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2023 Transfer Thread - Texas Capitalized, ATM Victimized


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Nahlin

 

But neither is roster management. 

Transfer portal recruiting is a year-long process compressed into six weeks, it’s not a year-long process compressed into half a week. That’s the key takeaway if you’re frustrated by lack of activity, as measured by offers, from the Texas staff. 

Offers are not a good way to measure activity. I assure you Texas coaches and staffers are hyper-focused on those in the portal while still waiting to see who else will enter. From here we’re likely to see a slow trickle of players throughout the 45-day window with the trickle increasing in volume as bowl games are played. After bowl games is when players return home before the spring semester and talk their situation over with parents, former coaches, mentors, etc.

I will admit to expecting a few more big names in the portal to this point, so I myself might have a minor sense of frustration over the lack of great options currently in the portal, but I’m also not naive to the fact Portal Kombat is taking place outside of the public eye. One national power, for example, is playing even more loose and fast with the rules than others to try and get players to jump into the portal. 

If you want to make the case Texas is being too slow with offers, Arizona wide receiver Dorian Singer is probably the best example at your disposal. He was productive and he makes plays outside of his expected catch radius. But looking at production and highlights does not equate to an evaluation, especially in the portal era where everything has to be evaluated, including why the player entered the portal in the first place.

Only using Singer as an example and not saying anything definitive of him: Is he leaving for NIL money? Is that his own decision or did a school put him up to it? If so, what school? Is he even truly on the open market or posturing with a destination already secured?

Singer seems an obvious take to me, but you still don’t short the evaluation process and there’s a lot more to evaluate than meets the eye.

Speaking of, we know of some potential surprises that await. If we know there are some potential surprises, that tells us there could be others we have no idea about. Those positions include WR, DB, DL, an Edge. But there could be more potential options than we currently know of at each position. 

For the most part, the best players on big boards across the country are not yet in the portal, and since we’re less than three days in, a school like Texas isn’t going to T-shirt cannon offers into the nosebleeds. Texas has needs to fill, but not like, e.g., Texas A&M, where a player like Tony Grimes who is a pass for Texas is a take for A&M. I can see the headlines now. 

Another thing to consider, if you’re Texas, would you even want your portal offers made public? Frankly I was surprised Wake Forest cornerback Gavin Holmes made his public. Texas can’t stop players from taking their new offer to Twitter, but it could and should encourage them to keep them private. If you don’t understand why, think on it for a couple of minutes. There are two potential valid reasons.

Texas is being selective and that requires patience. They’re not close to the point where a solid player like Oklahoma State linebacker Mason Cobb is in the crosshairs. 

People might be wise to recall the Isaiah Neyor recruitment. Neyor liked Texas but Texas moved on to Mario Williams before having to reverse course after Williams chose USC. UT was able to flip Neyor from UT-lite because the coaches knew they had latitude.

Trust the coaches, or don’t, but at least let it play out.

Texas is going to be much better for this 45-day bloc. Emphasis on length of time.

Cook

 

The transfer portal has only been fully open now for just over 48 hours. More and more players are bound to enter and join the almost 2200 from the FBS and FCS who are actively seeking a new place to play.

[Get FOUR MONTHS of Inside Texas Plus for $1!]

Even within that limited window, several transfer portal prospects who it would make sense for Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns to pursue have entered the database at positions of need like wide receiver, linebacker, EDGE, and defensive back.

Some are from the Power Five level, while others are from the Group of Five ranks. Plenty of transfer portal prospects could see Texas become a suitor, but here are six from the FBS that make the most sense.

Dorian Singer, WR, Arizona

This wouldn’t be the first time that a Longhorn coaching staff has interacted with Singer. Just before Sarkisian’s hire in January of 2021, the previous Texas staff under Tom Herman pursued the Phoenix (Ariz.) Pinnacle product. Other recruiting networks had a host of burnt orange predictions come in for the St. Paul, Minn. native, but the coaching switch took place and Singer ended up staying in the desert.

He burst onto the scene this year with his 1100+ yard season, and had six different games with 90 or more receiving yards. Sarkisian recently mentioned the need for Texas to shore up its third wide receiver spot. Adding the All-Pac-12 second-teamer to Brennan Marion’s room would easily accomplish that mission.

