Steve Sarkisian reveals Texas' plan for transfer portal

Texas rolled out the nation’s No. 4 ranked recruiting class on National Signing Day Wednesday according to On3 Consensus, comprising of 22 promising high school prospects. The Longhorns have also gotten two commitments out of transfer portal players as well, as head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke more about what direction the program will be going in regards to the portal.

“From a portal standpoint, we’ve taken two obviously with Gavin Holmes and with Ryan Sanborn, a punter and a corner. I could foresee us taking a potential of another three to four, we’ll see,” Sarkisian said.

Holmes has spent the last three seasons at Wake Forest, racking up 43 tackles, 13 pass breakups, and two interceptions in his career with the Demon Deacons. He was ranked the No. 29 overall player and the No. 3 cornerback in the transfer portal this offseason according to the On3 transfer portal rankings. He’s also joined in his commitment by Sanborn, who was a four-year starter at Stanford that will be immediately filling a position of need at punter following the the graduating of Daniel Trejo and Isaac Pearson entering the transfer portal.

Sarkisian and the Longhorns definitely haven’t been highly active in the transfer portal this offseason, but are going with a quality over quantity approach according to Sarkisian.

“I’m not just gonna cast a line and whatever bites on it we’re gonna keep it in the boat, we want to take quality players that fit a need for us that in my opinion are going to help us go win a championship,” Sarkisian said.

The emergence of the transfer portal has challenged college coaches and their roster management skills, as they all look to find an appropriate balance between signing high school and transfer portal prospects. This process can very quickly turn into a numbers game, but Sarkisian is not overly worried about achieving a certain figure when it comes to signing transfer portal talent.

“And it’s not about filling a number at this point, it’s about really recruiting quality people, quality players, so there’s not a set number that we’re looking for,” Sarkisian said. “It’s is it the right fit for the right need that we have in the program.”

There’s no question that the Longhorns have kicked off their off-season recruiting with a bang, and it will be intriguing to see what further moves, if any, they make out of the transfer portal.