Predicting Texas's next transfer commit after Jermayne Lole
Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian scored a massive victory in the NCAA Transfer Portal at defensive tackle on May 9. Texas flipped the former Louisville Cardinals senior grad transfer defensive lineman Jermayne Lole from the Oklahoma Sooners.
Will Texas football use its remaining scholarship spots to fill needs on defense and special teams in the portal this spring?
Lole is Texas's third defensive tackle addition from the portal this offseason. He is also the 11th player to join the Longhorns portal class for 2024.
Lole joins former Arizona Wildcats grad transfer defensive tackles Bill Norton and Tia Savea among the three additions Johnny Nansen and the Longhorns have brought in to shore up the depth up the middle of the defense. All three defensive tackle pickups from the portal give the Longhorns at least four years of live-game action experience in the Power Five.
Norton, Savea, and Lole have also combined for over 4,000 career defensive snaps in the Power Five.
Sarkisian and the Longhorns staff clearly took the need to add more proven experience and depth at defensive tackle to heart late this spring. And they did so by taking some defensive line depth away from one of their biggest rivals entering the SEC, Oklahoma.
From the looks of it, the Longhorns might not be done making moves to shore up the roster in the portal this spring. Here's a prediction of the next transfer addition for Texas late this spring after landing Lole on May 9.
Johnny Bowens, DL
Before Texas flipped Lole from Oklahoma on Thursday, it looked like the top defensive tackle target in the portal was former Oregon Ducks freshman transfer Johnny Bowens III. The 6-foot-3 and 290-pound defensive tackle had reported interest from Texas after he entered the portal on April 26.
If Texas continues to target Bowens, he would be viewed as more of a long-term developmental player than an immediate impact guy along the interior defensive line rotation in 2024.
Targeting Bowens makes sense for the Longhorns from the perspective that he could fill some of the depth and younger talent Texas lost with the departure of four-star defensive line signee D'antre Robinson. After Robinson decommitted from Texas a few months ago, the Longhorns are left with just three defensive tackle signees from high school in the last two cycles.
Texas showed interest in Bowens during his recruitment out of high school in the 2023 class. The Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies were two of the top three schools that finished behind Oregon when he committed to the Ducks a couple of years ago.
Bowens is also from just about an hour outside of Austin, hailing from Judson High School in Converse, TX (just outside of San Antonio).