3 costliest portal departures for Texas this spring

The movement in the NCAA Transfer Portal has really heated up for Texas football in the last 10 days. Since the 45-day spring transfer portal window opened for underclassmen on April 16, Texas has lost over a half-dozen players to the portal.

Texas football loses a few players with multiple years of live-game experience to the trasnfer portal

With the Longhorns being a few players over the scholarship limit of 85 this spring, roster attrition was bound to happen. But quite a few of the players the Longhorns have lost to the portal since the spring window opened early last week aren't guys that Texas would want to see depart the program.

Roster attrition is something teams must deal with in the modern age of college football with NIL and the transfer portal. And head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns have done a pretty good job with roster management this offseason.

Granted, losing a returning starter on the defensive side of the ball on April 23 to the transfer portal, junior cornerback Terrance Brooks, is never ideal. That is a gap Texas must fill in the secondary this spring.

Here's a look at the three costliest portal departures for the Longhorns this spring.

J'Mond Tapp, EDGE

Due to the heightened depth and competition at the EDGE position this spring, the Longhorns lost two players to the portal from this room in the last week. Redshirt sophomore J'Mond Tapp and redshirt freshman Billy Walton both entered the transfer portal last week before the spring game on April 20.

Tapp is the more experienced of the two edge rushers the Longhorns lost to the portal since last week. He pushed to earn more reps on the two-deep along the defensive front in the last couple of years at Texas.

Last season, Tapp took a career-high 98 defensive snaps over seven games for the Longhorns. He registered eight combined tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, four defensive stops, four quarterback pressures, and one QB hit in 2023.

Tapp was one of the highest-rated defensive recruits the Longhorns signed in the 2022 class. He was the top-ranked edge rusher in the 2022 class from Louisiana in the 247Sports Composite. Tapp has always had immense upside as a pass rusher thanks to good explosiveness and bend coming off the edge.

The fact that Texas lost Tapp to the portal this spring goes to show how much depth and talent is present in this position group for Pete Kwiatkowski and Johnny Nansen in the EDGE room entering the SEC this coming season.