Alarm bells ring as two more Texas players jump in the transfer portal

Two young, blue-chip Texas players have decided to hop into the transfer portal this afternoon, and now things are starting to become worrisome.

2025 4-star WR Jaime Ffrench Jr. and 2024 4-star DE Zina Umeozulu were two players who were projected to have larger roles for the team in 2026, but now they've chosen to leave to Austin.

What was once a position of strength at defensive end, is now looking incredibly thin and inexperienced. Colton Vasek and possibly Lance Jackson are the leading candidates to receive an incredible amount of playing time at DE in 2026 opposite Colin Simmons, and that can't happen if this defense wants to be successful each week. The Longhorns were targeting pass rushers even before Umeozulu decided to leave, so now things have gotten worse there.

Texas is a bit more stable at wide receiver so the Ffrench Jr. transfer doesn't hurt the team as bad. Kaliq Lockett and Daylan McCutcheon are two youngsters who are chock-full of talent, but Steve Sarkisian still wants to add another experienced wide receiver in the portal.

It's honestly unclear as to why the Longhorns haven't been able to bring in anyone of significance besides Raleek Brown, as Texas has one of the highest NIL budgets in all of college football.

There's absolutely no reason why they should've missed out on or not gone after most of the top guys at their positions of need already. Normally, not signing more players right now wouldn't be worrisome, but over 50% of the top guys have already committed to other programs.

Texas should have already locked up multiple offensive linemen and linebackers by now, but it seems like the staff is trying to "wait things out" for no apparent reason.

Let's see if they get anyone to commit over the next couple of days to start cancelling out the 20+ outgoing transfers that they currently have.