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  • Texas Longhorns News

    A place for any Longhorn Fan to get the latest news from the On Texas Football team.
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    Jeff Howe
    Unlike other positions within the program, Texas is still trying to find the sweet spot in balancing transfer portal acquisitions and high school recruits along the offensive line.
    The Longhorns didn’t go into the portal for trench help until last season’s results, or lack thereof, forced Steve Sarkisian’s hand. Still, while Texas came out of the most recent portal cycle with a plug-and-play tackle (Melvin Siani), a likely starter at guard (Laurence Seymore), a potential future starter on the interior (Dylan Sikorski), a developmental swing player (Jonte Newman) and a projected depth piece (Paris Patterson), Lucas Rhoa (Orange, Calif./Lutheran) committing to the Longhorns on Wednesday reinforces Sarkisian’s commitment to making high school recruiting the foundation of the offensive line on his watch.
    With Rhoa in the fold, the class Sarkisian and Kyle Flood have assembled from the 2027 high school ranks added a true swing player who can potentially manufacture depth at multiple positions. Rhoa joining a true tackle prospect (Dallas South Oak Cliff’s Brian Swanson) and two interior line recruits (Keyon Hemphill-Woods of Columbus and Austin Westlake’s Jackson Cook) should give the Texas faithful an idea of how Sarkisian and Flood will approach offensive line recruiting amid the current roster-building climate in college football.
    Obtaining the services of a top-end offensive tackle talent in the transfer portal isn’t cheap. Thankfully, Texas had a leg up on other programs on the hunt for tackles in the winter after Trevor Goosby decided to put off his NFL career until 2027 (at the earliest) and return for his redshirt junior season.
    The benefit of developing a legitimate NFL tackle (Goosby was ranked outside of the top 400 prospects nationally in the 2023 class and redshirted while playing behind Kelvin Banks Jr., Christian Jones and Cameron Williams) allowed the Longhorns to allocate their portal resources to filling out the talent around Arch Manning. Texas was also able to target Siani, whose arrival on the Forty Acres made it possible to slide Brandon Baker inside to guard, potentially improving the right side of the offensive line compared to 2025.
    Getting a future NFL tackle in the pipeline requires one of two approaches Texas has taken over the last decade. That's having the wherewithal to acquire premium talent like Banks (or Swanson, in the case of the 2027 recruiting class) or a keen eye for finding NFL-caliber tools and upside in prospects like Goosby, Jones, Williams, Connor Williams and Samuel Cosmi.
    Knowing how long it can take to get a return on an investment for a high school lineman, even a program with the resources Texas has would be smart to hone in on just one or two top-shelf prospects (Swanson and Gilmer’s Ismael Camara, for example) per cycle. While it’s unlikely to expect the Longhorns to put together another line class like the 2022 group (Banks, Williams and DJ Campbell left the program as NFL draft picks, with Connor Robertson on track to join Cole Hutson as a multiple-year starter), there are enough quality linemen in every recruiting cycle to get four or five capable prospects into the pipeline.
    It’s up to Sarkisian, Flood and the player personnel staff to identify projectable traits in prospects who might need more time in the incubator before they’re ready to help Texas win games.
    Like Cook and Hemphill-Woods, Rhoa is ranked outside of the top 450 prospects nationally (No. 602 in the Rivals Industry and No. 612 in the 247Sports Composite). Nevertheless, if those three get on similar trajectories like Jackson Christian, who was getting snaps with the first-team offense in spring practice before suffering a knee injury, and Jordan Coleman, who logged time as the offense’s No. 1 left tackle while Goosby spent the spring recovering from shoulder surgery, they’ll position themselves to outperform their recruiting ranking.
    Other than the handful of truly elite offensive line prospects in a given cycle (the tier where Swanson and Camara reside in 2027), beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While the transfer portal can fill gaps and address recruiting mishaps, Rhoa’s commitment is the latest example of how Texas continues to prioritize high school offensive line recruiting without putting all its eggs in one basket.
    Jeff Howe
    After wrapping an official visit to Texas on Wednesday, Long Beach State outfielder Trevor Goldenetz became the latest transfer portal commitment for Jim Schlossnagle and the Longhorns.
    Goldenetz is the second transfer outfielder to commit to Texas in the current cycle, joining Kent State’s Sawyer Solitaria. Goldenetz and Solitaria make up a four-member portal haul as of Wednesday, a group that includes Texas Tech infielder Linkin Garcia and St. Mary’s catcher Ian Armstrong.
