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(Eric Nahlin) Texas Recruiting Strategy: Balancing Portal Spending and High School Talent for 2026

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We are about to reach a very important time in the college football calendar, but it’s important for 2026, not 2025. Given the modern CFB climate is heavily influenced by portal recruiting, a team’s championship chances can either be improved or diminished in the next couple of months. First up is high school recruiting. The thing is, you cannot disassociate high school from the portal because it’s all tied directly to the same roster. The more aggressive a school is in high school, the less aggressive it typically will be in the portal. Resources are finite, even at a school like Texas.

I felt Ohio State won last year’s national championship during this same period, when high school recruiting, portal imports and exports, and retention all converged. Ohio State crushed it in all facets. Texas lost this year’s national championship when it failed to properly address roster holes on offense. Though, this defense wasn’t likely to win a national championship either — but that stems from a different sort of miss on Sark’s part.

Texas Must Win the Portal — and It Won’t Be Cheap

Texas has to crush the portal this offseason by filling in the robust needs we’ve been talking about for weeks, if not months: O-line, RB, LB, S, CB, maybe WR, etc. However, going hard in the portal is costly, even if you’re not targeting the priciest positions like QB and Edge.

This brings up two major questions:

  1. Will Texas have the resources to do what’s necessary?
  2. Are the coaches properly allocating resources between high school and the portal?

Offensive Line Recruiting: The Spotlight Position

A popular topic right now is offensive line recruiting — and rightfully so given this season’s struggles. Fans want to feel confident the coaches are adding the right type of athletes to ensure long-term health at the position.

Essentially, fans want a reclamation similar to what Texas executed at defensive tackle, where coaches fixed both the short- and long-term outlook of the position by being aggressive in the portal and also spending in the high school ranks. Maybe they were too aggressive. It would have been nice to trade a D-tackle for a competent offensive guard. The coaches left no doubt at defensive tackle and continue to recruit very aggressively. They can leave no doubt at offensive line this season.

Evaluating the 2026 Offensive Line Class

Given the need for immediate help to protect Arch Manning in his final season, I like the current high school class, even with its questions. First, it’s not an overly expensive group. That matters because retaining Trevor Goosby and overhauling the interior won’t be cheap. Second, they’re taking at least three offensive tackles. Tackles are harder to find than guards, meaning you must make a concerted effort to land them. Elite tackles are expensive, but developmental guys are more budget-friendly. You want a mix — and there needs to be a mix in every class.

John Turntine

Turntine is highly rated as the No. 79 player in the country, but his weight loss adds volatility to his projection. He’s probably not even 270 pounds right now. As we reported, the Turntines were not as focused on NIL as many similarly rated recruits. That doesn’t mean he’s cheap, but it makes it easier to cover his costs while he adds the considerable weight he needs.

Max Wright and Kaden Scherer

These two are exactly what the doctor ordered: lower-cost, genuine-upside OTs. They’re similar to John Mills (UT decommit, signed with Washington) last cycle. The more of these guys you can properly evaluate, the better. But, you have to take numbers because they’re far from sure things.

Should Texas Add Brysten Martinez?

Should Texas even be trying to add Louisiana native and LSU commit Brysten Martinez? That depends entirely on their portal budget, not high school. Given how immediate the needs are, I’d probably prefer more focus on the portal than a costly high school addition.

The Derrek Cooper Question

A similar situation applies to Derrek Cooper. Cooper is a talented football athlete but probably not the most college-ready running back, especially if the offensive line is still a work in progress. James Simon is a more natural runner, and even he can’t crack the two-deep right now. Rivals recently dropped him to the No. 216 player in the country — they must share some of my reservations. I like him as a prospect and would love to see him develop on the roster, but not at the expense of landing a stud running back in the portal. That’s a must and it’s been obvious since the first game of the season.

2026: The Window to Win It All

The goal for next season should be to win the National Championship. “We don’t have money for the portal” is not a valid excuse if it was obvious they had money for high school recruiting. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is actually the right approach given the importance of a swift bounce back. Right now their actions—pushing for Brysten Martinez and Richard Anderson—tell us they have enough money to do what’s necessary in the portal. I’m not sure all of IT’s sources would agree with that, however.

 

Posted
5 hours ago, IDIOTsavant said:

Speaking of, I’d love it if he became assistant to the regional manager here….maybe replace Alina after the season.

If we just made the upgrade RIGHT NOW, would anyone know?

Posted

Cummings is a good looking athlete but he's too tall to be a LB who plays in space.  He's going to be an edge.  He might be redundant in the class, but it is an end of the class take and he's not chasing any of our higher rated players off.  We'll see.  Nice developmental prospect.    

Posted
1 hour ago, satyanash said:

(Eric Nahlin) Texas Recruiting Strategy: Balancing Portal Spending and High School Talent for 2026

 


That was a stupid article. yeah we need help in the portal but not at the expense of bringing in high school athletes. You have to be able to recruit quality linemen like Banks and not just look for them in the portal. And developmental guys are fine: wright and Scherer should never see the field though: they just aren’t athletic enough. Developmental guys are like the 2nd LSU line commit from MS, Tyreek Jemison from Georgia, Samuel Roseborough from Texas. 
 

and what the fuck is he saying about Cooper, that we don’t want him? That’s just dumb. 

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