Texas Football: Juwan Mitchell gives another big transfer portal loss

A loss to the NCAA Transfer Portal that the Texas football program could ill afford came from rising junior LB Juwan Mitchell.

The NCAA Transfer Portal strikes the depth of the Texas football program yet again. This time, Texas lost a key part of the 2019 recruiting class that made a big immediate impact, with former JUCO Transfer linebacker Juwan Mitchell. Last season, Mitchell was a key cog once the injuries started to pile up at linebacker for Texas.

The Texas Longhorns football program now has two sizable losses from the linebacker position to the transfer portal. Former three-star JUCO recruits and California native outside linebacker Caleb Johnson landed with head coach Chip Kelly and the UCLA Bruins after putting his name in the transfer portal last year.

Losing Mitchell and Johnson to the transfer could mark both JUCO linebacker signees from the 2019 recruiting class gone. The Longhorns are getting very thin at linebacker thanks to the transfer portal and the lower-body injury that sophomore linebacker Ayodele Adeoye needs surgery for. Adeoye will miss spring camp thanks to that injury.

The transfer portal losses are really starting to pile up on the defensive side of the ball for the Longhorns. For the more experienced players that aren’t stars on this defense, it’s not too hard to see why. A lot of the Longhorns coaching staff turned over after the 2019 regular season concluded.

Head coach Tom Herman let go of former Texas defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. In 2020, Orlando will take over as the next defensive coordinator under head coach Clay Helton with the USC Trojans. To take Orlando’s place with the Longhorns, former Rutgers head coach Chris Ash will be the next defensive coordinator in Austin.

However, hitting the transfer portal themselves might be a wise move for the Longhorns. They need help at a position that is dwindling down in depth. And the 2020 recruiting class doesn’t have much in the way of immediate impact players, or any JUCO transfers at linebacker.

Mitchell capped of his first and maybe only season on the Forty Acres with 37 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, and four pass deflections. He played in nine games and got a handful of key starts in Big 12 play, including against the rival Oklahoma Sooners and TCU Horned Frogs.