Prodigal Son Returns

UT hero Vince Young officially returning to the Forty Acres

Vince Young scoring winning touchdown in 2006 National Championship Game

With his football career finished, Vince Young returns to serve in an official role at the University of Texas at Austin.

Photo courtesy of 973espn.com

The University of Texas has announced that Vince Young is coming home. In a statement released on Thursday, August 14, UT officials confirmed that Young has been hired to work at the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. September 1 will be his first day on the job.

Young is the former Longhorns quarterback who led the team to the 2005 BCS National Championship. In his new role at UT, he will serve as a development officer for alumni relations and will help raise funds for DDCE in support of programs for first generation college students and students from low-income backgrounds.

"The position with DDCE is a great way to stay connected to the university and help make a difference in the lives of underserved kids across the state," Young said in a statement.

Young was involved with DDCE programs while he attended the university, including the Neighborhood Longhorns Program. He also completed his bachelor’s degree in applied learning and development in 2013.

After leading the Longhorns to glory at the 2006 Rose Bowl, Young was drafted third overall by the Tennessee Titans in 2006 and was named the 2006 NFL Rookie of the Year. In later seasons, however, he found himself moving from team to team and was eventually released from the Cleveland Browns in May 2014.

Young has also dealt with severe financial problems and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last January. (He later asked the judge to dismiss the petition after he settled his debts.) Young has been in discussions with university officials about his new position since this spring, and the Austin American-Statesman is reporting that he will be paid $100,000 annually.

“Vince Young brought a national championship to Texas, returned to the Forty Acres to earn his degree and will now help other students reach their goals and change the world,” said UT President Bill Powers in an online statement.

Young’s former coach, ESPN and ABC analyst Mack Brown, tweeted his own reaction to Young’s hire.

I'm excited VY will be back @ work @ Texas!

— Mack Brown (@ESPN_CoachMack) August 14, 2014

unspecified

better luck next year

Austin drops out of top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Tracy Vu on Unsplash

Austin needs to put in some major work to improve its ranking for the 2026 report.

In a surprising turn for the city, Austin is no longer considered one the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Austin the 53rd best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Austin took a 10-place tumble after previously ranking as No. 43 for two consecutive years, starting in 2022.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Austin in the top 15 – when explaining the Texas Capital's successes. The report praised Austin's "progressive spirit," economic prosperity, and the award-winning University of Texas at Austin.

"Austin continues to position itself as a hub of innovation and talent," the report's author wrote. "Over the past decade, the Austin area has become a magnet for major corporations, with Tesla recently establishing headquarters here to join long-standing players like Whole Foods and Dell."

However, Resonance attribute's Austin's dip in the rankings due to rising office vacancy rates and high housing prices.

"The office vacancy rate is climbing as remote work continues to impact the demand for commercial spaces," the report said. "Moreover, housing remains among the least affordable in the U.S., despite home prices having dropped 18 percent from the pandemic highs seen in mid-2022, the most among the 50 largest U.S. metro areas according to Redfin."

Elsewhere in Texas, both Houston and Dallas made major rebounds on the World's Best Cities list for 2025 from the previous year's rankings. Houston had plummeted into No. 66 in 2023, but has now skyrocketed back into the top 50 to claim the No. 40 spot. Meanwhile, Dallas moved up from No. 73 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).

austin reports city life