What Steve Sarkisian said about his latest portal additions

When the transfer portal opened on December 9, just five days after National Signing Day, it was clear that Texas football had some needs it had to attack.

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Even with preparation for the College Football Playoff, teams have been active in the portal and programs like No. 1 Oregon and No. 4 Arizona State have already taken in multiple transfers. But the only school in the Playoff field that has taken in more transfers than Texas’ three is Indiana with four. The Hoosiers added three Group of Five players and UCF’s kicker.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian‘s activity has been productive and targeted some of the biggest needs on the Longhorn roster. The first big get was Utah’s Jack Bouwmeester, an Australian punter who has earned Pac-12 first-team and Big-12 second-team honors since taking over as a punter for the Utes. Bouwmeester looks to be competition if not an upgrade over freshman Michael Kern, whose punting struggles have led to a severe decrease in production from the Texas special teams.

“He’s a guy who’s mastered a lot of the different punts,” Sarkisian said. “Averaging 45 yards per punt, but when you look at some of the specialty punts that he has the ability to do, pinning people inside the five, inside the 10 yard line, the hang time, we’re super excited to have him join the team.”

Bouwmeester punted 60 times in 2024, averaging 44.7 yards per punt with four touchbacks, 23 punts inside the 20, and 13 traveling 50 or more yards. His long on the year was 62 yards.

Bouwmeester should bring Texas’ future punting game back to where it was in 2023 when Ryan Sanborn was one of the best in the nation. But Texas’ future needs go past the special teams game. While the Longhorns succeeded in securing the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation for 2025, Sarkisian’s roster looking ahead was still a bit thin at certain positions. The offense was mostly complete, potentially lacking some depth at offensive tackle in anything, but Texas missed out on some important flips at defensive tackle and at linebacker.

On top of the lack of incoming depth at either position, Texas is losing a double digit number of linebackers and defensive tackles to the portal, the NFL Draft, or just graduation. This is why Sarkisian and his staff immediately jumped on the duo of Cole Brevard and Brad Spence. Brevard is a defensive lineman from Purdue and Spence is a linebacker from Arkansas.

“For Cole, as we know, with the attrition on the defensive line for us this year, with some guys that have transferred and the amount of seniors that we have on our defensive line, although I thought we did a great job in recruiting it out of the high school ranks, this is probably going to be another cycle when we talk about when you go into the portal,” Sarkisian said. “You go into it for positions of need from a depth perspective, and I think Cole provides that.”

Brevard brings over 1,000 snaps on the defensive line with him to Austin, and a 6-foot-3, 335-pound player to clog up the interior of the defense is exactly what Texas needed with the loss of players like second-team All-American Alfred Collins plus starter Vernon Broughton and second-stringer Bill Norton. For Purdue in 2024, Brevard notched 19 tackles with 5.5 for loss and 1.5 sacks. He started his career at Penn State before transferring to Purdue ahead of the 2022 season.

Spence, on the other hand, is a more unique athlete that Texas has had its eyes on for a while, and adds versatility to a defense that already has players like Anthony Hill Jr.

“Brad Spence is a guy that we actually recruited pretty extensively out of high school at Klein Forest, who was more of an edge player in high school,” Sarkisian said. “When he got to Arkansas, they played him off the ball some on regular downs, and then on third down, they used him as kind of a DPR and allowed him to rush. Had an excellent game against us, oddly enough.”

Spence was a bit too much of a tweener coming out of high school, too small to come off the edge in the SEC but not refined for the passing game that comes with being an off-ball linebacker. Spence has developed in his two seasons in Fayetteville. He tallied 54 tackles with 6.0 for loss plus 4.5 sacks, and a pass breakup. He is a key addition for the future of Texas defense, as he has two remaining years of eligibility. Dreams of Spence, Hills, Colin Simmons, and possibly Trey Moore attacking quarterbacks on third down will give Texas fans a great night of sleep.

Texas has already improved special teams and defense quickly in the portal, but the Longhorns still have work to do in the future. Texas needs more help at defensive tackle and could use more experience at a number of places. The offense has a lot of question marks heading into next season regarding the offensive line and pass-catching game.

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Sarkisian will remain active, and as the floodgates slowly open, so will the aggressiveness of Texas’ recruiting game to add to these three additions.