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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Pining For IOLs Who Can Fog A Mirror

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20 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I'm amused reading this thread right now. I told you guys less than a month ago that Texas was going to see somewhere between 20-25 guys enter the portal. I said they'd try to reload and add something near that range through it as well. A lot of pushback was made on the 25 exits as way too high. Now it might be too low by 5-8. I should go visit the roster thread on the football forum for similar humor. @Wulaw Horn was at least one, I believe, who thought the numbers were off. Maybe I am misremembering but it was at least a few of the regulars.

You guys need to embrace all of this. We are witnessing the ground shifting underneath the entire industry's feet in real time. It's extremely rare to be able to live within this kind of chaos as groups rationalize and process and react. I enjoyed being in the middle of the dawn of NIL and predicting its future while most poo-poo'd or sat idly by and we benefitted from embracing it at the time. I feel like this is a new reset, and it's awesome watching all of the blue bloods shit themselves and industry pundits and coaches trying to process it all.

One thing that seems certain now, and I didn't even consider this 2 weeks ago, is that the rules for recruiting have changed fundamentally. The guys that will get money will be the guys viewed as truly "can't miss" and even that is going to be tempered compared to the past 4 cycles. Then there will be work done regarding plenty of guys that can't demand any money, but could be developed into talent. I did discuss this about the last 6+ guys added to the 2026 class. They didn't cost anything. I guess a new takeaway with those guys is that, when some of them do start to really develop and fight for PT, staffs are going to have to be really careful about playing them.

Beyond that, there's not a lot of room in between. Ffrench got paid $500k+ to come in and disappoint from day one. That is money lit on fire. He's one of many. If you sign guys for that, you'd better fucking play them. I think we're going to see a lot of Bishop, Atkinson and Cooper this fall, for better and worse.

When the portal guarantees a reopening of any player's recruitment, the management focus and vast majority of dollars will be concentrated there every cycle. Some bad ass recruit wants $1M? Let him go to Tech or Oregon and either develop or don't. If he does, compete for him when he's ready to play. Rinse and repeat.

This also blows up any semblance of the bag game. Agents are taking care of that as they try to bleed every team for every last cent.

I also enjoy being correct about everything

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22 minutes ago, Js1 said:

I look at someone like Wisner asking for an insane amount from Texas and then taking only 60% of it to go play at FSU instead of Texas.

Throwing away relationships and good will and fans who loved you because you got greedy and then you went on the market and nobody wanted to pay you what you wanted.

And now basically Longhorn fans think he's an asshole and hate him.

I don't hate him or anyone that left. 99% of Americans think they are underpaid. Some people just need to learn that the grass isn't always greener and that chasing the last dollar isn't always worth the aggravation.

28 minutes ago, Foosters said:

Come now. You've never expressed a modicum of anything resembling joy in the years you've posted about Texas football.

You're one of our resident Eeyores

I don’t even know who you are but ok :)

22 minutes ago, Ricky Butler said:

A&M actually needs him more because they don't have a real OC, and Marcel Reed can just yell "Kobe!" and blindly chuck the ball 40 20 yards downfield.

FIFY

Perhaps a solution for reducing volatility may be something like stock options tacked on to a pay agreement. They'd have real value if you stay (vest) for multiple years giving the original team a leg up on anyone looking to poach from them. If you leave early, the stock doesn't change hands and thus doesn't cost the school/collective a dime. If you stay and they vest, the school got some value from the stability it created. And we can still fire them if they suck. This isn't going to close the gap when the offers a vastly apart, but if offers are in the same ballpark the original school has some leverage.

Edited by Lurch

Sark is probably regretting being so hardline about his "if you enter the portal, you're gone" policy. It's a player's market for the foreseeable future.

I'm guessing Zion was a Muschamp priority? Trying to read the tea leaves with what style of defense we are moving towards.

1 minute ago, chainsaw said:

Sark is probably regretting being so hardline about his "if you enter the portal, you're gone" policy. It's a player's market for the foreseeable future.

Didnt we recently see an example of this being walked back?

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Just now, chainsaw said:

Sark is probably regretting being so hardline about his "if you enter the portal, you're gone" policy. It's a player's market for the foreseeable future.

