Texas football is no stranger to bringing in a lot of talent either via high school recruitment or the transfer portal.
But to bring in the talents of wide receiver Cam Coleman and running backs Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown, some players had to leave Texas. Plus, with the added layer of NIL money and revenue sharing, it’s expensive to build a college football roster.
“We had to let some pretty good players leave to create the cap space to bring those guys in,” Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.
On the whole, Texas brought in 22 players and watch 25 transfer out, according to 247Sports. Here’s some of the money that swapped hands:
“Arch could have dragged us over the coals for six million, seven million, whatever he wanted,” Sarkisian told On3 this spring. “That’s an extra five million that I can go get a Cam Coleman, go get a Hollywood Smothers and go get a Rasheem Biles.”
Many think Texas will go only as far as Manning, currently with the second-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy, per BetMGM.
Sarkisian said at media days that he thinks the moves have helped Manning in his second full season.
“I think strategically, there were some tough decisions to make,” Sarkisian said. “But we made them. I think we all can agree that we’re probably better around Arch today than we were a year ago at this time.”
“I think in this day and age of the portal and high school, you’ve got to have the ability to be strategic,” Sarkisian said.