a guy that we’re so glad and happy he decided to come home,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “He’s a veteran player, obviously, and I learned very quickly he’s an excellent practice player, because he’s got tremendous practice habits. The speed in which he practices, the tempo, the physicality, but yet have an understanding of not going to the ground when we’re not in tackle periods, but yet still putting himself in really good position striking people. He’s a really good communicator, and then he plays with confidence back there.”

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You can pick out of a hat which storyline you think is best when looking ahead to the Texas vs. Clemson matchup next Saturday: Mukuba versus his old team, Cade Klubnik coming back home, Quinn Ewers vs. Klubnik rematch, or even noting that this is the first time these two teams have ever played. Either way, Mukuba’s already shown he made the right decision to come back to Austin, now it’s time for the senior to show the world just how good he is.