Texas hosting DE Ochaun Mathis last weekend a rousing success

At this point of the offseason, it is pretty clear that the most established target out of the NCAA Transfer Portal for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program is the former TCU Horned Frogs senior edge rusher/defensive end Ochaun Mathis. Texas looked to be interested in getting a commitment from the two-time All-Big 12 standout Mathis out of the NCAA Transfer Portal for the last few months now.

But with Mathis finishing up some credit hours in Fort Worth this semester, his timeline to announce a decision was going to be a more patient one than most that have entered the transfer portal this offseason. It looks like an early summer decision could be coming from Mathis.

He is likely going to take his time sorting through the five schools he named as finalists. Those five are the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Ole Miss Rebels, USC Trojans, and Texas.

Moreover, there was a pretty major event on the recruiting timeline of Mathis out of the transfer portal recently. Texas hosted Mathis for a visit over the weekend, which went well by most accounts thus far.

Texas football reportedly has a successful visit with transfer EDGE/DE Ochaun Mathis

According to a report from Inside Texas on March 7 (part of the On3 Network, paid content), Texas hosting Mathis for a visit went about as well as it possibly could’ve. There was obviously an instant connection between Mathis and new Texas special assistant to the head coach Gary Patterson.

Mathis was coached up by Patterson during his four years playing for TCU. And it looks like he could make an immediate impact to bolster the Longhorns’ defensive front with Patterson at the helm and a clear need for this team to improve their pass rush in 2022.

For those reasons, it makes a lot of sense that the Longhorns would connect with Mathis right off the bat on a visit like this one. If you had to pick a frontrunner to eventually win the commitment of Mathis, Texas would likely be the favorite at the moment.

This latest visit for Mathis to the Forty Acres likely did nothing but help Texas’ case in his recruitment out of the transfer portal.

All in all, this is likely to be just the start of the process for Mathis as he is looking to visit each of his top five schools during the spring. It will be interesting to see if any of the other four finalist schools can move the needle with him during his round of visits in the weeks ahead.

Since Mathis first entered the transfer portal a few months ago, Texas looked like the favorite. This will be important for Texas to hold suit as the frontrunner in the race to land a commitment from Mathis as he is likely the top portal target for this team among edge rushers.