Good point, it’s been a full 24 hours since he’s shown he is not at all hardline about this policy

1 minute ago, Lurch said:

Perhaps a solution for reducing volatility may be something like stock options tacked on to a pay agreement. They'd have real value if you stay (vest) for multiple years giving the original team a leg up on anyone looking to poach from them. If you leave early, the stock doesn't change hands and thus doesn't cost the school/collective a dime. If you stay and they vest, the school got some value from the stability it created. And we can still fire them if they suck. This isn't going to close the gap when the offers a vastly apart, but if offers are in the same ballpark the original school has some leverage.

Stock options in the team. Texas can be publically traded. Issue stock we can have a day at the BOD. Let’s make it so. Dividends can be donated if we ant

Just now, Lurch said:

Didnt we recently see an example of this being walked back?

Derek Williams

And trying to keep Bo Barnes

So yeah

2 minutes ago, JBJ said:

I'm guessing Zion was a Muschamp priority? Trying to read the tea leaves with what style of defense we are moving towards.

Yes, developmental piece for nose per OTF.

1 minute ago, TexasEx said:

Yes, developmental piece for nose per OTF.

We have Sharma?

31 minutes ago, Js1 said:

I look at someone like Wisner asking for an insane amount from Texas and then taking only 60% of it to go play at FSU instead of Texas.

Throwing away relationships and good will and fans who loved you because you got greedy and then you went on the market and nobody wanted to pay you what you wanted.

And now basically Longhorn fans think he's an asshole and hate him.

18 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

He may not want to leave his area of the country, but it's obvious that he has real representation and they know what they're doing. He's played it perfectly, including having his eyes opened by Cody Campbell's absurdity and how it resets the market for his services.

I don't hate Wisner. I feel bad for the guy, and I liked him as a player. I think he got fucked by a bad agent, and some hurt feelings.

Now, Parker Livingstone can get fucked. I hope we break multiple bones in his body next season and he finishes the rest of his life as a cripple working at a roadside gator farm, as was intended.

Wisner was definitely one of the players I was thinking of when I was bemoaning bad agents. That's too bad, he was a decent floor setter in the RB room and we absolutely offered him fair market value.

Williams feels like the perfect take because we let LSU pay for one year of development and are likely getting him cheaper.

Good job backfilling the DT room after losing Wells and Cleveland last month.

59 minutes ago, texifornia said:

Based on what my BYU fan friends say, the Polynesian players go to church service, but they usually live off campus and party and have sex like normal college kids, but know to be careful about not being too obvious about it.

that off campus building foundation must be a feat of engineering to handle these yokozunas from shaking the building

It seems evident to me that there is no such thing as developmental players anymore. Especially ones that you pay to transfer.

1 minute ago, Texasborn91 said:

We have Sharma?

Yeah, so it will be the transfer Geffrard, then Sharma and Zion. They said Muschamp will run some 3 man fronts with a big nose and two edges.

5 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Derek Williams

And trying to keep Bo Barnes

So yeah

It was a dumb policy, but I don't think either one actually entered the portal.

6 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Didnt we recently see an example of this being walked back?

5 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Derek Williams

And trying to keep Bo Barnes

So yeah

I'm not sure the official thing has been walked back, not that it matters. I think there's a big difference between tweets of people saying "I intend to enter the transfer portal" and then negotiating with the team, and then either changing your mind or jumping into the portal. I think a lot of what is happening is the former. Still, it's semantics.

8 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Sark is probably regretting being so hardline about his "if you enter the portal, you're gone" policy. It's a player's market for the foreseeable future.

He made that comment 3 years ago.

I don't know if you've noticed but college football has changed just a tad since then.

2 minutes ago, Texasborn91 said:

We have Sharma?

Have you been asleep for the last week?

We have Sharma until we don't. Remember Sark had to pry him away from Oregon at the last minute.

All players, even the signed ones, are up for grabs.

I wouldn't scoff at the Zion take at NT.

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3 minutes ago, texifornia said:

.

20260108_155752.jpg

"Texas decided to go all in."

I'm not sure what to tell all of you pants pissers at this point, but it should be evident to you when you're being trolled by Billy Liucci. Do better.

16 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

The premium is now on evaluation, not development. Indiana is an evaluation poster child. You need top shelf money for a few beasts and a QB, but then you need to spend the rest of the money not on name guys who are still developing and will leave, but on solid veterans who will give you consistency.

