What Texas football gets in ND transfer DE Ovie Oghoufo

The latest big addition out of the NCAA Transfer Portal for the Texas football program arrived on the night of Jan. 26. Newly hired head coach (and former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator/Broyles Award winner) Steve Sarkisian got a nice haul out of the transfer portal this week by landing a commitment from the former Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive end Ovie Oghoufo.

The commitment out of the transfer portal of Oghoufo to the Longhorns arrived via his Twitter timeline on Jan. 26. He is the most notable transfer to arrive for Sark and the Longhorns out of the portal on the defensive side of the ball so far this offseason.

It is nice to hear that Texas is getting an addition out of the portal on the defensive side of the ball, instead of losing talent off of the Forty Acres. Texas had a plethora of transfer losses on both sides of the ball of late, including running back Keaontay Ingram, safety Xavion Alford, quarterback Ja’Quinden Jackson, and cornerback Jalen Green, among others.

And very few players that the Longhorns saw enter the portal since the start of the 2020 season have returned to the Forty Acres. The change in coaching regimes, from now former head coach Tom Herman to Sark’s staff, is causing a lot of the roster turnover of late.

What Oghoufo can do for Texas football

But the addition of Oghoufo could provide some stability in an area where Texas is about to have a lot of roster turnover. The Texas pass rush could use a boost under the direction of recently hired defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski.

Oghoufo is a very talented defensive end that never got a huge chance to shine in the spotlight at Notre Dame. In three years playing for the Fighting Irish, Oghoufo played in bits and pieces of 17 games. He registered 33 career combined tackles, five tackles for loss, five sacks, four pass breakups, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.

And during the 2020 campaign individually, Oghoufo registered 13 combined tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, two pass breakups, and one fumble recovery, in eight games played.

Oghoufo also added a dozen career quarterback pressures, just two missed tackles, only one penalty called against him, nine stops, and didn’t give up any passing touchdowns in coverage. And he was called upon by Notre Dame to drop back into pass coverage on a number of occasions over the course of the last two years.

There is a connection that Oghoufo holds with the now former Notre Dame defensive backs coach (now set to hold a similar role with the Texas staff) Terry Joseph. While Joseph was not one of the key assistants that pursued Oghoufo during his recruitment out of high school, he was an integral part of getting him to come to the Forty Acres in the end.

Moreover, Oghoufo was a fairly underrated edge rusher coming out of Harrison High School in Farmington, MI, during the 2018 recruiting cycle. He ranked as the nation’s No. 545 2018 high school prospect, No. 35 outside linebacker, and No. 11 prospect out of Michigan (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranked him as the No. 37 outside linebacker and No. 12 prospect out of Michigan.

Texas has a number of options to fill their defensive end spots next year, but they had a good amount of losses from their squad that entered last season. The most notable losses at this spot of the defense included star junior linebacker Joseph Ossai and senior defensive end Ta’Quon Graham.

Under the direction of the now former fourth-year head coach Herman, the Longhorns finished up the 2020 season with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12). They managed to win five of their last six games, including one over the Colorado Buffaloes in the Alamo Bowl back on Dec. 29.