Predicting Texas football’s next portal loss after Jaden Alexis

The spring window for the NCAA Transfer Portal opened up on April 15, and Texas football saw multiple players officially enter to begin the weekend. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian had three players enter the transfer portal on April 12. Sophomore wide receiver Brenen Thompson was the first Texas player to have his portal intentions announced this week, soon followed by redshirt freshman linebacker Trevell Johnson and redshirt freshman edge rusher Derrick Brown.

Sark and the Longhorns saw a fourth player enter the portal this week on the morning before the Orange-White spring football game at DKR on April 15, sophomore wide receiver Jaden Alexis.

None of these portal departures are all that surprising given that I could say only Thompson was probably going to be able to push for a spot on the two-deep during summer workouts and fall camp among the four transfers this week.

But given the portal activity for the Longhorns this week in terms of targeting transfers, and even hosting one grad transfer DL from April 11-13, it looks like Sark and his staff are still preparing for more movement in the portal following the conclusion of spring ball.

Texas football players on portal watch after the spring game

Here’s a look at who could be the Longhorns’ next portal departure based on other roster movement this spring, after losing Alexis to the transfer market on April 15.

Sawyer Goram-Welch, IOL

There was a lot of movement on the depth chart along the interior offensive line for OL coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and the Longhorns this spring. Flood and the Longhorns tried to figure out the best combination of five offensive linemen with the first team in practice.

It looks like Texas has the two starting offensive tackle spots solidified coming out of spring practice in redshirt senior Christian Jones and sophomore Kelvin Banks Jr.

The interior offensive line is more uncertain in terms of the starting group of three up front coming out of spring practice. Junior Hayden Conner has a spot locked down it seems coming out of the spring. Yet, the fact that we heard about Conner taking second-team center reps in practice this spring behind junior center Jake Majors is a sign that Flood is still experimenting with different personnel groups along the interior offensive line.

That could spell trouble for the interior offensive linemen further down the depth chart this offseason, especially at the center position. And when you consider that Texas will be getting sophomore center Connor Robertson back from injury during the summer, the path forward to playing time this fall for centers deeper down the depth chart looks even more challenging.

There are guys like junior center Sawyer Goram-Welch that could be looking at third or fourth-team reps at his position heading into fall camp. Goram-Welch is a fourth-year interior offensive lineman that showed some flashes since being converted from the defensive line a couple of offseasons ago.

But Flood and the Longhorns are clearly looking in other directions than giving Goram-Welch some valuable second and first-team reps at center in his fourth year on the 40. The path to playing time in live-game action will only get more difficult from here considering the vast amount of skill and depth Flood and this staff brought in along the interior offensive line in the last couple of recruiting classes.