Texas Football: 5 important transfer portal targets for March

3) Important Texas football portal targets in March

One of the most talented and highly coveted defensive players in the transfer portal at the moment that plays along the front seven is the former USC Trojans sizable 6-foot-2 and 250 pound junior inside linebacker Palaie Gaoteote IV. This fourth-year former highly touted five-star recruit was an integral part of USC’s 2018 recruiting class.

Coming out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, NV, during the 2018 cycle, Gaoteote was one of the most elite talents among linebackers especially. He ranked as the nation’s No. 15 2018 high school prospect, and the top overall inside linebacker and prospect out of Nevada (247Sports Composite). Gaoteote also ranks just outside of the top 300 247Sports prospects of all-time.

Moreover, Gaoteote wasn’t as crucial to the USC defense for head coach Clay Helton last season as he was in the prior two years. He only played in two games for the Trojans during the 2020 campaign. But he was at least productive in those two games for USC.

In bits and pieces of 17 games played during his three years with the Trojans, Gaoteote registered 105 combined tackles (51 solo and 54 assisted), 7.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks. His most productive season in particular came back during the 2018 campaign, when he was just a true freshman.

If Texas could get the form of Gaoteote that showed up in 2018, they would get an absolute steal out of the portal this offseason. In 2018, he registered 38 combined tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks.