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Starting a quick tracker of the portal entries we see start to file in with the turn of the calendar to December. Signing day will garner a lot of excitement, but these will be some names to keep an eye on in the ever-changing landscape of college football.

A few nuggets to pass along: *** Texas has been kicking the tires on former Arkansas LB Brad 'Greedy' Spence out of the transfer portal as of recently. The former four-star linebacker from Klein Forest High School in Houston entered the portal earlier in the week and I have learned that the Longhorns could be looking at Spence as an option out of the portal. Texas recruited Spence a good bit during the 2023 class, though never got to the point of an official visit. Spence should be on visit watch for the weekend from what I have gathered so far. *** On the note of Texas adding a punter – Bobby Burton added the nugget this morning that Texas was able to get former P Michael Dickson on the phone yesterday with Utah portal P Jack Bouwmeester, a cool piece of recruiting behind the scenes. I was told the visit went well on Saturday and that there is momentum here. I am hopeful to go fully in depth about the visit details, say... early afternoon today. *** As our @Gerry Hamilton has reported earlier in the week, Texas is expecting a visit by Purdue portal DL Cole Brevard. Brevard was at SMU on Thursday and made the trip down south for the Texas visit soon thereafter. The magic number remains 4 at the defensive line position, even with the pending return of DL Sydir Mitchell out of the portal I am told. Texas will go big game hunting here, but Brevard is certainly a good start to begin the hunt.

Monday is the first day of the NCAA Transfer Portal window officially being open. With that said, two Longhorns from the 2024 roster have announced they will be entering the portal today. This thread will be used to follow the movement of other portal entrants from the Texas roster as the day and week progresses. *** As of Dec. 13 at 1:45 p.m.

Texas is set to have 10+ players selected at the NFL Draft for the second consecutive year this spring. But before that becomes a reality, the Longhorns will send their draft hopefuls to Senior Bowl games both in Frisco, Texas for the East-West Shrine Bowl and Birmingham, Alabama for the Reese's Senior Bowl. I wanted to get a thread dedicated to the Longhorns who have committed to each bowl game and where they will be playing. *** Reese's Senior Bowl TE Gunnar Helm – accepted Dec. 13 EDGE Barryn Sorrell – accepted Dec. 11

A few notes on Clemson Clemson is a 10-3 ACC Championship team coming to Austin December 21. A deeper dive against the top 5 teams they have played tells a different story, however. Clemson P4 opponents winning % ... Georgia 11-2 NC State 6-6 Stanford 3-9 FSU 2-10 Virginia 5-7 Wake Forest 4-8 Pittsburgh 7-5 Virginia Tech 6-6 Louisville 8-4 South Carolina 9-3 SMU 11-2 Total = 72-60 Clemson's record vs. the teams with an 8-4 record or better on the schedule... 1-3. Losses to Georgia (34-3), Louisville (33-21), South Carolina (17-14) and beat SMU 34-31. Averaged 18.0 points per game in those four games. Clemson has struggled running the ball vs. top 5 opponents played... Clemson has played 5 teams with a 7-5 or better record, and the Tigers have struggled to run the ball. Georgia - Phil Mafah 16 carries for 59 yards Pittsburgh - Mafah 17 carries for 17 yards Louisville - Mafah 30 for 171 yards and 2 TD's South Carolina - Mafah 20 for 66 yards SMU - Mafah 13 for 28 yards Total = 99 for 342 (3.45 per carry) Mafah will also enter the game vs. Texas with a shoulder that is less than 100%. He's banged up per a source in the Palmetto State. Clemson defense vs. the top 5 opponents on the schedule... Georgia - 447 yards Pittsburgh - 438 yards Louisville - 366 yards South Carolina - 431 yards SMU - 458 yards Average = 428 yards per game