Which is why I lost my shit on how we had a lineman come to visit and then realized he wasn't to our liking measurement wise. I get that programs and kids can lie. I also believe if you do your homework well enough, you can figure shit like that out. If the premium is on scouting/evaluation, we are failing as a high resource school. Heavily. Not just on whether a player wants to leave/jump in the portal - but on basics like size. Then developing our recruiting strategy in a year where we have Manning and are "going all in" and to do so at a position of need on a player that we are concerned doesn't meet the measurables. It still blows my mind.

I am sure when we circle back to the next wave and overpay for whoever is still on the board it will be a significant improvement over our interior OL play the first six games. But that is not a high benchmark obviously.

3 minutes ago, texifornia said:

.

20260108_155752.jpg

Looch hated typing every letter of that.

1 minute ago, UDontKnow said:

Have you been asleep for the last week?

We have Sharma until we don't. Remember Sark had to pry him away from Oregon at the last minute.

All players, even the signed ones, are up for grabs.

I wouldn't scoff at the Zion take at NT.

Sharma is going to play big minutes next year.

  • Popular Post
43 minutes ago, UncleSonny said:

Reads like he’s conceding that the Aggies won’t get him and expects Tech so he’s trying to frame it as specifically an L for us.

Rumor is that Cam Coleman got food poisoning from his steak in Lubbock last night

3 minutes ago, Texasborn91 said:

We have Shawarma?

This guys interests have been peaked image.jpeg

4 hours ago, tokamak said:

Thursday morning reset:

  • RB - Raleek Brown is in. Retained James Simon. Rumors that Clark upped his ask and we are holding firm. Probably need a between-the-tackles guy to pair with Brown, ESPECIALLY if Clark bails. Not many names out publicly.

  • WR - Waiting on Coleman. Supposedly we are not the highest $$ bidder. Most people fading Texas's chances at the moment. Also had contact with Tre Richardson from Vanderbilt. Georgia fans threw a tantrum when we got involved but nothing seems imminent. Smoke has started up regarding Kaliq Lockett and Daylan McCutcheon.

  • TE - Got the Michigan State guy, lost Jordan Washington. No other smoke at this position, hopefully/probably done.

  • OL - Jesus, who the fuck knows? Review the last 40 pages of this thread for more details. Michigan guys are out, Wisconsin guy is out. One $9.95er this morning implied that the guy from NC State might not be a "culture fit". There was a little talk in previous days that we're waiting on a guy still playing for Ole Miss, but...c'mon. I'm not aware of other names or visits right now.

  • DL - Got Geffrard. Visits from Zion Williams from LSU and the Miami guy whose name I can't remember right now, who both seem like good options.

  • DE - Missed out on Woods from Florida. Oklahoma State guy visiting today.

  • LB - Missed out on the Wisconsin dude (did you hear he broke his arm in a game?) to tOSU. Cal guy is visiting. Some smoke that we are trying to retain Barnes.

  • CB - Got Mascoe from Rutgers. Lost Kobe Black. Maybe done?

  • S - Retained Derek Williams.

Where are you seeing we lost Kobe Black? I don't see any articles saying he's gone

11 minutes ago, JBJ said:

I'm guessing Zion was a Muschamp priority? Trying to read the tea leaves with what style of defense we are moving towards.

I think you can tell with the 2 DL he brought in that he wants a big NT in the middle of the defense.

Just now, RGBIII said:

Rumor is that Cam Coleman got food poisoning from his steak in Lubbock last night

"maybe living in a 3rd world city is not a great idea"

Just now, SydneyCarton said:

"Texas decided to go all in."

I'm not sure what to tell all of you pants pissers at this point, but it should be evident to you when you're being trolled by Billy Liucci. Do better.

Should be obvious by the fact that he's reporting something on the Texas side that literally nobody on the Texas side is corroborating but whatever, this will be lost in a sea of ANY OLINEMEN?

Just now, Codaxx said:

I think you can tell with the 2 DL he brought in that he wants a big NT in the middle of the defense.

Yeah, that's where I was going. Our portal guys are built a bit different than Alex January.

