Texas football sees LB Byron Vaughns enter the transfer portal

Texas football redshirt sophomore 6-foot-4 and 225 pound outside linebacker and former three-star recruit Byron Vaughns is now in the portal.

Another addition to the NCAA Transfer Portal out of the Texas football program arrived over the weekend. The former under-the-radar three-star recruit and sophomore linebacker Byron Vaughns put his name in the transfer portal on Oct. 25. A report that Vaughns’ name is in the transfer portal came about via 247Sports on the evening of Oct. 25.

While it looked like Vaughns was starting to earn more of a significant role on the Longhorns defense down the stretch last season (playing in seven games as a freshman), he has not taken even more than a dozen snaps in 2020. Vaughns was on the field for eight snaps on defense late in the Longhorns season opening win back on Sep. 12 at home over the UTEP Miners.

He was on the field for eight snaps in the win over UTEP, by the dominant final score of 59-3, racking up no tackles and one quarterback hit/pressure. Last season, Vaughns registered 14 total tackles (10 solo and four assisted), and one forced fumble in the seven games he played in. His two biggest games last season came in the win over the Kansas Jayhawks (eight total tackles) and the loss to the TCU Horned Frogs (one solo tackle and one forced fumble).

Moreover, Vaughns also registered three missed tackles, five stops on third down, and allowed four receptions on five attempts for 32 receiving yards and one touchdown catch, last season. He didn’t have any penalties called against him in the last two years playing for Texas, and had two pressures on opposing quarterbacks.

The 6-foot-4 and 225 pound Vaughns is a product of Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth, TX. He was one of the more unheralded signees in the Longhorns 2018 recruiting class, as a three-star outside linebacker prospect.

Coming out of the Eastern Hills football program, Vaughns ranked as the nation’s No. 445 2018 high school prospect, No. 28 outside linebacker, and No. 64 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). Vaughns held offers from just over a dozen schools coming out of high school.

Some of the highlighting schools on Vaughns’ offer sheet included the Arkansas Razorbacks, Baylor Bears, Iowa State Cyclones, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Oklahoma Sooners, SMU Mustangs, Ole Miss Rebels, TCU, and Texas A&M Aggies.

Vaughns is the third player from the Longhorns roster heading into the 2020 season that is now in the transfer portal. One has returned (defensive end Myron Warren), and the most notable loss was former four-star and sophomore cornerback Kenyatta Watson II, who landed with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in his home state.