This week I'm Scattershooting while thinking about two Texas running back duos that never were and what to expect when apparel companies start bidding to be the Longhorns' brand of choice.

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A hot topic of discussion among Longhorn fans has been what the athletic department will do once the school's current apparel contract with Nike expires next summer. Reports have Under Armour ready to pony up around $150 million over 10 years. While that number seems pretty far out there, it's not that crazy of a sum considering what other schools are getting from shoe companies.

Notre Dame's deal with Under Armour is a 10-year pact that athletic director Jack Swarbrick said is worth more than the $90 million. The Fighting Irish went with Under Armour instead of their long-time partners Adidas.

Winning the BCS title going into negotiations for a new Nike deal got Florida State paid. The Seminoles' new Nike contract is the biggest of all of the schools who rock the “swoosh” as Florida State will earn $4.4 million by the time the current athletic year is in the books.

The biggest apparel contract on record is the $8.2 million Michigan receives annually from Adidas. When the Wolverines opted to go with Adidas and not renew with Nike in 2007, the brand promised to make the maize and blue a top priority when it came to marketing.

Last summer in a press release from the Collegiate Licensing Company, the Wolverines ranked third among the top-selling institutions for the 2013-14 athletic year behind only No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Alabama. Florida State's BCS title moved the Seminoles from 21st the previous year to eighth, while Notre Dame came in fourth.

Both Texas and Michigan have expiring apparel contracts next summer, along with Under Armour mainstay Auburn, which ranked No. 11 in sales according to the CLC last year. While the Michigan brand is big, Texas is still the top dog.

Steve Patterson has already shown he's willing to go against the grain when it comes to expanding the Texas brand from an apparel/marketing standpoint, so Texas having a new apparel partner in 2016 is a real possibility.

Something to consider is what Patterson does with the current radio broadcast rights contract that's on the table. IMG College, Texas' multimedia rights partner, and the Longhorns could go with iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel communications), which offers the 98.1 KVET FM signal as a blowtorch to be the flagship station, or Patterson could accept an offer from a company that lacks the signal strength but could be willing to pay more.

The radio rights contract won't net near as much as the apparel deal will -- it's in the high six-figures from what people familiar with past negotiations have told me. But the direction of the negotiations will give a glimpse into whether Patterson is really serious about expanding the brand and doing what's best for Texas from a marketing standpoint, or, at the end of the day, if it's all about the money.

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It was great to see Priest Holmes walk across the stage to receive his degree from Texas recently after having last played for the Longhorns in 1996. Holmes retired from the NFL in 2007 after setting numerous records with Kansas City Chiefs, but Longhorn fans fondly remember the former San Antonio Marshall star as someone who played big in big games.

Holmes' four touchdowns in a 1994 Sun Bowl victory over North Carolina are tied for the most in Texas bowl history -- Vince Young scored four in the 2005 Rose Bowl win over Michigan. Also, Holmes' 120 yards on 9 carries with 3 touchdowns helped the Longhorns upset Nebraska to win the inaugural Big 12 championship.

But Holmes' time at Texas gets romanticized to the extent that fans marvel at how the Longhorns were able to get enough carries for Holmes, Ricky Williams and [b]Shon Mitchell[/b] in the same backfield.

But simply, Holmes wasn’t always in the lineup.

When Mitchell and Williams arrived on the Forty Acres together in 1995, Holmes missed that season with a knee injury. Mitchell and Williams shared the spotlight during Texas' run to the final Southwest Conference title that year -- Mitchell rushed for 1,099 yards while Williams gained 990, both averaging more than 6 yards per carry.

That made 1996 the only season the trio played together. Of the 487 official rushes by the Longhorns that season (bowl game statistics were not included in season totals at this time), Williams got 205 carries (1,272 yards, 12 touchdowns), Mitchell recorded 117 totes (625 yards, 4 touchdowns), while Holmes (59 carries) rushed for 324 yards and scored a team-high 13 touchdowns.

Holmes never started a game that season. Mitchell recorded eight starts at running back while Williams started all 13 games at fullback.

Only against Oklahoma State (156 for Williams, 117 for Mitchell) and Texas Tech (150 for Mitchell, 143 for Williams) did any of the two rush for 100 yards or more in the same game. Holmes' only 100-yard performance was against Nebraska in the conference title game.

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It remains to be seen what becomes of Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray down the road. But like the Ricky-Priest-Shon backfield, the Brown-Gray tandem didn't produce the kind of results Longhorn fans expected from a pair of former five-star prospects splitting carries.

It sure looked everyone was going to see something special early in 2012 when Brown had his breakout performance against Ole Miss (21 carries, 128 yards, 2 touchdowns). In that same game, Gray rushed for 50 yards on 9 carries in mop-up duty, and the stage was set for a big season by the most talented backfield Longhorn fans had seen in a number of years.

It only lasted a week.

Brown injured his ankle the following game against Oklahoma State. That left Gray and Joe Bergeron to pick up the slack as Brown missed the next five games. Brown rushed for 79 yards more the remainder of the year.

The pair was at its best was in 2013 when Major Applewhite decided riding his two stud backs was the way the Longhorns had to win games. It worked well as Brown (120) and Gray (123) each went for more than 100 yards in an upset victory over Oklahoma.

Texas rode the Brown and Gray Express to a combined 212 carries for 902 yards (4.3 yards per rush) and 10 touchdowns during the Longhorns' six-game winning streak. The trip ended when Gray's Achilles tendon popped in the middle of a road win against West Virginia, forcing Brown to carry the load over the final four games (103 carries, 462 yards and a touchdown).

The best thing about the Brown-Gray backfield is when both runners were healthy, the Longhorns were capable of beating anybody -- Texas went 5-0 in 2013 when both backs rushed for 50 yards in a game. That's a good record, but there just weren't many chances for both backs to get that many carries during their first two seasons together.

Four times in 2014, behind a patchwork offensive line, did the two high school phenoms both reach 50 yards in the same game. Texas' record in those four contests was 3-1 with wins coming over North Texas, Texas Tech and West Virginia; the loss came to Baylor.

The games where both backs were productive together were few and far between. The more mind-blowing numbers actually come by looking at how little used they were at times.

In their time sharing carries at Texas, injuries and coaches decisions forced Brown to have 19 career games where he recorded fewer than 10 carries in a game -- eight of those were due to injury -- while Gray's tally is 16 games (four because of injury) where he failed to reach double digits in carries.