27 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I'm amused reading this thread right now. I told you guys less than a month ago that Texas was going to see somewhere between 20-25 guys enter the portal. I said they'd try to reload and add something near that range through it as well. A lot of pushback was made on the 25 exits as way too high. Now it might be too low by 5-8. I should go visit the roster thread on the football forum for similar humor. @Wulaw Horn was at least one, I believe, who thought the numbers were off. Maybe I am misremembering but it was at least a few of the regulars.

I think what you said was "as high as 25" and I'm guilty as charged in doubting it--I would have gone further and said I was skeptical of any top 10, top 15 team that didn't lose/fire a head coach would lose 20-25 just out of institutional means along with mature NIL donor groups.

And you're right, we're watching a big business get re-made in real time. Lots of opportunity for a smart org to take advantage. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be us this cycle.

24 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I don't think graduate transfer get any special treatment any more. They're subject to the same portal window and everything that goes with it.

Bobby didn't say it outright (maybe a good question for the super chat!) but I don't think you can put any limitations on graduate transfers. Whether it's correct or not is secondary to my point (and yours) that roster construction isn't going to be the same where you hope to stack talent and replace from within and look to the portal for improvements on the margins or to replace attrition.

Edited by LCHorn

6 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Derek Williams

And trying to keep Bo Barnes

So yeah

The way the $9.95ers made it sound was that a Hail Mary was performed on both to keep them out of the portal, since they wouldn't be eligible to return, per Sark's rule. This just happens to be the first time we have players that we can't afford to loose enter the portal. After losing out on the Whisky LB, I wish they would have broke their rule on Lafua.

CHIEF

2 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Sharma is going to play big minutes next year.

This. Fatties are going to rotate pretty heavily.

13 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Sark is probably regretting being so hardline about his "if you enter the portal, you're gone" policy. It's a player's market for the foreseeable future.

Is it? You've seen the numbers on how many players are in the portal right? Another way to think of it...there aren't any more roster spots for 2026 than there were for 2025. There aren't 10 more P4 teams starting play next year.

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15 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Perhaps a solution for reducing volatility may be something like stock options tacked on to a pay agreement. They'd have real value if you stay (vest) for multiple years giving the original team a leg up on anyone looking to poach from them. If you leave early, the stock doesn't change hands and thus doesn't cost the school/collective a dime. If you stay and they vest, the school got some value from the stability it created. And we can still fire them if they suck. This isn't going to close the gap when the offers a vastly apart, but if offers are in the same ballpark the original school has some leverage.

What if we offered you some type of equity sharing/stock program? Would that do anything for you?

2 hours ago, Hiphopopotamos said:

I’m curious what the donors who contributed to get these guys on campus out of high school feel about watching them all just walk away. It’s wild.

Can't feel good.

HS players are going to start getting offered a ton less money across the board going forward. Unless they're Colin Simmons/Jeremiah Smith level. It makes no sense for any big program to sink so much money into freshmen who won't play except special teams then get pissed and bolt.

If they're going to keep this portal stuff as is I would like to see them make 1 change. Make it where the portal window is the final cut day for everyone. Meaning if you enter the portal you must be signed with a program by the portal end date or you're ineligible for the following season.

Just now, JBJ said:

Yeah, that's where I was going. Our portal guys are built a bit different than Alex January.

pair that with him looking for an edge with athleticism (4 years ago we called the OLBs). I think we will see some 5 man fronts (3 DL and 2 over hangs)

13 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Perhaps a solution for reducing volatility may be something like stock options tacked on to a pay agreement. They'd have real value if you stay (vest) for multiple years giving the original team a leg up on anyone looking to poach from them. If you leave early, the stock doesn't change hands and thus doesn't cost the school/collective a dime. If you stay and they vest, the school got some value from the stability it created. And we can still fire them if they suck. This isn't going to close the gap when the offers a vastly apart, but if offers are in the same ballpark the original school has some leverage.

I think the only way this is going to work long term is if they only allow one transfer that allows you to play immediately. The players are free to move as often as they want, but they have to sit out a year for every subsequent transfer.

2 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

Rumor is that Cam Coleman got food poisoning from his steak in Lubbock last night

That's because Lubbock doesn't have the quality of beef the Austin area cattle ranches are known for.

The days of celebrating #1 recruiting classes are over, seemingly for good reason.

Edited by pacman

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