After spending the first three years of his college career as a Clemson Tiger, Andrew Mukuba transferred back home to play for the Texas Longhorns this season.

Now, the Austin, Texas native and senior safety is getting ready to face his old school and former teammates in just a matter of days.

Mukuba and the Longhorns will take on the Tigers in Saturday’s College Football Playoff first-round game at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin.

Ahead of the matchup, Mukuba has gotten texts from some Clemson players and caught up with some of his former teammates.

“When they found out, I got a couple,” Mukuba said on Monday. “They were kind of talking crazy, but those are my guys. I’m still kind of cool with some of them on the team. It’s good to kind of go through that with them because I was on the same side with them at one point. But yeah, it’s going to be exciting.”

Mukuba entered the transfer portal in December 2023, and this past August, he opened up about why he transferred away from Clemson and had some interesting things to say regarding his decision to leave the program.

“My time there at Clemson, I just felt like I wasn’t really getting better,” Mukuba said in an interview on the Behind The Facemask podcast. “I wasn’t being pushed enough to where I could reach my potential, my peak. I feel like the program wasn’t where it needed to be for me and the whole team to be successful. I feel like after (junior year), it was only right for me to transfer.”

While Mukuba believed he wasn’t reaching his ceiling as a player with the Tigers, his comments this week were in stark contrast to his earlier sentiments, as he had nothing but positive things to say about Dabo Swinney’s program, as well as his time in Tiger Town.

“My time at Clemson was some of the best times I’ve had in my life,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of fun at Clemson. I wouldn’t take that back for nothing.”

Mukuba was asked why he thinks Clemson has had so much success for more than a decade with Swinney at the helm.

“I would say just how Coach Swinney runs his program, what he values and what he’s all about and the kind of guys that he’s got inside the building. I feel like that’s kind of what gets the program running is the people that’s in the building,” Mukuba said.

“There’s nothing but good people inside the building, and I feel like that plays a big role in why Clemson has been so successful over the past decade.”

After joining Swinney’s program, Mukuba totaled 149 tackles (4.5 for loss), one sack, 20 pass breakups, two fumble recoveries and an interception over 35 games (31 starts) in his Clemson career from 2021-23.

Mukuba made an immediate impact for the Tigers in his first season, earning freshman All-American honors from nearly every outlet that year, in addition to being named the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year. He remained productive while starting 11 of the 12 games he played in for Clemson in 2022 and playing in 10 games (all starts) in 2023.

A former consensus four-star prospect from LBJ Early College High School, Mukuba had a unique recruitment, as he committed to Clemson without meeting the coaching staff in person due to COVID and wasn’t able to see the campus until he enrolled in January 2021.

Mukuba wanted to visit Clemson during the recruiting process but wasn’t allowed to because of the in-person recruiting restrictions implemented by the NCAA in response to the pandemic.

He was dubbed by Swinney as Clemson’s first “COVID commit.”

“On my end, that’s why I have a lot of respect for Coach Swinney and just Clemson, the program in general. Because they took a young kid from Austin, Texas, and I’ve never visited campus at all, never knew what campus looked like,” Mukuba said.

“My first day on campus when I moved in as a true freshman, and from the first day I moved in to when I left, those guys, they took care of me. They made sure I was good at all times, and they helped me come a long way and they brought me along, and I really appreciate them for that. That means a lot.”

Mukuba has enjoyed a successful return home to the Lone Star State, as the 6-foot, 190-pounder has collected 52 tackles (4.0 for loss), five pass breakups, a forced fumble and a career-high four interceptions for the Longhorns this season en route to third-team All-SEC honors.

Mukuba spoke about the dynamic of playing former Clemson teammates in Saturday’s CFP first-round showdown (4 p.m. ET, TNT/Max).

“At the end of the day, we’re all trying to win,” he said. “So at the end of the day, it’s all business, but after the game, we’re cool again.”

–Photo courtesy Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images