    The 6-foot-1-inch, 180-pound Goldenetz had a productive season as a freshman for the Dirtbags, hitting .370 in 30 games before suffering a hand injury, which forced him to miss more than a month of action in April and May. Goldenetz, who scored 26 runs, walked 19 times and recorded a .489 on-base percentage, made it back to appear in the team’s season-ending road loss to Cal Poly on May 16 after he was hit by a pitch and scored a run in an April 6 home loss to Cal Baptist.
    With All-American Aiden Robbins expected to be an early-round selection in the 2026 MLB Draft, Jayden Duplantier and Dariyan Pendergrass out of eligibility and Maddox Monsour entering the transfer portal, Schlossnagle’s staff has made acquiring outfielders a priority during the current portal cycle.  While the Longhorns will welcome SEC Freshman of the Year Anthony Pack Jr. back for his sophomore season in 2027, Jonah Williams is coming off an early-season shoulder injury and returned to the football program for the 2026 season, forcing Schlossnagle and the Texas coaches to mine the portal for players fit to compete for the two open outfield spots alongside Pack.
    Along with Goldenetz and Solitaria, the Longhorns continue to pursue other transfer targets in the outfield. On Texas Football has been told that Oregon transfer Angel Laya (.296/.396/.538 with 14 home runs and 47 RBI) is one of the targets of interest for Texas.
    Texas Baseball Transfer Portal Tracker
    Incoming:
    Linkin Garcia, INF, Texas Tech (Fr.)
    Ian Armstrong, C, St. Mary's (Soph.)
    Sawyer Solitaria, OF, Kent State (Soph.)
    Trevor Goldenetz, OF, Long Beach State (Fr.)
    Outgoing:
    Will Hill, OF, Fr.
    Jadyn Ferguson, RHP, Fr. (Missouri)
    Cooper Rummel, RHP, Fr. (Duke)
    Presley Courville, C, Fr.
    Kade Bing, LHP, Jr.
    Andrew Ermis, C, Jr.
    Callum Early, INF, Soph.
    Maddox Monsour, UTIL, Fr.
    Jason Flores, RHP, Soph.
    Jeff Howe
    The Chicago Bulls selected Dailyn Swain with the No. 15 overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday.
    The 6-foot-7-inch, 211-pound Swain is the 21st Texas product to be picked in the first round of the draft and the 17th Longhorn to go in the first round since Chris Mihm, who the Bulls took with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2000 draft (later traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers). Swain joins Mihm and LaMarcus Aldridge (No. 2 overall in 2006, later traded to the Portland Trail Blazers) as Chicago first-round picks from the Forty Acres on a night when he became the 20th Longhorn drafted in the last 20 years (Aldridge, P.J. Tucker and Daniel Gibson were selected in the 2006 draft, with Tucker and Gibson going in the second round).
    Swain is also the first Division I transfer into the Texas program to go in the first round since B.J. Tyler (transferred from DePaul after the 1989-90 season) was taken 20th overall in 1994 by the Philadelphia 76ers. Swain is the first Longhorn first-rounder produced by Sean Miller, making him the first first-year coach in program history to produce a first-round pick.
    In one season in burnt orange under Miller, who recruited Swain to Xavier out of Columbus, Ohio (Africentric Early College), Swain helped lead Texas to three NCAA Tournament wins before the team’s postseason run of success ended in the Sweet 16. Swain led the Longhorns with 21 assists in four NCAA Tournament games, scoring 53 points and grabbing 28 rebounds, which included a 15-point, 9-rebound effort with five assists in a season-ending 79-77 loss to Purdue.
    Swain, former NBA MVP Derrick Rose (the No. 1 overall pick by the Bulls in the 2008 draft) of Memphis and former Texas All-Big 12 guard Marcus Carr are the only Division I players in the last 20 years to score at least 10 points and dish out at least three assists in each of their first six career NCAA Tournament games.
    In a 36-game campaign for Texas, Swain was named SEC Newcomer of the Year and second-team All-SEC while emerging as a difference maker at both ends of the floor. Swain was the only player from a Division I power conference (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and SEC) to lead his team in five different major statistical categories, leading the Longhorns in points per game (17.3), rebounds per game (7.5), assists (129), steals (59) and minutes per game (32.8).
    Swain joined LSU’s Ben Simmons (2015-16) and Tennessee’s Grant Williams (2018-19) as the only SEC players in the last 30 years to average at least 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game. Swain shot a career-high 54.2 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from 3-point range, while shooting 81.5 percent from the free-throw line on a career-high 5.6 free-throw attempts per game.
