Texas Football: 3 Horns that transferred to rival schools this offseason

Movement in the NCAA Transfer Portal for the spring window is in full swing for the Texas football program. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian lost a handful of players to the spring transfer window in the last couple of weeks, namely some that had an uphill battle to fight their way onto the two-deep heading into the fall.

Sark and the Longhorns have lost more than 15 players to the transfer portal since the opening of the transfer window last fall. And in the spring transfer window, the Longhorns have lost four players to the portal.

Texas has also picked up a player via the transfer portal in the spring window. The Longhorns landed the former Minnesota Golden Gophers senior grad transfer defensive lineman Trill Carter following the conclusion of spring ball.

Carter adds to a class of five portal commits for the Longhorns this offseason. And it looks like that could be it for Texas this offseason in terms of the portal additions unless a big-time edge rusher target surfaces on the transfer market.

Brenen Thompson and the Texas football players that transferred to rival schools in 2023

However, we’re probably going to see some of the portal departures for the Longhorns this offseason face them this fall on the gridiron. Here’s a look at three Texas transfers that landed at schools that are either rivals or current/future conference foes.

Ovie Oghoufo, EDGE

One of the early offseason departures via the transfer portal for the Longhorns in the 2023 class was super-senior edge rusher Ovie Oghoufo. The fifth-year 6-foot-3 and 235-pound edge player found his third home via the transfer portal in his collegiate career this offseason.

Oghoufo started out his collegiate career under head coach Brian Kelly with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for three seasons. After his time with the Fighting Irish came to an end following the 2020 season, Oghoufo entered the portal for the first time and landed with Sark, Pete Kwiatkowski, and the Longhorns ahead of the 2021 campaign.

In his two seasons at Texas, Oghoufo was a consistent starter at the edge position that racked up a lot of defensive snaps. He started in almost every single game he played at Texas in the last two seasons, racking up more than 1,200 defensive snaps in the process.

Heading into the 2023 offseason, though, it looked like Oghoufo’s time at Texas was coming to an end. A strong recruiting class and a lot of young talent at the edge position meant some level of roster attrition at this spot.

Oghoufo wound up putting his name in the transfer portal for the second time in the last three years. He found a home with the head coach that originally recruited him to Notre Dame, with Kelly in Baton Rouge. Oghoufo will use the final year of his collegiate eligibility with Texas’ future SEC foe the LSU Tigers.

While Texas won’t face Oghoufo as a member of LSU as SEC foes, it is still interesting to look back at the caliber of the three schools that he’s played for in his collegiate career. Not many players get to play for three blue bloods in three different conferences.