Texas Football: Predicting the Longhorns next transfer loss

The first NCAA Transfer Portal departure of 2023 among the non-special teams players arrived for Texas football on Jan. 4 with the news that true freshman running back Jaydon Blue is expected to test the transfer market. Blue is also the first transfer for Texas since the Alamo Bowl loss to the No. 12 ranked Washington Huskies on Dec. 29.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns did lose senior long snapper Zach Edwards to the portal earlier this week. Blue and Edwards encompass the two portal losses for the Longhorns in totality since the turn of the calendar year.

Blue is also the first Texas running back to enter the portal as part of the 2023 class. He is likely to be one of three running backs Texas loses this offseason, along with junior All-American Bijan Robinson and senior Roschon Johnson.

The loss of Blue wasn’t a huge shocker after the first-year running back scrubbed his social media of any Texas-related content last week. But this is still a notable loss for such a talented running back to leave an RB room that is already turning over a lot of key pieces this offseason.

*UPDATE: Jaydon Blue will not be entering the portal after he shut down the earlier transfer reports on Jan. 4. 

Who could be next to enter the portal from Texas football?

With that in mind, here’s a look at who the next portal loss could be for the Longhorns after the Blue transfer news surfaced on Jan. 4.

Charles Wright, QB

While Texas did already lose two quarterbacks to the transfer portal so far this offseason, I do expect at least one more to leave the program before spring ball commences in a few months. And of the quarterbacks that I could see leaving for the portal in the near future, one that really sticks out is the former Iowa State Cyclones three-star Austin High commit and redshirt freshman Charles Wright.

This Austin, TX, native is probably going to be the only scholarship quarterback on the roster next season that isn’t part of the three-deep depth chart. I would presume that Wright would fall fourth in line behind the likes of redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy, true freshman Arch Manning, and redshirt sophomore Quinn Ewers.

Wright spent most of the 2022 season as the third quarterback on the depth chart behind Ewers and junior Hudson Card. But the youth movement in this quarterback room is probably going to put Wright in a spot where he is even more buried on the depth chart in 2023.

Although, there is a world where Wright plays this situation as Card did. Wright could stick it out on the Forty Acres for another season while he tries to get his degree by the end of the 2023-24 academic calendar year. Upon that time, Wright could put his name in the transfer portal with two years of eligibility remaining.