3 biggest portal whiffs for Texas football this spring

Damonic Williams, DL

Destination: Committed to Oklahoma

A portal recruitment that most Texas fans probably want to put behind them saw the highly-sought after defensive tackle transfer from TCU, Williams, end up at Oklahoma. Williams was a top defensive tackle target for the Longhorns in the portal this spring.

Williams visited Texas and Oklahoma, along with the Mizzou Tigers and LSU during a back and forth portal recruitment that lasted a few weeks this spring. That ability to consistently give a team good snaps playing as a true nose tackle in the Power Five made Williams arguably the most valuable lineman in the spring portal window this offseason.

In the last couple of years at TCU, Williams became one of just two nose tackles to play over 1,000 defensive snaps in the Big 12. He performed at an All-Big 12 level as a staple for TCU's defensive line since the start of the 2022 campaign.

Williams is the only player on this list that Texas will face on the field during the regular season in 2024. That makes it a tougher pill to swallow that he ended up at Oklahoma instead of Texas, or even a school like Mizzou this spring.

Texas replaced some of the depth it lost at defensive tackle this offseason, while taking away a key piece from Oklahoma's projected iDL rotation for this upcoming season late this spring with a big portal flip. The Longhorns flipped former Louisville Cardinals grad transfer defensive tackle Jermayne Lole from Oklahoma to add some proven production and experience to their defensive line rotation in the SEC this season.

I'd argue that Oklahoma needed more big bodies and proven production along the defensive line in the portal this offseason than Texas did during the spring. Adding Lole still works to Texas's benefit in two ways.

Lole can be a really productive player for a Power Five defensive line, assuming he stays healthy for a second straight season for the Longhorns. If Texas does get Lole to improve upon a solid campaign last year while he was healthy for Louisville, that is addition by subtraction by taking depth from a rival defensive line unit.

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