Texas Longhorns shut out of NFL Draft for first time since 1937

In what felt like one more capping low moment in the demise of the Mack Brown era, the Texas Longhorns were shut out of the 2014 NFL Draft, failing to have a player selected for the first time since 1937, the longest such streak in the country.

Among the 256 picks in the draft, there was the first openly gay player to ever be selected (good for Michael Sam and the gay community), players from schools like McGill in Canada, Marist, Savannah State, South Dakota, and Georgia Southern were picked, and NFL teams called the names of one punter and two place-kickers. Besides the player from McGill, three other Canadians were drafted.

But no players from Texas, as NFL Draft Twitter and ESPN were wont point to point out at every opportunity throughout Saturday afternoon.

Entering the final round, only Kansas, Northwestern, and Wake Forest stood as schools that did not have a player selected to that point. And even lowly Wake Forest had 5'9 receiver Michael Campanaro picked early in the seventh round.

The ignominious feat was made even more pronounced by the fact that defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat was the Hendicks Award winner and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. In the 12-year history of the Hendricks award, only three winners went lower than the fourth round -- Elvis Dumervil went in the fourth round in 2006 and Lamarr Woodley went in the second round in 2007, as well as Da'Quan Bowers in 2011.

In that respect, the fact Jeffcoat dropped entirely out of the draft was unprecedented.

Ranked as the No. 9 defensive end overall by ESPN and the No. 127 prospect overall by SB Nation's Dan Kadar, Jeffcoat was not among the 22 players at the position picked in the draft. Even the Cowboys, the team that received such dominant play from his father, passed on Jeffcoat with every one of their five seventh-round picks. Jerry Jones and his franchise took Stanford defensive end Ben Gardner with the first of those picks.

In the end, the injury history of Jeffcoat, his lack of overall strength, and lack of a defining pass-rushing move all probably hurt him significantly.

To a lesser extent, the fact that wide receiver Mike Davis (projected as a seventh-round pick by CBS Sports), cornerback Carrington Byndom (projected as a seventh-round pick by CBS Sports), and kicker Anthony Fera weren't selected was also a surprise, as all had attributes that made them candidates to come off the board.

Davis, however, was hampered by a stress fracture in his foot throughout the draft process that may have hurt his stock.

There is some hope for the future, though, if one wants to project the four Louisville players drafted in the top 75 as a positive for the program moving forward.

But what's the best way to deal with the disappointment of being shut out, again?

Oh yeah, it is what it is.