Steve Sarkisian addresses Texas’ transfer portal needs

AUSTIN, Texas — With Early Signing Day complete and the Texas Longhorns inking 23 prospects in a 2026 class that ranks No. 8 in the 247Sports Composite rankings, head coach Steve Sarkisian has some increased clarity about the team’s needs when the single window for the NCAA transfer portal opens in January.

Those needs remain fluid to some extent as Sarkisian and his staff continue to pursue elite high school targets like No. 1 wide receiver Chris Henry, the Ohio State commit who reportedly received a large NIL offer from Texas in the wake of offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Brian Hartline taking the head coaching job at USF.

“There’s obviously some players that are still out there that are high-level players that we’re going to continue to recruit until they do sign,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t know necessarily that those are needs. Some of them could be depending if they hit, but for the most part it’s recruiting high-level, elite players and not settling.”

The actual needs, according to the Texas head coach, are areas that the Longhorns will try to address through the portal to find instant-impact players.

“Clearly we’ll have to address some things on the offensive line in the transfer portal,” Sarkisian said during his opening statement.

“Naturally it’s like, we’ll just go sign a bunch of high school offensive linemen. The reality of it is high school offensive linemen don’t always equate to helping you the very next year, so you have to leave room for the portal to make that happen.”

The extent of those portal needs along the offensive line aren’t yet clear, but could require a large group in a worst-case scenario.

“It’s not so much about the quantity of the players that we get out of the portal on the offensive line, I think it’s more about the quality of the players that we get out of the portal on the offensive line,” Sarkisian said.

With starting guards Cole Hutson and DJ Campbell exhausting their eligibility and redshirt junior interior linemen Connor Robertson and Neto Umeozulu both walking on Senior Day, Kyle Flood’s unit could see significant turnover on its interior even without considering the possibility that redshirt sophomore left tackle Trevor Goosby declares for the NFL Draft.

Given the lack of playing time for Umoezulu, he seems unlikely to return, with Roberton’s ultimate decision more in question, although the fact that he received recognition last week not indicative of his current thought process — Sarkisian always encourages his players to walk, even if they end up doing it twice.

“I just think they want their moment of shine,” Sarkisian said. “I would like to run out in DKR with 100,000 people cheering for me, too. So we’ll see what happens with Connor. We would love to have him back. We’ll see what that looks like for him.“

Other positions that the Horns could seek to address through the portal include Sarkisian’s expressed need for an interior defensive lineman and potential additions at running back, linebacker, and defensive back with the extent of those needs dependent in part on the outcomes of the exit meetings that Sarkisian conducts before the bowl game that will influence whether players declare for the NFL Draft or enter the portal to pursue opportunities elsewhere.

The lack of a more consistent game breaker at running back arguably makes that position a higher priority to address than Sarkisian was willing to admit on Wednesday with a strong possibility that one or more of the five scholarship players at the position decide to move on before the two signees enroll in January.

At inside linebacker, two of the six scholarship players will exhaust their eligibility, junior standout Anthony Hill Jr. is arguably the team’s most likely NFL Draft early entrant, and two of the three signees having some potential, leaving little program depth for the Longhorns with the numbers thin this season.

In the secondary, safety Michael Taaffe and cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau are the only assured departures amidst the potential that cornerback Manny Muhammad and safety Jelani McDonald could enter the draft with the odds higher for the former than the latter.

There’s young talent across the secondary in addition to older players like junior safety Derek Williams and junior cornerback Warren Roberson, neither of whom is in an ideal position to ascend to a starting role.

In an answer to a later question, Sarkisian admitted that with all three specialists exhausting their eligibility and the inability to evaluate the three freshmen signed to replace them during spring practice with the demise of the spring transfer window, the Longhorns could seek experienced replacements.

“I think we definitely could go to the portal,” Sarkisian said. “We do think all these guys have huge upside. They’re very gifted, very talented, but I do think one thing we learned this year is the value of having a veteran punter, a veteran kicker, a veteran long snapper.”

So in addition to the need to take multiple starting-quality offensive linemen, Texas needs more explosiveness at running back, improved depth at linebacker, an impact defensive back, and a place kicker with experience, at least from this perspective at this point in the process, as long snapper and, to a lesser extent, punter are both positions where younger players are more likely to contribute than at kicker.

Of course, the usual transfer portal caveats espoused by Sarkisian still apply to a young Texas team that went through what the Longhorns head coach termed expected growing pains this season that will produce benefits next year as Texas once again becomes a more veteran team — the emphasis remains on building through high school recruiting and only taking players from the portal who fit the team’s culture.

“Do they fit us? Do they fit us physically and the style which we want to play? Do they fit us culturally from a character standpoint? Sarkisian said. ”And that’s the homework that we need to do to get that done.”