Texas veteran offensive lineman enters transfer portal

Texas Longhorns junior offensive lineman Rafiti Ghirmai joined the growing ranks in the NCAA transfer portal on Monday. On3’s Matt Zenitz reported the news before Ghirmai posted his goodbye to Longhorn nation.

“My time at UT has been amazing with all the memories I’ve had with my brothers,” Ghirmai wrote. “I’ll always appreciate the people that helped me at this point from this university but all good things must come to an end. Always will be a Longhorn.”

My time at UT has been amazing with all the memories I’ve had with my brothers. I’ll always appreciate the people that helped me at this point from this university but all good things must come to an end. Always will be a Longhorn🤘🏾🤘🏾#HookEm pic.twitter.com/8s3U1YFhhv

— Rafiti Ghirmai (@RafitiGhirmai) December 6, 2021

Coming out of Wakeland High School in Frisco, Texas, in the 2018 signing class, Ghirmai was an On3 Consensus four-star prospect. He held offers from 34 Division-I programs. Texas recognized the 6-foot-5, 285-pound lineman during the Longhorns’ senior day ceremony.

Ghirmai will have two years of eligibility remaining for his next stop. Also, he’ll be immediately eligible since it is his first instance of transferring. He’s one of five NCAA transfer portal entrants from Steve Sarkisian’s squad since the end of the regular season.

Texas OL to get massive NIL payout

Horns with Heart, a nonprofit charity organization, will provide every scholarship offensive lineman at Texas with $50,000 annually. The money is part of a new NIL program, the latest in a series of launches by Longhorns supporters.

The program, appropriately named The Pancake Factory, will be the first of its kind. It will support a football position group for players to participate in charitable endeavors. It will begin August 1, 2022, with a total of $800,000 annually earmarked for the offensive line sponsorship.

Five months into the NIL era, boosters at most schools still are trying to navigate the patchwork of state and university regulations to figure out how they can financially support athletes.

“It is us and Oregon, and that should be how it is,” Rob Blair, one of six co-founders of Horns with Heart, told On3. “Getting out at the forefront of (NIL) is the biggest thing for us — making sure Texas is not getting left behind. Regardless of the product on the field, our support for the University of Texas goes well beyond wins and losses.”

Last week, a prominent group of Texas supporters and alums and a veteran sports marketer announced the Clark Field Collective, with an initial pledge of $10 million to be used toward compensating Longhorns athletes across all sports. And in September, Blair was one of two Texas supporters who announced the “Burnt Ends” program, which compensates every Texas tight end with four-figure monthly stipends in the nation’s first fully crowdsourced NIL program. 

On3’s Eric Prisbell contributed to this report.