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Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian has been honest throughout the offseason about his confidence in this year’s team. Sarkisian and his staff have recruited at a high level for multiple years, and there is a boatload of talent on the 2025 roster. Is some of the talent unproven? Sure. However, that is why Sarkisian is focusing on development during spring football.
There are questions about the receiver room, but the staff believes Ryan Wingo and DeAndre Moore check all the boxes. There are questions about the offensive line, but Trevor Goosby and DJ Campbell will be the foundational blocks in that room this year. There are valid concerns about the running back room, and the staff is confident that they have guys in the room who can excel this season. There are valid concerns at the tight end position, but the staff loves Jordan Washington, and we’ve heard Spencer Shannon’s name mentioned multiple times during the spring.
Nonetheless, two things can be true:
1. Sarkisian does love the talent on the roster. He has high hopes for the guys he recruited. Christian Clark could emerge as a standout running back this season. Washington might be the future of the tight end room.
2. Texas is ready to attack the transfer portal like Buc-ee’s fans storming the jerky wall.
Get ready for Portal Wars.
"I mean, we really try to identify the portal to where we think there's a need, but yet also is the person we're bringing in an upgrade to maybe what we have, or can it supplement what we have at certain positions?" Sarkisian said this past week. "Naturally, there's a couple of positions depth-wise we're not where we need to be right now. So, we'll look at the portal that way. Our numbers are down at receiver right now. From a scholarship standpoint, our numbers are down on the defensive line from where our numbers really should be, and our numbers are really down at tight end.
"It's not a secret that we'll look to the portal, but I don't want to take a guy just for a number. If you're going to go into the portal, can he help that room play at even a higher level? We'll have to assess it. It's free agency, I like to say, but they have to opt into free agency. And so it's not like you can just say, hey, we need a defensive tackle, let's go get a really good one. If they're available, sure, we'll try to, but that doesn't mean that caliber of player will be available to us."
If those players are available, Texas will be ready.
The Longhorns were unwilling to attack the transfer portal in December the way it intends to when the second window opens on Thursday for a good reason.
Texas was in the midst of a playoff run in December, and the staff did not want to disrupt their team chemistry by signing several players. For example, the last thing they wanted was to sign an elite receiver and risk a player in that room checking out mentally. Even worse, lose a player they wanted to retain. The staff needed everyone on the same page to battle Clemson and Arizona State. They definitely did not want to face Ohio State shorthanded.
Now?
Game on.
Sarkisian was initially skeptical about the transfer portal a few years ago.
In the spring of 2023, Sarkisian was asked about his philosophy as relates to the transfer portal, and here was his reply:
“I think the portal has changed the landscape of what's going on in college football some,” Sarkisian said. “I still believe in building our program and building our roster from a foundational standpoint, from a freshman class, and building that up. That doesn't mean we don't use the portal. Where the portal comes into play for us is when we feel like we have specific needs at a position. It's not about a want. It's not about a luxury. It's about a need because, for whatever reason, we have a gap at that position. Maybe we had some other guys on our team transfer, maybe injuries occurred, maybe we missed the mark in recruiting and we have to fill that void.
“But ideally, I'd love to take high school kids and then build and develop them in our culture as a player and watch them grow. That doesn't mean we don't use the portal. But I would say if you looked at what we do in the transfer portal in comparison to maybe some other schools, our numbers aren't as high because we're trying to recruit the elite high school players and build a program that is sustainable long-term. I don't want to be a one-hit-wonder team. One year, we're really good and then take a step back. I want to build a program that can sustain for a long period of time. That doesn't mean we're not going to have gaps. We do monitor the portal. We do have people dedicated to that, so that when guys go in the portal we can evaluate them, and is it a need to fill for us on our roster.”
That was easy to say when you’re striking out on transfer portal additions such as Agiye Hall, Jahleel Billingsly, Isaiah Neyor (due to injury), and Tarique Milton.
However, that was before Adonai Mitchell transferred from Georgia to Texas in 2023 and emerged into an instant game-changer. Sarkisian realized he could have the best of both worlds – developing high school players and adding potential difference-makers at the same time.
That is why Texas acquired 12 players in the transfer portal last year – and the majority emerged into contributors:
Matthew Golden – WR
Silas Bolden - WR
Isaiah Bond - WR
Trey Moore – Edge
Jermayne Lole - DL
Bill Norton - DL
Tiaoalii Savea - DL
Andrew Mukuba – S
Jay'Vion Cole - CB
Amari Niblack - TE
Kendrick Blackshire - LB
Velton Gardner - RB
Mitchell emerged as a second-round NFL draft pick.
Golden could become the first receiver selected in this year’s draft.
You better believe Sarkisian is ready to go transfer portal shopping.
“When we started, there was no transfer portal. There was no NIL,” Sarkisian said during a Peach Bowl press conference. “And along this journey of four years, college football has changed a ton. And I think being adaptable to the times, I think for ASU, same thing, like adapting to what college football is now and not sitting around complaining about it. I've heard plenty of Coach Dillingham's comments about a lot of other coaches get up here and complain about what college football is about right now. And I think the two of us have been guys that have been on the forefront of here's the rules, let's maximize the opportunities that we have to enhance our roster, to enhance our level of play, to put the best team out there that we can.