    Jeff Howe
    When the curtain falls on the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, Dailyn Swain should have a new place to call home.
    It’s unclear how long Swain will wait to hear his name called once the Washington Wizards are on the clock for the No. 1 overall and the draft begins on Tuesday (7 p.m., ABC/ESPN). Nevertheless, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas believes the team that picks the Texas standout will be getting a prospect who will check a lot of boxes for a franchise looking for a piece to fit into its championship puzzle.
    “Dailyn is an NBA player,” Bilas told On Texas Football during a draft Zoom call last Thursday. “He's a Swiss Army knife out there. His shooting has improved, but its still a ways to go. But that's not the only factor that brings value. With his length, athleticism, his ability to get downhill, defensive versatility, toughness — he's going to play in the NBA.
    "It's just a question of where.”
    After playing his freshman and sophomore campaigns for Sean Miller at Xavier, Swain blossomed into a player capable of impacting games against high-level competition at both ends of the floor in his lone campaign under Miller in a Texas uniform. Voted SEC Newcomer of the Year and second-team All-SEC by the league’s coaches, Swain was the only player from a Division I power conference (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and SEC) to lead his team in five different major statistical categories after leading the Longhorns in points per game (17.3), rebounds per game (7.5), assists (129), steals (59) and minutes per game (32.8) while starting each of the team’s 36 games.
    Swain joined LSU’s Ben Simmons (2015-16) and Tennessee’s Grant Williams (2018-19) as the only SEC players in the last 30 years to average at least 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game. While helping Texas make an NCAA Tournament run from the First Four to the Sweet 16, Swain shot a career-high 54.2 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from 3-point range, while shooting 81.5 percent from the free-throw line on a career-high 5.6 free-throw attempts per game.
    ESPN’s Jeremy Woo included Swain in the first round of his final mock draft on Tuesday. While Swain could come off the board as early as No. 17 overall to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Woo wrote, he has the 6-foot-8-inch Swain projected to go No. 20 overall to the San Antonio Spurs.
    “The lack of wings with a variety of tools in the middle tier of the draft works in his favor,” Woo wrote. “There are still questions around his shooting, but teams view his ability to get downhill and solid defensive upside as worth the long-term investment.”
    Bilas, who will be on ESPN’s broadcast for both nights of the draft (the second round will take place on Wednesday), echoed those sentiments.
    “Most observers would rank him in the 20s, which is where I rank him in this draft, and this is an unusually good draft,” Bilas said. “He's going to help somebody and be a valuable asset.”
    Jeff Howe
    Jim Schlossnagle and the Texas baseball program secured a transfer portal commitment from St. Mary’s catcher Ian Armstrong on Saturday.
    Armstrong’s commitment, which he announced on Instagram, fills one of the Longhorns' most significant roster needs with one of the top prospects available in the portal. After Carson Tinney’s All-American season at (.326/.483/.688 with 22 home runs and 58 RBI) and behind the plate (ABCA Division I Rawlings Gold Glove winner) in 2026, and Rylan Galvan’s an All-American campaign during Schlossnagle’s debut, Texas couldn’t afford to take a significant step back at a position upon which Schlossnagle puts a high value when building his roster.
    Tinney is expected to be an early-round selection in the 2026 MLB Draft, paving the way for Armstrong, who visited campus late in the week ahead of the current dead period (runs through Monday), to bring his two-way talent to the Forty Acres.
    As a sophomore for the Gaels, the 6-foot-1-inch Armstrong hit .351 with 16 home runs, 51 RBI and a 1.070 OPS en route to first-team All-West Coast Conference honors. According to D1Baseball and Synergy, Armstrong is fifth in Division I in defensive runs saved and seventh in defensive wins above replacement (1.33, which currently ranks fourth among SEC catchers).
    Armstrong is the second transfer portal commitment the Longhorns have landed in the current cycle, joining Texas Tech infielder Linkin Garcia. With the futures of Casey Borba and Ethan Mendoza uncertain as the two starters from a team that won 46 games and reached the College World Series await the upcoming draft, Armstrong and Garcia give Schlossnagle two key pieces of the 2027 infield, along with returning postseason standout Adrian Rodriguez.
    On Texas Football expects up to two more infielders, two outfielders and three pitchers to be what Texas tries to add in the portal. The baseball transfer portal window will close on June 30.
    As of Saturday, the Longhorns have lost five players to the transfer portal: right-handed pitchers Jadyn Ferguson and Cooper Rummel, catchers Presley Courville and Andrew Ermis (the only catchers other than Tinney on the 2026 roster) and outfielder Will Hill.
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