At SEC Media Days, head coach Steve Sarkisian broke down all of the moves that the Texas Longhorns made in the transfer portal.
He summed up why the Horns had allowed beloved players like Parker Livingstone, Quintrevion Wisner, and others to walk out the door. He explained exactly how Texas had recruited top portal prospects like Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smothers, and more to the 40 Acres.
"To make the moves we make, to bring in a Cam Coleman, to bring in a Hollywood Smothers, to bring in a Raleek Brown, to bring in a Mike Masunas at tight end; we had to let DeAndre Moore go. We had to let Parker Livingstone go. We had to let Tre Wisner go. We had to let CJ Baxter go," Sarkisian said.
In response, former Texas wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. had a less-than-agreeable response, retweeting a post with Sarkisian's comments with three yawning emojis, seemingly suggesting that his former head coach's take on the situation was tiring at best.
🥱🥱🥱 https://t.co/k5pyyfRExH
— Deandre Moore Jr (@mooreofdmo) July 23, 2026
Yet, Moore was the one who left for the bigger paycheck, reportedly receiving an NIL deal worth nearly seven figures with the Colorado Buffaloes, a move similar to what Wisner did with his decision to join the Florida State Seminoles.
Texas, even with its bountiful NIL war chest, simply cannot afford to pay every single player nearly a million dollars. That just is not feasible. In other words, there is a ceiling to just how much the Horns can afford to shell out every year.
The Texas Longhorns are operating like an NFL franchise
In fact, Sarkisian likened Texas's decisions to operating an NFL roster with the salary cap space that the league enforces on its 32 franchises.
"We had to let some pretty good players leave to create the cap space to bring those guys in. I think strategically, there were some tough decisions to make," Sarkisian said. "I think we all can agree that we’re probably better around Arch [Manning] today than we were a year ago at this time."
While a lot of people may argue that the Longhorns need to be more loyal to the players they recruit out of high school, loyalty is a two-way street.
Livingstone, Wisner, Moore, and quite a few other players left Texas when the program would not cough up the NIL paycheck that they were looking for, and then committed to a team that was willing to pay them the larger sum.
Also read: Steve Sarkisian didn't mince words about his upcoming reunion with Parker Livingstone
Sarkisian and his staff didn't push these players out the door; they let them leave to get what they were looking for. Meanwhile, the Horns landed even better players out of the portal to fill the holes created by the former players' vacancies.
At the end of the day, it seems like everyone is where they want to be, or at least seeing the paychecks that they wanted to, and all Sarkisian did was explain that to a broader audience.
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