Texas Football: 3 new and notable transfer portal targets for Sark
Isaac Slade-Malautia, LB
Just the transfer portal target that Sark and the Longhorns could be looking for at this point of the offseason might’ve shown up on the open market heading into the weekend. Former Oregon Ducks standout 6-foot-1 and 235-pound junior linebacker Isaac Slade-Malautia put his name in the transfer portal on June 25, to the surprise of many out in PAC-12 country.
There are two simple reasons why the Longhorns could find a perfect transfer portal target in Slade-Malautia.
The first is that Texas looks like they will miss out on the former USC Trojans five-star recruit and redshirt sophomore linebacker Palaie Gaoteote IV to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the end. Gaoteote looked like a sure thing for Texas around a month and a half ago, but that commitment has quickly faded away in the past couple of weeks.
The second big reason why the Longhorns should go after Slade-Malautia is the fact that they could still use some help at linebacker. Getting junior Ayodele Adeoye back out of the portal will help heading into the fall, but it won’t be a sure thing given his spotty injury record.
Slade-Malautia could come in and get a starting role right away with this Texas front seven in all likelihood. During his three years playing for Oregon, he registered 131 career combined tackles, a dozen tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and a whopping 16 pass breakups. He was one of the highest-graded linebackers in the PAC-12 last year.
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The first position of need at the moment for Texas in the transfer portal could be wide receiver. But on defense, it will clearly be either at linebacker or cornerback. Slade-Malautia also immediately becomes one of the most highly sought-after names in the portal with his entrance this week.