Andrew Mukuba was born in Zimbabwe and lived there until he was 8 years old. He’d sleep on the floor with his six siblings in a house that went a week without electricity. 

Most days, the Mukuba children were alone in that house. Their parents were out trying to make money to support them in a country where the essentials most Americans take for granted are only obtained through struggle. The Mukubas only got that week’s water for drinking, cooking and bathing if they walked four miles through Zimbabwe’s capital city to wait in line for it.

When Mukuba moved to Austin, Texas, he soon realized the search for a better life didn’t stop with American citizenship. 

“What I really pictured was that we had finally made it; that we weren’t going to struggle anymore,” Mukuba told Dave Campbell’s TexasFootball in 2020. “But then when we got here, I realized the hustle was still the same. You had to go and find ways to make money, ways to provide for your family.”

And football was Mukuba’s way. It took him from a star in the state championship game for Austin LBJ to ACC Freshman of the Year at Clemson. This year, it brought him back to Austin, a free safety on the best defense in the nation. He’s coming off a season-high 11 tackles, a forced fumble and a pass breakup in the SEC Championship, his biggest stage to date. 

But the new biggest stage is this Saturday in the opening round of the College Football Playoff, when his new team, Texas, faces his old team, Clemson. Why did he come to Texas? Partially to return home so his mother didn’t have to catch two flights to watch him play. But also because he realized he wasn’t living up to a core value he learned in his first home, Zimbabwe, anymore.

“I felt like I wasn’t getting better,” Mukuba said on Alex Okafor’s ‘Behind the Facemask’ podcast. “I wasn’t being pushed enough where I could reach my potential and my peak.” 

He knew two guys who would help him do that - Jahdae Barron and Michael Taaffe.

He joined those two in high school for training sessions with former NFL cornerback Bernard “Bam” Blake. They were Austin’s Training Tour, the ‘512 Crew,’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, working out with Bam seven days a week, driving from Leander to Dripping Springs to Manor as they got kicked off empty fields for not being six feet apart.

Blake told DCTF this past September that he believed Mukuba was NFL-bound back then. Last week, he was asked why. Was it athleticism, speed, or ball skills? None of the above.

“It was something about Drew’s aura that kind of tells you where he’s going to end up,” Blake said.

He played with a chip on his shoulder yet never talked about himself, not opening up to the world yet understanding what he overcame.

“It’s very hard to get rattled once you realize what happens on the football field is nothing compared to what you went through in Zimbabwe,” Blake said.

When Barron won the Thorpe Award last week, he accepted the trophy on a video call with Taaffe and Mukuba behind him. They worked out every day when none of them were supposed to go to Texas. Barron was a Baylor commit. Mukuba was off to Clemson. Taaffe didn’t have a scholarship. It was only right they were by his side now like they were then.

“These are my brothers forever,” Barron wrote on X. “I wouldn’t even be here without them. We’ve been pushing each other for 10+ years, and this is our city.”

So Mukuba’s transfer to Texas is a homecoming story. But it’s also a story about surrounding himself with the people who reminded him what it takes to be great. Of the necessary struggle. Of Zimbabwe.