Texas Football: 3 third-year players set to become stars in 2024
Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian have a loaded roster entering spring ball in less than one month. With the addition of a record number (17) of early enrollees from the high school ranks in the 2024 signing class and several more transfers on campus this spring, Texas is chocked full of depth and talent entering camp next month.
Sarkisian and the Longhorns clearly have one of the most talented and deep rosters on the two-deep entering the SEC for the upcoming 2024 season.
Third-year Texas football players on the verge of breaking out in 2024
Expectations are high on the Forty Acres entering spring ball in a few weeks. Texas is on the up and up entering the SEC in 2024 after Sarkisian led the Longhorns to the program's first ever appearance in the College Football Playoff and a Big 12 Championship in 2023.
If Texas is to meet expectations for the upcoming season, some new faces and returning players must step up to replace the key departures to the NFL Draft this offseason.
Here are three third-year players for the Longhorns who can become stars in 2024.
Amari Niblack, TE
The position group that Texas attacked the most in the portal during the winter transfer window early this offseason was the receiving corps/tight end. Texas added three immediate impact wide receivers from the portal and one big-time transfer tight end in the last few months.
The impact tight end the Longhorns and Jeff Banks added via the portal was the former Alabama Crimson Tide sophomore Amari Niblack. The big 6-foot-4 and 235-pound rising junior Niblack is set to be the next big-time receiving tight end threat for the Longhorns after the departure of All-Big 12 junior Ja'Tavion Sanders this offseason.
Niblack gives Sarkisian and the Longhorns a potent downfield threat who can line up out wide, in line, or out of the slot. He gives Sarkisian's offense another chess piece that he can move around pre-snap to add more layers to the scheme.
Last season, Niblack broke onto the scene for the Tide with over 300 receiving yards and four touchdowns. He was Alabama and Jalen Milroe's top target at tight end in the passing game.
Niblack has the potential to take his game to even greater heights at Texas with how much Sarkisian likes to utilize the tight ends in the passing game via two tight end sets and pre-snap motion.