3 early-fall possible transfer targets for Texas

Jahari Rogers, CB

Texas will probably want to look at multiple cornerback options to get depth and proven experience at the position from the transfer portal, depending on the attrition for that position room next spring during the offseason.

Adding a grad transfer with multiple years of proven experience playing in the P4/P5 who could add some valuable depth and immediate upside for the secondary is probably a direction the Longhorns defensive staff will look in the portal next offseason.

Texas has gone this route before of adding a proven and experienced P4 defensive back from the portal multiple times in the past few offseasons. Terry Joseph and staff nabbed cornerback Holmes from Wake Forest during the 2023 offseason. The Longhorns and Blake Gideon also got a big-time safety grad transfer addition from the portal to start immediately this past offseason in Mukuba.

Mukuba got to return to his home state of Texas to play out his final year of his collegiate career this fall with the Longhorns while contending for an SEC and possibly National Championship in the new 12-team Playoff.

Another Texas native the Longhorns could pursue from the portal to fill a positional need in the secondary next year is former SMU Mustangs and Florida Gators senior cornerback Jahari Rogers. The 6-foot-1 and 190-pound defensive back from Arlington, TX, in the DFW Metroplex is taking a redshirt this fall after playing a handful of games for SMU's defense early this season.

Rogers is a talented former blue-chip recruit who was recruited by the likes of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Oklahoma Sooners, Texas, and Penn State Nittany Lions, among many other power conference schools during his recruitment back in 2020. Sarkisian and staff weren't at Texas at the time when he was originally recruited.

But Sarkisian was on staff at Alabama when the Tide were heavily pursuing Rogers on the recruiting trail a few years ago. It's also noteworthy that Joseph was Notre Dame's leading recruiter for Rogers when the Irish offered him in early 2019.

Rogers does have a good amount of P4 experience, or at least playing at SMU against high level G5 competition for the last few years. He's started double-digit games at SMU, and saw the field some as a true freshman during his first year at Florida before transferring back home to DFW in 2021.

While most of his defensive snaps in the past few years have come at outside corner, Rogers does have experience playing as a hybrid safety and nickel during his career at SMU and Florida.

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