Texas loses TE Jared Wiley to the NCAA Transfer Portal

An entrant to the NCAA Transfer Portal for the Texas football program that definitely ranks among the more surprising of any that recently came about is with junior tight end Jared Wiley. Expected to start at tight end for Texas next year, Wiley was figured to be an important returning piece on the offensive side of the ball for this team in 2022.

Especially since head coach Steve Sarkisian and special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Banks are losing redshirt senior tight end, Cade Brewer, in 2022, it seemed pretty crucial to have the returning production of Wiley. With Brewer departing this offseason and Wiley entering the transfer portal, the only tight ends that even took more than 50 offensive snaps this fall could now be gone.

Wiley posted on his Twitter timeline on the morning of Dec. 17 that he will be a graduate transfer and looking to take his talents elsewhere. That usually means that the player is not only exploring his options in the transfer portal, but he will not return to the program that he started with.

https://twitter.com/Jaredwiley23/status/1471867628645986314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1471867628645986314%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F247sports.com%2Fcollege%2Ftexas%2FArticle%2FTexas-Longhorns-basketball-football-Stanford-Chris-Beard-Arizona-Vic-Schaefer-Gary-Patterson-178613492%2F

Texas football loses junior TE Jared Wiley to the transfer portal

Occasionally you will see players announce their entering the transfer portal, but are just exploring their options.

For the second straight year with the Longhorns, Wiley took more than 280 offensive snaps. He’s taken more than 500 offensive snaps as a whole for Texas since the start of the 2020 season. That is only second to Brewer for the Longhorns in that span.

That will be some valuable experience lost in the tight end room, depending on what the plan is for the Longhorns heading into the offseason. It seems like there are a few potential options for where Texas is headed at the tight end position.

The first thought that comes to mind is the fact that Texas could be looking to give the former five-star recruit and redshirt freshman Ja’Tavion Sanders more reps at tight end next fall. Sanders has a ton of talent, but he got fewer than 30 snaps at tight end with Texas in the season that was.

If Sanders is making a lot of progress next year for Texas, it would make a lot of sense that he competes for starting reps at tight end for the 2022 season.

Another potential thought here is that Texas is planning on using a trio of tight ends next fall. There were flashes throughout 2021 that a pair of freshman tight ends in Gunnar Helm and Juan Davis showed. If the Longhorns want to rotate Helm, Davis, and Sanders in terms of reps at tight end next year, that could be an interesting approach to take.

The third and final approach that the Longhorns could be taking at tight end entering the offseason is hitting the transfer portal. There are likely going to be tight ends in the transfer portal this offseason that more naturally fit Sark’s offensive scheme and can be more of a threat in the receiving game than Wiley or Brewer.

While the sizable 6-foot-7 and 255-pound Wiley contributed in the receiving game and was a steady blocker for Texas in the last two seasons, he was still one of the lowest graded players at his position in the Big 12 in 2021.

There are some appealing potential tight end targets for the Longhorns in the transfer portal right now, including the former Cal Golden Bears senior Gavin Reinwald and the Mizzou Tigers senior Daniel Parker. But there are likely to be more names to watch that appear in the portal at tight end as the offseason moves along for Texas.

Wiley was one of the more noteworthy contributors at the tight end position in recent years for the Longhorns. In his three years playing for Texas, Wiley registered 19 catches for 248 receiving yards (13.1 yards per catch) and three receiving touchdowns.