Texas Football: 3 costliest portal losses for UT this offseason

After the 2023-24 season concluded for No. 3 Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian following a loss to the No. 2 Washington Huskies in the CFP Semifinals at the Sugar Bowl, focus for the staff is back on the NCAA Transfer Portal.

Sarkisian and staff have added three portal commitments since the December transfer window opened on Dec. 4. The three portal commits, former Houston sophomore wide receiver Matthew Golden, Clemson junior safety Andrew Mukuba, and UTSA redshirt sophomore edge rusher Trey Moore, all signed with the Longhorns last month.

Texas football has done well minimizing the impact of roster attrition to the portal again this offseason

Texas added impact players at a few positions of need with the transfers they added during the December window. This staff continues to evaluate portal targets who could be impact players at positions of need on both sides of the ball early this offseason.

However, the transfer portal is a two-way street. Texas has now lost over a dozen players among portal departures since Dec. 4. Many of these portal departures were players who were deeper down the depth chart and had limited paths to playing time heading into the future.

There are a handful of portal departures for the Longhorns who would've received meaningful live-game reps on at least one side of the ball in 2024. At the very least, some of these portal departures would've added depth at key positions for the Longhorns this year.

Here are three of the biggest portal departures for the Longhorns so far this offseason.

Isaiah Neyor, WR (Nebraska commit)

Sark, wide receivers coach Chris Jackson, and the Longhorns have their work cut out for them this offseason to replenish the depth and talent at boundary receiver. Texas's three top boundary receivers will depart the program following the conclusion of the 2023 season.

Texas has lost multiple boundary receivers to the transfer portal this cycle with proven experience at FBS programs. Redshirt junior Isaiah Neyor and redshirt sophomore Casey Cain exited the program via the transfer portal.

It's also noteworthy that junior starting boundary receiver Adonai Mitchell will enter the 2024 NFL Draft this spring.

Among the portal departures at boundary receiver, Neyor committed to the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Cain chose to join former Texas WR coach Brennan Marion at UNLV.

Had Neyor stuck around, he would've been in the mix among the receivers who had a realistic shot to push for starting reps at the boundary spot in spring ball.

Neyor was unfortunately limited to taking next to no offensive snaps at Texas in live-game action in the last couple of seasons after suffering a season-ending knee injury in preseason camp two years ago.

In his two seasons at Texas, Neyor had just one catch for 14 yards in the season-opening win over the Rice Owls on Sep. 2.

Neyor will now look to show what he can do at the Power Five level as he joins second-year head coach Matt Rhule in his rebuild of the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln entering the 2024 season.