Gavin Holmes, DB, Wake Forest

During his redshirt freshman year in 2021, Holmes helped the Demon Deacons reach the ACC title game and win the Gator Bowl. The New Orleans (La.) Archbishop Rummel grad followed that up with a strong sophomore season.

Holmes had 23 tackles and nine pass breakups for Wake Forest in 2022. According to Pro Football Focus, receivers he covered were targeted 43 times. Only 20 of those targets were caught for 324 total yards against the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder.

To date, Holmes is the only transfer portal prospect to have been offered by Texas.

Ryan O’Keefe, WR, Central Florida

Coming out of Round Rock (Texas), O’Keefe had one P5 offer from Boston College. He went the G5 route and played at UCF, where in four years he had 184 catches for 2002 yards and 15 touchdowns, plus 39 carries for 496 yards and one score.

This past year for the Knights, O’Keefe caught 73 passes for 725 yards and five touchdowns while adding 23 carries for 222 yards. While he was 53 yards short of 1000 scrimmage yards this year, he eclipsed the mark in 2021 with 100 touches for 1086 yards and eight scores.

A speedster who ran a 10.5 in the 2019 UIL 6A State 100m finals to finish fourth behind Matthew Boling and former Longhorn Tyler Owens, O’Keefe will be one of the more sought-after receivers in the transfer portal.

Grant Dubose, WR, Charlotte

In the last two seasons with the 49ers, the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder has 126 catches for 1684 yards and 15 touchdowns. In 2022, he had 64 catches for 792 yards and nine scores playing alongside Charlotte’s leading receiver, Elijah Spencer.

Dubose had an overall offensive grade of 70.3 during the 2022 season, according to Pro Football Focus.

Stephen Herron Jr., EDGE, Stanford

Herron started all 12 games at EDGE for the Cardinal in 2022, adding to his six starts in the previous two seasons. He had 37 tackles including 6.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks along with two forced fumbles for the Cardinal. His most productive game was versus USC when he had five tackles including 1.5 TFL and 0.5 sacks.

Herron is listed at 6-foot-3, 237 pounds and would project to Buck in Longhorn defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski’s system. He had offers from all over the country as a recruit, including from Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, and Ohio State from in his region. The Longhorns also offered, but the class of 2019 prospect elected to head to The Farm instead.

Levani Damuni, LB, Stanford

Another 12-game starter at linebacker for Stanford, the 6-foot-2, 242-pounder from Providence (Utah) Ridgeline recorded 207 total tackles, 9.0 TFL, 3.0 sacks, two interceptions, two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery in this 31 game career.

During the 2022 season, Damuni was the leading tackler for the Cardinal with 76, which was 25 more than the second place finisher in Jonathan McGill. He also added 3.5 TFL, 1.0 sack, one interception, and two forced fumbles. Damuni was originally a member of Stanford’s class of 2017, but went on a two-year LDS mission in New Zealand.

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19 minutes ago, Spider2YBanana said:

I'm sure you're really plugged into Jake Smith, so we should all just listen to you. Maybe use those sausage sized fingers of yours to look it up instead of using them to wipe the inside of your pussy while navigating this board 24/7. But I'm sure you won't because you'll be proven wrong, just like you have been pluggedl into who will play, Coburn will never do anything, Blue will never be on our roster, and the list goes on about how many times you're wrong on this board. I'm sure there's really a safety just waiting to sign with Texas, but it has to be hush hush because....reasons. You're a syphilitic parasite. 

Counter Point: Yes, but he's our syphilitic parasite.

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9 minutes ago, Fumbles said:

Glad to see the excitement of the transfer portal has given way to unquenchable thirst and slap fights.  Boy, I sure hope we get some political talk in here next.  

With all due respect, my post were to try and swivel talk back to transfers and to divide the slap fights.

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1 hour ago, bad_teammate said:

Does anyone under 35 even know what a message board is?

How dare you, I've been a part of this community on 3 different iterations of this website since I was 22 years old and I'm 34 now. 

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2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

How dare you, I've been a part of this community on 3 different iterations of this website since I was 22 years old and I'm 34 now. 

ctj and I think Huck and others go back to before Hornfans and the old 360 days to Jerry Scarborough's fax service.

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3 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

I still have a 360 shirt from Halliburton. I’m not, however, under 35. 

In the days before cellphones and the internet on signing day a district judge would ask me to periodically call the Statesman’s 800 number for updates and pass notes to the bench 

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