Predicting Texas football’s next portal loss after P Isaac Pearson

Will Stone, K

If Texas were to have two consecutive portal entries among special teams players, it would make sense if the backup kicker were to be next up. Special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Banks is making it clear that he’s looking for some upgrades on the special teams unit heading into the offseason.

Banks and the Longhorns are already hosting the former Stanford Cardinal senior punter Ryan Sanborn for a visit to Austin this weekend (according to a report from Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas). That’s not too surprising given how Banks and the Longhorns were looking to get a new punter in place for next season to replace the likes of Pearson and former Texas Wesleyan transfer Daniel Trejo.

The kicking situation does look more settled for Banks and the Longhorns after sophomore Bert Auburn had a solid regular season. But I don’t know what the kicking situation will look like for Texas in 2023 beyond Auburn.

After not getting a single field goal or extra-point attempt during the regular season, freshman kicker Will Stone could realistically take his talents elsewhere as part of the 2023 portal class. Stone was a pretty highly touted kicker recruit coming out of Regents School in Austin as part of the 2022 signing class.

But Stone never got much of a shot to win the starting job at kicker coming out of fall camp. And he didn’t get a chance to prove what he could do on the field for this kicking unit after Auburn took hold of the starting job by the time conference play rolled around this fall.