Playing LSU, Bama, FL, SC, and GA I thought UT's schedule was difficult enough, without needing to add Cal and AF. Granted Cal probably wasn't expected to be that good, when they were scheduled to play UT a few years earlier.
Air Force came at a bad time after the big win at CAL and before the even bigger game at FL. Seeing players getting injured in the game, just reinforces that. I will restate that I would rather see UT schedule a couple of cupcakes and go into the Florida game at full strength instead of losing a couple of important players to injuries before going into arguably the biggest game of the year.