Texas Football: 10 portal targets on the Longhorns Christmas wish list

A.J. Haulcy, S

Safety is clearly a position of need in the Longhorns 2023 class. Despite signing the elite five-star New Iberia Westgate (LA) safety Derek Williams among the high school recruits in the 2023 class, Texas is still looking for help at the position via the portal. And one of the names that caught my eye among the early portal entrants for this cycle among Group of Five safeties is the former New Mexico State Aggies Freshman All-American A.J. Haulcy.

During the regular season, Haulcy was the third-highest-graded Group of Five safety. And he did that as a true freshman. He could fill a need at boundary safety or even as a hybrid linebacker that is mostly utilized in pass coverage. Haulcy’s versatility and size at 5-foot-11 and 220-pounds means he could fill a few different roles for this defense.

But word on the street is that the Ole Miss Rebels could have the lead in the recruitment of Haulcy out of the portal. He visited Ole Miss within the last week and recently hinted at an announcement with a tweet on Dec. 22, where he said it’s “almost that time”.

Jalen Catalon, S

A recent notable safety that appeared from the Power Five ranks in the transfer portal is former Texas recruiting target and Arkansas Razorbacks redshirt junior DB Jalen Catalon. The productive fourth-year safety has nearly 160 combined tackles, five picks, and three forced fumbles under his belt in his collegiate career.

Unfortunately, though, injuries have plagued Catalon’s time in Fayetteville and there are some that think he will never be the same after his latest upper-body issue that required surgery this year.

It does look like the recruitment of Catalon could follow a similar narrative to that of Haulcy. It looks like there are some prominent Group of Five programs along with some Power Five programs that have a safety need to fill that are prioritizing Catalon the most at the moment.

Ole Miss and the SMU Mustangs are two schools that are attached to Catalon’s name since he entered the portal a little more than one week ago.

But Texas could still kick the tires on Catalon. If Texas could get a version of Catalon even close to what he was when healthy with the Hogs a couple of years ago, that would still provide a lot of value in this defensive backfield.