Texas Football: Where the 4 biggest transfer losses landed this offseason

Most of the departures from the Texas football program via the NCAA Transfer Portal this offseason have already found new homes elsewhere. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian have now lost 15 players to the transfer portal so far this offseason.

And of those 15 transfer departures for the Longhorns, a dozen have found new homes elsewhere.

Sark and the Longhorns have done a pretty nice job with player retention this offseason. Texas hasn’t really lost any big-time starters to the transfer portal. And the bigger names that have entered the portal were mostly expected heading into the offseason.

Texas has also done a nice job of bringing in portal players as part of the 2023 class in the last couple of months. Sark and the Longhorns have signed a trio of portal players in the 2023 class including the former Wake Forest Demon Deacons redshirt sophomore cornerback Gavin Holmes, Arkansas Razorbacks redshirt junior safety Jalen Catalon, and Stanford Cardinal senior punter Ryan Sanborn.

Where Hudson Card and the biggest transfer departures for Texas football landed this offseason?

Moreover, now that the 45-day window for non-graduate students to enter the portal has closed up this week, it’s worth taking a look back at where some of the biggest transfer departures landed. Here’s a look at where four of the biggest transfers for the Longhorns landed out of the portal in the last month.

Andrej Karic, OT

Destination: Tennessee

While it wasn’t necessarily a surprising transfer departure, Texas losing third-year offensive tackle/flex tight end Andrej Karic was still something that hurt the depth along the offensive line in 2023. Karic was still a constant in terms of the depth he provided on the two-deep along the offensive line.

He was one of the more proven and versatile of the backup offensive linemen that Texas had in the mix last season. Karic took more than 350 offensive snaps during his first two seasons at Texas.

And Sark, offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood, and the Longhorns found some really creative ways to get Karic involved in the blocking game last season. Texas found some different short-yardage packages and run plays to get Karic lined up as a flex blocking tight end.

In fact, he took more than 140 snaps as an inline blocker during the 2022 campaign.

That run-play package that Texas had on offense that saw Karic lining up as a flex blocking tight end was a constant last season. And Karic was really effective playing that spot.

Moreover, Karic wound up taking his talents to join head coach Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers by way of the transfer portal a few weeks ago. He will be a depth piece that will be competing for a role on the two-deep with the Vols in 2023.