Texas Longhorns: Which players are staying, going or entering the transfer portal?

Posted: Nov 30, 2021 / 07:56 PM CST

Updated: Nov 30, 2021 / 07:56 PM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) — This is certainly going to be an offseason of change around the Texas Longhorns football facilities. As of late November, there isn’t expected to be much change near the top of Longhorns football leadership, Steve Sarkisian or his coaching staff, but the roster is likely heading for an overhaul.

Sarkisian gave the media an honest assessment of the Texas roster in the final weeks of the regular season, saying there will be a lot of new faces wearing burnt orange for the 2022 season.

“I could easily see us with 33 new scholarship players on our team next season,” Sarkisian said prior to UT’s game against West Virginia. “You think about 33 new scholarship players… that’s a pretty big number, but that’s part of the process.”

He’s not lying about how massive of a change that would be — that’s close to 40% of a program’s 85 scholarship limit. Most programs add between 20 and 25 players for each recruiting class.

Eligibility limits are ambiguous in college football these days after each player was granted an extra year of eligibility from the COVID-19 pandemic. New rules from the NCAA allow all players to transfer one time without sitting out. Some players are able to stay in the college game for six years. This offseason will be unprecedented and potentially volatile.

For what it’s worth, Texas Athletics released a list of players that were expected to participate in Senior Day events prior to the season finale against Kansas State. Texas linebacker DeMarvion Overshown wasn’t included on the list, but did participate in Senior Day. It’s logical that all or most of these players are not returning to Texas.

Here’s what Texas Athletics wrote in its game notes last week.

The players scheduled to be recognized in front of the home crowd [for Senior Day] are: LB Ayodele Adeoye, WR Kartik Akkihal, RB Skyler Bonneau, TE Cade Brewer, P Ryan Bujcevski, DL Keondre Coburn, EDGE Ben Davis, K/P Cameron Dicker, CB Darion Dunn, DB B.J. Foster, OL Rafiti Ghirmai, OL Tope Imade, EDGE Jacoby Jones, LS Chandler Kelehan, OL Derek Kerstetter, LS Justin Mader, WR Kai Money, OL Denzel Okafor, DB Tremayne Prudhomme, DB Brenden Schooler, LB Carlton Smith, RB Jarrett Smith, DB Turner Symonds, DB Josh Thompson, EDGE Ray Thornton, RB Gabe Watson, WR Travis West, WR Al’Vonte Woodard and RB Daniel Young.

This story will be updated as more Texas players announce their intentions for next season.

Leaving the Longhorns

This section will keep track of players leaving due to eligibility limits, graduation or professional football opportunities.

Tope Imade | offensive guard
Josh Thompson | defensive back

Definitively staying at Texas

This section will track players that could leave Texas but chose to stay with the Longhorns.

Stay tuned

Entering the transfer portal

This section is for Texas players exploring other opportunities. Just because a player enters the transfer portal, it doesn’t mean the player will leave Texas.