4 stars Texas should target in the transfer portal early this offseason

Eli Ricks, CB

I believe with all of my heart that there isn’t a single bigger impact player in the transfer portal right away at the moment than the former LSU Tigers star sophomore cornerback Eli Ricks. While it feels like Ricks might opt to take his talents to the NFL as soon as possible, whatever time the Longhorns could hypothetically get out of him would be well worth it.

Outside of getting help along the offensive line and coming off the edge, upgrading the secondary has to be a priority for the Longhorns in the transfer portal this offseason. Texas is set to likely lose a pair of senior cornerbacks in Josh Thompson and D’Shawn Jamison that were the starters for essentially all of the 2021 season, and for much of 2020.

If Texas could somehow get a commitment from Ricks out of the transfer portal entering the offseason, it would make a major difference on this side of the ball. The problem is that Ricks seems to be making it known that he wants to land with a National Championship contender.

The familiarity that Texas’ staff has with Ricks since a lot of them came from the Alabama Crimson Tide makes it worth at least reaching out to Ricks. But I wouldn’t get my hopes too high on this one. It’s just worth mentioning that there are going to be guys like this out here, and Texas doesn’t have anything else to do really but shoot their shot with everyone like this at this point.

Ricks had a pretty underwhelming end to his two-year run with LSU this fall. But that’s fine because other schools know what he brings to the table, and he’s likely going to get an offer from pretty much anyone he wants to this offseason.