Tramon Mark update The Texas Longhorns have played the first four games without transfer guard Tramon Mark. Mark, 6-foot-5, has been rehabbing a sprained ankle suffered before the Colorado scrimmage October 26. OTF was informed Tuesday mid-morning that Mark's return could be as early as Thursday. Texas is "Very hopeful" that Mark will play his first game as a Longhorn Thursday against Syracuse at 6pm CST on ESPN2. The Longhorns will play either St. Joe's or Texas Tech on Friday, November 22. OTF will say it's a game time decision, but he progressing on schedule for a return to the court as early as Thursday. Tramon Mark by the numbers 2023-24 at Arkansas: 16.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists. He connected on 36.4% from three. 2022-23 at Houston: 10.1 ppg, 4.9 rebs and 1.8 assists 2021-22 at Houston: 10.1 ppg, 2.4 rebs and 2.4 assists 2020-21 at Houston: 7.8 ppg, 3.0 rebs and 1.7 assists Mark is a career 42.4% shooter in 107 games, including 32.0% (99 makes) from three, and 79.6% from the foul line.

The biggest issue for me on Saturday was the lack of positive plays on 1st and 2nd down, which came as a direct result of the lack of running game and costly penalties that kept the Longhorns behind the sticks. The numbers are awfully ugly when diving into it for the Texas offense. Texas had 18 3rd down snaps of offensive on Saturday vs. Georgia. 10 needed 9+ yards to convert The average distance was 11.6 yards only 4 were 3rd & short (1-4 yards) Quinn Ewers was 9-15 passing for 178 yards, but with two INTs. Those INT came on 3rd & 17 and 3rd & 9. Texas threw the ball on 16 of their 18 snaps on third downs, taking one sack in the process and obviously throwing the two interceptions that were mentioned above. Both interceptions came on comeback routes to the right side of the field. In comparison, let's take a look at the Georgia offensive output on third downs: Of Georgia's 15 third down snaps against the Texas defense: 3rd & short: 5-8 3rd & long: 0-2 average distance to go: 5.3 Say what you want about their offensive outputs on Saturday, but Georgia consistently was able to live near the first down marker on third downs. *** A look at third downs in the high-red area for the Texas offense. (from Georgia's 25-yard line and in) 3rd & 5 – incomplete to Moore 3rd & 10 – Ewers sacked 3rd & 6 – dropped by Wingo 3rd & 5 – pass complete for 6 yards to Moore 3rd & 5 – pass complete for 6 yards to Wingo (Overtime) 3rd & 10 – pass complete for -1 yards to Wisner (Overtime) Tough to win games against a great pass rush when you constantly are put in positions where you are forced to throw the ball and gained a lot of yards on a single play. This was the ultimate achilles heel in my eyes.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is on the podium to discuss the loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

Texas has suffered its second portal casualty of the 2024 season. Longhorn DL Jaray Bledsoe is expected to test the waters of college football free agency, 247Sports' Matt Zenitz the first to report. Bledsoe saw time in three games this season, accumulating 16 snaps for the Longhorns in 2024.

And Texas makes the cut. The Longhorns join the offensive lines of Oregon and Army as the finalists for the Joe Moore Award as well. Quite the accomplishment and as we all know, the job is not done yet.

Couple of late night nuggets * Continue to feel good on 4-star++ ATH Michael Terry *5-star OT Michael Fasusi 60% signing with OU tomorrow. If Bedenbaugh doesn’t end up being retained, could be an issue for the Sooners. Fasusi talked with both OU and Texas more than once today. * Continue to feel good on 4-star LB Kellen Wiley *Still a prospect committed elsewhere that is in play for Texas.

Late lunchtime notes *Texas remains confident on 4-star++ athlete Michael Terry III (San Antonio, Texas/Alamo Heights) *Less turbulence with the recruitment of 4-star++ defensive line commit Myron Charles (Port Charlotte, Fla./High). Same with Josiah Sharma (Folsom, Calif./High). But we are also not going to put head in the sand. *There is another prospect out there committed to another school that Texas is trying to make a late run at. Not trying to be a tease, but we aren't releasing the name yet - like this morning we didn't. *One other Texas commit is being pursued by blue blood. Waiting to see if there are any true legs to a potential flip before putting a name out there for no reason. *Texas feels like they are in it for Justus Terry (Manchester, Ga./High). No change from this AM.

