College Football’s Oldest Starting QB Graduated High School In 2012, Could Play Until He’s 30

College football's Week 0 and Week 1 have come and gone and Week 2 is set to get underway on Thursday night. Of the select group of teams who have played more than one game already is the North Texas Mean Green, who beat UTEP in Week 0 and lost at SMU on Saturday.

At the helm for the Mean Green is quarterback Austin Aune.

His Week 0 performance was impressive and he completed 16 passes for 236 yards and three touchdowns, without an interception. Aune led his team to its first win of the season and earned Conference USA Player Of The Week honors in the process.

Although North Texas' Week 1 matchup was not quite as successful, Aune continued to show off his strong arm. The Mustangs' defense was too much to overcome, however.

In addition to his on-field talent, he has one of the most unique stories in college football.

Austin Aune is the oldest starting quarterback on the FBS level

The North Texas quarterback graduated high school in 2012. Born on September 6, 1993, Aune turned 29 years old today.

Aune, who saw time for North Texas in each of the last three seasons, won the starting job outright during fall camp. It marks his fifth year at the collegiate level after beginning at Arkansas during the spring of 2018 and transferring to UNT before that fall.

Yes, you read that correctly. Aune graduated high school six years before he enrolled in college.

North Texas Mean Green quarterback Austin Aune is college football's oldest starting QB (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Prior to his time with the Razorbacks, the 6-foot-2, 221-pound Texas-native played six years of minor league baseball. Aune was a three-star quarterback prospect out of high school and committed to TCU, but chose to sign with the Yankees after being drafted in the second round of the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Austin Aune's decision to go pro in baseball was the more lucrative one, surely.

Despite his potential, Aune's baseball career never quite reached the point he may have hoped. He spent his last two years in the minor leagues at the High-A level with the Tampa Yankees. He batted just .154 in his final season and decided to hang it up after 2017.

Now, as someone who is at least six years older than most of his Mean Green teammates, Aune is only a junior. To put his age in perspective, North Texas has three true freshman wide receivers who graduated high school in 2022, ten years after their QB donned the cap-and-gown.

And to make things even crazier, Aune has another years of eligibility remaining after this season.

He took a redshirt year as a freshman and all collegiate athletes were granted a blanket waiver in 2020 due to COVID-19. So, technically, Aune could become the first 30-year-old starting quarterback in Division I football history if he plays until 2024. Wouldn't that be something?

With that being said, Aune does plan to pursue a career in the NFL after this season. Should that come to fruition, that would end his career at 29 years old.