Tracking the moves shaping the Texas Longhorns’ football roster in 2024
The groundwork for Steve Sarkisian’s fourth season involves intensive work being done throughout the offseason before preseason practice begins in August. Horns247 is monitoring and tracking the roster-building process every step of the way.
When one college football season ends, work for the next one begins and things are no different for Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian. While the Longhorns were preparing for the College Football Playoff and a date with Washington in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, Sarkisian also had to make his recruiting visits on the road and keep an eye on the NCAA transfer portal for players coming and going.
Whether it’s players leaving the program or making their way to the Forty Acres along with the high school prospects who signed on the dotted line during the Early Signing Period, Texas started building the 2024 roster long before the calendar flipped to December. Even as the Longhorns were taking the field for the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 2, Sarkisian’s support staff was getting their ducks in a row to attack the transfer portal and finish the final push heading into the opening day of the first signing period strongly.
“We have a personnel department that will be monitoring the portal as guys enter,” Sarkisian said before Texas punished Oklahoma State on Dec. 2, 49-21, winning the program’s fourth and final Big 12 title less than 24 hours before the Longhorns knew they’d be first-time participants in the CFP.
“I think we have a pretty good idea of understanding of where we’re going to potentially have some depth concerns at a couple of positions that we’ll monitor,” Sarkisian said. “If a player goes in, then we’ll start the evaluation process.”
The transfer portal is going to play a massive role in shaping the roster Texas is going to carry into its SEC maiden voyage in 2024. The recruitment and development of high school prospects are at the core of how Sarkisian wants to maintain a championship-caliber roster, but the Longhorns also figure to be heavily impacted by the 2024 NFL Draft, whether current players choose to begin their professional careers or decide to come back to Texas for another season.
With the groundwork for Sarkisian’s fourth season laid before the curtain fell on the 2023 calendar year, followed by winter conditioning in January, spring football in March and summer conditioning in June before preseason practice in August, Horns247 is monitoring and tracking the roster-building process every step of the way.
In a position-by-position examination, we’ll keep track of who’s returning, who’s not (and where they’re headed) and which newcomers are going to be called upon to fill vacated roles.
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