“But, yeah, it's definitely a journey. Nobody likes to lose, especially in Austin.”
Funniest Things You Will See This Week
This sign language interpreter stayed focused
Every owner of a large dog can identify
The Rivals shoutout made me laugh (bad language alert)
Charles Barkley is consistent - and the women of San Antonio finally got their revenge (bad language alert)
Sports On A Dime
1. I do not sense the Longhorn staff is worried about losing any key players when the portal opens this week. The majority of standout players signed NIL deals after the regular season. The staff enters this week believing they have retained their key players.
2. The transfer portal window will be the first major test for Oklahoma general manager Jim Nagy. For those Longhorn observers who believe Oklahoma somehow obtained the upper hand in the general manager category, let’s see how many “diamonds in the rough” are obtained by Nagy in this transfer portal window.
3. Texas running back Quintrevion Wisner on the areas he needs to improve based on last season: “The thing I liked about last season, from a football standpoint, I felt like I ran the ball hard when it was needed, especially I took that like a chip on my shoulder, just to be a hard running back. And for this year, the thing I'm working on the most is just making safeties miss in the open field. A lot of my runs last year could have hit home, but I wasn't really comfortable in sticking off one foot and making a safety miss in the open field. That's definitely something I'm working on this season.”
4. Wisner on the impact of running backs coach Chad Scott: “It's amazing just for him to come in and step up from the place that Coach Choice left us at. Coach Choice was a great coach, great man. He poured a lot into us, and just to see Coach Scott come in and ‘kind of just sort of’ fill [those] shoes. He's his own person, own man. He coaches different from Choice, but he's definitely a great coach and a great man.”
5. If you were hoping to get an in-person glimpse of the Texas Longhorns football team, the regular season is a few months away. We knew Texas would not have a spring game, but Longhorn fans and observers will need to wait until the fall to watch this team perform.
6. I asked a friend who is an assistant college football coach – not at UT – if spring games are dead. He believes it is just a matter of time before a program takes the NCAA to court and programs conduct practices against other schools. He told me the NCAA prevented Colorado from practicing against Syracuse this year, but it is just a matter of time before a program sues and wins. In addition, he said being able to watch players against a different team in the spring will help coaches obtain a better understanding of the talent on their roster as opposed to waiting until the regular season.
7. ESPN recently listed the strengths and weaknesses of each quarterback in the upcoming NFL Draft. Here is ESPN’s analysis of Quinn Ewers:
Quinn Ewers, Texas Longhorns
Raw 2023–24 stats: 26 starts, 565-for-839 passing, 6,951 yards, 67% completion rate, 53 TDs, 18 INTs, 7% sack rate, 46% success rate, 7.4 yards per dropback, 58 non-sack rushes for 327 yards and 7 TDs
Total QBR rank (out of 65): 9th (76.8)
Why he might succeed:
He's polished. Ewers won 21 of his last 26 starts and led Texas to two College Football Playoff appearances. His Total QBR rating over the past two years was better than Sanders' or Shough's and nearly as good as Ward's. That Florida defense that vexed Dart? Ewers torched it for 333 yards and five touchdowns. He's willing to step up into the pocket, and he had the full faith of one of college football's best QB coaches, Steve Sarkisian.
Want evidence of that faith? Sark didn't call timeout before this absolute do-or-die beauty in the CFP quarterfinals.
In terms of stats and results, the No. 1 quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class lived up to a good portion of his hype.
Why he might fail:
Athleticism and key mistakes. If Sanders played on All-Madden level, you could say that Ewers did the opposite. Sarkisian's system is as good as any in college football at offering up eye candy and stealing free yards, as evidenced by the fact that 34.7% of Ewers' passes in 2023–24 were thrown at or behind the line of scrimmage (second most out of 65 QBs). Take those passes out of the sample and his numbers are merely decent: 59.7% completion rate (32nd), 2.9% interception rate (31st).
And while staying in the pocket is great — and easy to do when you're firing off so many quick passes to the sideline — Ewers offered less of a run threat than almost any quarterback in this sample. He scrambled downfield only 4.9% of the time (53rd), threw only 9.3% of his passes outside the pocket (62nd), and ran on a designed run 1.2% of the time (65th). Despite this, he turned 24.6% of pressures into sacks (57th). If the initial intent of a given play doesn't work, he's not buying time with his legs, and he's quite possibly getting sacked.
This was a particular issue in the red zone, where he averaged 0.0 yards per non-sack carry and 3.3 yards per dropback (46th), with a 2.3% interception rate (38th). Texas won big in 2024 despite ranking just 55th in red zone touchdown rate and 129th in turnovers. One has to be awfully concerned about Ewers' upside in this regard.
8. ICYMI
9. Tennessee stood up to Nico Iamaleava and showed him the door. I get both sides, and ESPN’s Ryan Clark had several reasonable points.
10. Enjoy this trip down memory lane
