Predicting Texas's next transfer after Austin Jordan
Since the spring NCAA Transfer Portal 45-day window opened for underclassmen on April 16, Texas football has seen over a half-dozen players depart the program. To get scholarship numbers down, Texas has experienced roster attrition since the final week of spring ball.
Portal movement picking up in a big way for Texas football this spring
In total, head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns have lost 23 players to the transfer portal this offseason. Nine of those 23 players have entered the transfer portal since the start of spring ball last month.
The spring portal window has only claimed one returning starter for the Longhorns. Junior cornerback Terrance Brooks became the first player for the Longhorns to enter the portal this offseason when he announced his intentions to transfer on April 23.
Brooks' departure to the transfer portal doesn't sound like anything hostile or dramatic. This situation with Brooks sounds more like a mutual parting of ways between him and the Texas coaches.
Texas also lost junior defensive back Austin Jordan to the portal, per On3's Hayes Fawcett, on April 24.
Given how active Texas is in the spring portal window, there could still be more roster attrition looming in the coming days. Here's a prediction of which Longhorns players could be next to transfer after Brooks on April 23.
Tausili Akana, EDGE/OLB
Most of the roster attrition the Longhorns have experienced during the spring portal window came along the defensive front. Texas has lost a few players to the portal this spring that played along the front seven, including redshirt sophomore edge rusher J'Mond Tapp, redshirt freshman edge rusher Billy Walton, and redshirt freshman defensive lineman Zac Swanson.
The competition in spring ball for spots on the two-deep at most linebacker spots and at the EDGE position was intense. Texas has more depth and young talent at EDGE and linebacker this spring than arguably in any other year under Sarkisian and co-DC/LB coach Pete Kwiatkowski since 2021.
Since the Longhorns still have 15 scholarship players on the roster between the linebackers and edge rushers after the latest portal departures in the last week or so, there could still be some attrition here.
In this day and age of NIL and the transfer portal in college football, second and third-year players who don't have a clear path to playing time are often candidates to seek more playing time with another program.
This situation could be relevant for a second or third-year edge rusher who will have to fight just to secure a spot on the two-deep this fall such as redshirt freshman outside linebacker/edge rusher Tausili Akana.
The 6-foot-4 and 210-pound Akana was fighting for third and fourth-team reps in that hybrid pass rusher/edge rusher role during spring ball. Texas adding talented edge rushers this offseason, including true freshmen Colin Simmons and Zina Umeozulu and UTSA redshirt junior transfer Trey Moore, made the path to the field even more difficult for Akana.