I keep reading post after post on here about how the Texas staff didn’t utilize the transfer portal properly this spring/summer to improve the offensive line.
So, my question is this: Who could we have gotten from the portal that would have improved our OL that we didn’t try to get? Please don’t reply with, “They should have worked harder and found someone” or “anybody has to be better than who we have now.” That’s lazy. I really want to hear about specific examples. If there are guys out there that we legitimately could have added and we chose not to, I’ll join in with the crew that’s pissed about how we didn’t improve through the portal. But, as of now, I haven’t seen those examples.
There was a thread posted earlier today about some of the OL who were mentioned in The Athletic as being on the mid-season “all transfer” team. The following names came up in that thread:
- Grant Miller
- Obinna Eze
- Jahmir Johnson
- Jacob Gall
Miller and Gall are both starters at Baylor, Eze is a starter at TCU, and Johnson is a starter at Aggy. By most reports, all are playing well, so the question was why aren’t any of them Longhorns? What did our staff do wrong?
First, both Eze and Miller had announced their transfers on January 8…three days before Sark and Flood coached Alabama in the national title game. So, I’d say it makes perfect sense why we didn’t land them.
Next, Flood and Sark went after Jahmir Johnson and just got beat out by Aggy. In fact, here’s the specific quote from Ketch from the transfer portal thread back in February:
“I think Texas tried to get involved with Johnson (the new A&M commit from Tennessee), but these SEC dudes wither want to stay in the SEC or they want to sign with someone they can slide in with and play at playoff level football.
A&M and Texas both had depth charts to sell. Only one offered the promise of coming off a Top 5 season and into another season where they will be expected nationally to be in the same region.”
To me, that’s not a failure by the Texas staff, that’s just a product of the place we were in as a program back in February.
As for Jacob Gall, I honestly don’t know whether Texas pursued him. I looked back at the 41-page official “Transfer Portal” thread from the spring, and his transfer from Buffalo to Baylor wasn’t even mentioned.
In general, it feels like most people on this board don’t understand three critical things about the portal:
1. The portal isn’t a supermarket where our coaches can just stop off and pick up whichever player they want. Every other team in the country is trying to fill needs through the portal, as well, so we still have to recruit the player and get him to pick us over another school.
2. We don’t know with any level of certainty which offensive linemen our coaches did or didn’t go after. We have hints based on Twitter follows, but that’s about it.
3. The portal isn’t chalk full of bad ass talent. Outside of the coaching change / team turmoil exceptions, the portal is primarily made up of kids who aren’t getting playing time because they just weren’t good enough to play at their former schools.
So, please enlighten me. Who, by name, could Texas have picked up through the portal to start on the OL that they chose not to?
So, my question is this: Who could we have gotten from the portal that would have improved our OL that we didn’t try to get? Please don’t reply with, “They should have worked harder and found someone” or “anybody has to be better than who we have now.” That’s lazy. I really want to hear about specific examples. If there are guys out there that we legitimately could have added and we chose not to, I’ll join in with the crew that’s pissed about how we didn’t improve through the portal. But, as of now, I haven’t seen those examples.
There was a thread posted earlier today about some of the OL who were mentioned in The Athletic as being on the mid-season “all transfer” team. The following names came up in that thread:
- Grant Miller
- Obinna Eze
- Jahmir Johnson
- Jacob Gall
Miller and Gall are both starters at Baylor, Eze is a starter at TCU, and Johnson is a starter at Aggy. By most reports, all are playing well, so the question was why aren’t any of them Longhorns? What did our staff do wrong?
First, both Eze and Miller had announced their transfers on January 8…three days before Sark and Flood coached Alabama in the national title game. So, I’d say it makes perfect sense why we didn’t land them.
Next, Flood and Sark went after Jahmir Johnson and just got beat out by Aggy. In fact, here’s the specific quote from Ketch from the transfer portal thread back in February:
“I think Texas tried to get involved with Johnson (the new A&M commit from Tennessee), but these SEC dudes wither want to stay in the SEC or they want to sign with someone they can slide in with and play at playoff level football.
A&M and Texas both had depth charts to sell. Only one offered the promise of coming off a Top 5 season and into another season where they will be expected nationally to be in the same region.”
To me, that’s not a failure by the Texas staff, that’s just a product of the place we were in as a program back in February.
As for Jacob Gall, I honestly don’t know whether Texas pursued him. I looked back at the 41-page official “Transfer Portal” thread from the spring, and his transfer from Buffalo to Baylor wasn’t even mentioned.
In general, it feels like most people on this board don’t understand three critical things about the portal:
1. The portal isn’t a supermarket where our coaches can just stop off and pick up whichever player they want. Every other team in the country is trying to fill needs through the portal, as well, so we still have to recruit the player and get him to pick us over another school.
2. We don’t know with any level of certainty which offensive linemen our coaches did or didn’t go after. We have hints based on Twitter follows, but that’s about it.
3. The portal isn’t chalk full of bad ass talent. Outside of the coaching change / team turmoil exceptions, the portal is primarily made up of kids who aren’t getting playing time because they just weren’t good enough to play at their former schools.
So, please enlighten me. Who, by name, could Texas have picked up through the portal to start on the OL that they chose not to?
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