Texas Football: 3 transfers that were the biggest winners in spring

More than a dozen new additions to the Texas football program got to show what they could do on the field wearing the Burnt Orange for the first time during spring camp in the last couple of months. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian welcomed a double-digit number of early enrollees from the high school ranks in the 2023 class for camp this semester.

Sark and the Longhorns also saw a handful of new additions to the program enroll for the spring semester to participate in camp that were picked up from the NCAA Transfer Portal. Texas had three transfer additions enroll this semester to compete in spring ball.

But one of them, the former Arkansas Razorbacks senior safety Jalen Catalon, wasn’t a full participant in spring ball due to injury issues. Catalon was a limited participant in most of spring drills.

New transfer additions for Texas football that come out of spring as winners

Despite there only being a handful of transfer additions for the Longhorns on campus during the spring, there are still some real winners that emerged. Here’s a look at three transfer additions for the Longhorns that came out of spring ball as winners.

Gavin Holmes, CB

One of the first portal commitments of the 2023 transfer class for the Longhorns was the former Wake Forest Demon Deacons redshirt sophomore cornerback Gavin Holmes. The fourth-year cornerback was a productive rotational DB for Wake Forest in the last couple of seasons.

Yet, Holmes arrived on the Forty Acres looking to make his case to earn a starting role heading into the fall. Holmes put up a good fight during spring ball in the competition for the starting job at field corner. He had some tough competition to get the first-team reps at the field corner position in the talented true freshman Malik Muhammad and sophomore Terrance Brooks.

I think Holmes made enough of an impression on his teammates and the coaches for him to still be one of the serious considerations to win the starting job at field corner heading into fall camp.

If there was anyone that Holmes impressed during the spring, it was clearly redshirt senior wide receiver Jordan Whittington.

"“I really like Gavin Holmes. I think all of them, man, they came in, and they completely bought into the culture right when they got here. And they’re taking strides, and they are improving really fast."

We frequently heard about Holmes making plays and holding his own against the best wideouts that Texas has to offer during the spring. And outside of a lower-body injury issue that apparently hobbled him late in spring ball, I think this was a really successful camp for Holmes that will put him in a spot to easily nail down a role on the two-deep this fall.