Report: Texas Longhorns in talks for home-and-home with Florida Gators

The Texas Longhorns could end up facing a familiar head coach in a future non-conference series, as there's a report that the Horns are discussing a home-and-home series with the Florida Gators:

Interesting ... sources inside Florida athletic dept. are telling us they are in talks with Texas for a home-and-home football series.

— SST Radio Show (@SSTRadio) July 24, 2014

The familiar face, of course, is Florida coach Will Muschamp, who was once the Texas defensive coordinator and head-coach-in-waiting.

But he may not be much longer for the Gainesville campus after a disastrous 2013 season and would have to survive several seasons if such a deal does end up taking place -- the Horns have their non-conference schedule set for each of the next three seasons.

So a match up against the Gators wouldn't be able to take place until 2018 unless another school pulls out of the scheduling agreements that are already in place.

Along with games again BYU and UCLA this season, Texas will also face Notre Dame and Cal in 2015 and 2016, then play Maryland and USC the next two seasons. In 2019 and 2020, the Horns will once again go head-to-head with the Fighting Irish and then have games scheduled against Ohio State in 2022 and 2023. Arkansas will come to Austin in 2021 to reprise the old SWC rivalry.

The Horns have been aggressive in scheduling premier non-conference opponents in part because of the weakened Big 12 -- with the grudge match against Oklahoma taking place in the Cotton Bowl every year, Texas has extra pressure to add home game that make the cost of season tickets worth the price of admission.

The tough non-conference schedule also helps ensure that Texas won't be missing out on any playoff berths with an undefeated or even one-loss season.

Adding Florida could ensure that Texas had two premier non-conference opponents on the schedule in at least two of the years from 2019 to 2023, as the 2018 schedule will probably add a non-Power 5 opponent to provide a winnable game with Maryland and USC the currently scheduled non-conference opponents.