Former Texas football coach Duane Akina disputes reports of him returning to Longhorns

Former Texas assistant coach Duane Akina has disputed reports that he will join the Longhorns and head coach Steve Sarkisian as a defensive analyst.

The architect of Texas' DBU posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday that his current intentions are to remain with the Wildcats, and he disputed previous sourcing that led to the initial reports.

In the post, Akina says that any decision regarding his future will come from his account and that he's excited to "finish our job" at Arizona. On the Wildcats' side, head coach Jedd Fisch recently departed to take the empty position at Washington.

Akina was on Mack Brown's Texas staff from 2001 to 2013 but left after Charlie Strong was hired. He developed multiple NFL talents, including Rod Babers, Nathan Vasher, Cedric Griffin, Tarell Brown, Kenny Vaccaro and Pro Bowlers Michael Griffin and Earl Thomas. He also developed Thorpe Award winners Michael Huff and Aaron Ross.

Texas recently lost Bo Davis to LSU and Jeff Choate to Nevada. Choate's replacement has been found, Arizona's Johnny Nansen, but the Longhorns are still looking for a new defensive line coach.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Arizona assistant Duane Akina denies reported return to Texas football