Colt and Will

The talk of the tubes today has been about the futures of Colt McCoy and Will Muschamp, the first saying he will stay and the latter being rumored to possibly be done at UT at the end of the season. It's unpleasant to think or talk about, but what if both decide to move on to arguably greener pastures? 

Colt:

For the immediate future of the program, this one will hurt the most. It's no breaking news that Colt is playing at a level unseen in the history of college football, but an argument can also be made about his readiness for the big leagues. The last thing any of us want is our own Troy Smith. We as Longhorn fans may be very willing to quickly forget about his 18 interceptions and 22 touchdowns in 2007 (he already has 19 TD's this season), but the organizations looking to offer up millions of dollars will most certainly be more critical. Typically, the most oft cited physical qualities that make for a great NFL quarterback are the strength of his arm and his size. After a summer well spent in the weight room Colt is 6'3/~220 lbs, and is therefore ideally sized to play quarterback professionally. Although he has dispelled most or all of the speculation that his arm isn't strong enough to be far better than good in college, his arm strength is still about a 9 when he needs to be at 10 to be a first day pick in the draft. Leave at the end of this season, and he'll most likely go in the second or third round, stay another year and he'll have more money than Jay Z.

Muschamp:

The loss of our favorite defensive coordinator to the glamour of head coaching may not be felt immediately, but he is a commodity we will sorely miss when we are once again forced to rely on our smart play calling rather than raw talent. Fortunately for us, we have enough young nasty talent that we will be decent for a season or two without Will, but it won't last forever if we don't replace (is there a better DC anywhere?) him with similar coaching prowess. The list of suitors is long and distinguished, including Washington State, Clemson, and Tennessee. The absolute slap-in-the-dick worst case scenario would be if he was snagged by someone we have to play against on a regular basis, specifically Texas A&M. As much as I loathe to say it, compared to Texas they have similar pay grades, facilities, recruiting grounds, and fan base. Plus, I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that the Aggies are in desperate need of a shot of energy, mainlined straight into their program's figurative eyeball, and Sherman just isn't it. As much as I'd hate to see him go, I would hate nothing more than seeing him fall into the crucible of  irrelevancy that is Texas A&M. If you really really need to go Will, please for the love of everything good go to the SEC AFTER THE SEASON IS OVER. And if he goes it will be to the SEC, because if it isn't Kansas State or Texas A&M, it surely won't be some non-super conference. 

The Good News:

Colt has gone on record to say "I'm going to play here for four years," and my feeling is if he says it, he means it. It's the "I'm going to sit down with my family and talk about it" speak that you need to watch out for.

With Muschamp, the only good news I can really think of is that he's said before that he's planning on staying a while because his wife is "tired of moving." Hopefully she's tired enough to forgo $1 million+ a year.