Another recruiting note Fasten your seatbelt, there is going to be turbulence leading up to Wednesday. The Joseph Mbatchou flip will not be the last commitment Texas loses in this cycle. I'm not going to say the who because it's the prospects news to drop, but it is 100% happening. I'll also say this ... There are a couple of positive developments happening as well. #GirdUpYourLoins

Texas did a fine job of managing the football game on Saturday against Texas A&M on the road in a hostile environment. With that said, they were able to own the time of possession in their favor as well. Texas: 34:38 Texas A&M: 25:22 Texas has ran 81 plays on the evening offensively, 50 of which were running plays. A look at the snap counts: *** Offensive Snap Counts Out of 81 possible snaps. 81 – Cam Williams, Hayden Conner, Jake Majors, Gunnar Helm 78 – Quinn Ewers 74 – Trevor Goosby 70 – Matthew Golden 67 – Quintrevion Wisner 66 – DJ Campbell 44 – Ryan Wingo 40 – DeAndre Moore, Isaiah Bond 33 – Juan Davis 16 – Jaydon Blue 15 – Cole Hutson 8 – Silas Bolden 5 – Amari Niblack – Most snaps of the season for Matthew Golden, he is the clear No. 1 in the circle of trust. He runs the right routes, he is on time, he is as reliable as they get. – 74 snaps for Trevor Goosby after stepping in for Kelvin Banks. Zero sacks, zero pressures, no holdings. Tremendous for 74. – That is a heck of a work load for Wisner. Keep in a green jersey until Atlanta in my opinion. *** Defensive Snap Count Out of a possible 58 snaps. 58 – Anthony Hill Jr. 57 – Malik Muhammad 55 – Jahdae Barron, Michael Taaffe 49 – Jaylon Guilbeau 40 – Trey Moore 38 – Barryn Sorrell 35 – Colin Simmons, Vernon Broughton 34 – Alfred Collins 32 – Jelani McDonald 30 – Liona Lefau 29 – Andrew Mukuba 24 – Jermayne Lole 21 – Ethan Burke 18 – Bill Norton 9 – David Gbenda 7 – Morice Blackwell Jr. 6 – Gavin Holmes, TyAnthony Smith – It isn't the highest snap count for Trey Moore, but it is the highest snap volume of the season. 40 of the 58 snaps and he played till the final whistle, coming up with the strip sack on the final play of the game defensively. – Guilbeau was nails. – Liona Lefau and Ethan Burke each had very impactful moments despite relatively low snap counts. – Bill Norton deserves recognition for his goal line and short distance performances as well. He was very good.

Note on Javion Hilson Texas A&M has/is making a big, big late run at 4-star++ EDGE Javion Hilson (Cocoa, Fla./High).

Both Kirby Smart and Steve Sarkisian will speak for roughly 20 minutes or so with SEC reporters in regards to the SEC Championship Game and what is at stake as the postseason begins. The Longhorns and Bulldogs will face off in Atlanta on December 7th.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is on the podium this morning to discuss the final bits of the Texas-Texas A&M game, as well as the upcoming SEC Championship Game featuring Texas-Georgia part II. The Longhorns will be the home team for the SEC Title Game which will kickoff at 3:00 p.m. CST on Saturday in Atlanta. Notes and quotes in the comments below.

