Texas Football: 5 WR targets in transfer portal to replace Jake Smith

Hal Presley, WR

An interesting name in the transfer portal at the wide receiver position at the moment is the former Auburn Tigers three-star signee and Mansfield Summit High School product Hal Presley. The Arlington, TX, native actually was a pretty big target for former head coach Tom Herman and second-year wide receivers coach Andre Coleman during the 2021 recruiting cycle.

But competing schools to land a commitment from the 6-foot-3 and 190-pound Presley wound up falling short to former head coach Gus Malzahn and the Tigers. Auburn didn’t keep the commitment of Presley around for long, though. It took less than five months from the passing of National Signing Day for him to put his name in the transfer portal.

Presley ranked as the nation’s No. 381 2021 high school prospect, No. 63 wide receiver, and No. 53 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranked him as the No. 51 wide receiver and No. 52 prospect out of Texas.

Landing Presley out of the portal could more fill an overall depth void that Texas has at wide receiver. The immediate impact he could make for this offense would be pretty limited.

Presley also would fill a role more of an outside receiver with good leaping ability and strong hands than a slot receiver like Smith or Lee.

It would help to start rebuilding Texas’ depth in the receiving corps considering all of the losses at the position this offseason, now including Lee, Smith, Kennedy Lewis, and Malcolm Epps.