The game is finally here. For 13 years we were robbed of this game, and now it returns in all of its glory. Texas and Texas A&M – the winner to the SEC Championship in Atlanta on December 7th. Let me start with this, the atmosphere is unbelievable. *** 1st Quarter Texas kicks off to begin the game. Touchback. Texas defense on the field first. A&M takes a vertical shot to Terry Bussey who gets lost in coverage on the second play of the game for a gain of 27. Barryn Sorrell jumps offsides on 3rd and 3 to move the chains. Cannot provide freebies in this game on the road. Can’t do it. A&M is finding a lot of space through the air right now, something I did not expect to be the case. Texas secondary and linebackers have to clean this up and force tight window throws. What a stop on 3rd and 4th down by the Texas defense! Huge momentum switch after the Aggies storm down the field with relative ease. Texas goes three and out. A double-move to start to Isaiah Bond who did not run very hard and then a miscommunication on a hurry-up look between Ewers and Helm and Texas punts the ball back to A&M. That was unbelievable by Michael Taaffe. Not just to get to the spot on the field, but to get a foot down in bounds. Wow! I did not have a 26-yard rush by Quinn Ewers on my bingo card and he was about six inches from going 70+ to the house. Kelvin Banks is down in pain. Trevor Goosby is already in the game. Okay! Texas is showing some life running the football at the moment. Tre Wisner with back to back runs of 22 and 11 yards. The run game is working right now. I would continue to pound the rock until A&M reacts and then the intermediate will come as a result. The screen game is not going to work tonight for the Longhorn offense. Elko has a pair of really smart LBs and they are waiting for it on every single snap. What a freakish turn this game has taken! 4th and 1, Texas opts to roll out Arch Manning for the snap and he takes a read option keeper 15-yards to the crib for the first touchdown. We had heard all week there was going to be some sort of Arch package this week and that’s a heck of a wrinkle to unveil on 4th down on the 2nd drive of the game. Texas leads 7–0. Texas defense has settled in a good bit. They are playing sound football on this third drive. A&M having to grind out all three downs to scratch the line to gain. End of 1st Quarter ••• Texas leads 7-0 Texas did a really nice job of settling in, quieting the crowd and playing their own style of ball which included ground and pound on the offensive side of the ball. Through one quarter, Texas is winning the LOS battle. Tremendous play by Vernon Broughton who was turned loose to bring down Marcel Reed for the first sack of the game. Brings up a lengthy third down and the Longhorn D gets off the field on a 3rd down screen attempt. Texas gets the ball back at the 20 after a touchback. That was an unbelievable window Ewers fit that pass to Helm in for the conversion on 3rd down. Heck of a snag, but man what a big play to move the chains and help flip some field. Jaydon Blue misses a block on a screen and then misses his assignment on a sack by Taurean York. He has to be better. That was an unbelievable throw by Quinn Ewers to Matthew Golden for 45 yards, maybe the best of the season there for No. 3. Elko has no answer for Arch Manning currently, just wasted a timeout. What a beauty of a catch by Jaydon Blue, maybe the best play he has made the entire season. After review, Blue has possession and gets a foot in bounds. What a throw and catch there. Huge play for the Texas offense to go up two scores. A stop here and the Longhorns can really run this up. Wooooo…. I thought that might have been a targeting call on Andrew Mukuba, but the officiating crew sees it differently. Three and out for the Texas defense, which has been spectacular. Quinn Ewers has been absolutely spectacular in this second quarter. He htis Ryan Wingo for a 35-yard gain and the Longhorns are into A&M territory. Another big time play for Ewers who evades pressure, hits a pump fake and Helm adds another hurdle to his tally. What a play. This has been a superb second quarter for Quinn Ewers. Texas A&M ran 10 plays for 33 yards on the final offensive possession before halftime, they have no vertical threats and no real attempts to stretch the field. Texas is sitting on everything and as a result, get another fourth down stop. Bert Auburn misses from 48. Long kick, but it’s adding to a lengthy list of miscues. *** Halftime ••• Texas Leads 17–0 *** Texas gets the ball to start the 2nd half. First play is a completion to Gunnar Helm on an easy pitch and catch for eight yards. A couple of first downs, but ultimately Texas fails to convert on 3rd down and punts. Punt went into the end zone, so really it was only a 25 yard punt. First rush attempt for the Texas A&M offense is the most successful of the night and the Aggies are out by midfield. Alfred Collins has been spectacular at batting passes at the line of scrimmage this year. Another one goes straight up in the air and should have been picked off by Barryn Sorrell. Aggies punt back to Texas with 10:38 in the 3rd quarter. Texas is storming right now down the field. The run game looks great, and finally there is some space for the screens after the catch. Moved right into the red zone and could put this out of reach. Annnnnddddddd – pick six. DJ Hicks bats the ball at the line of scrimmage and the Aggies go 93-yards to the house for the first points of their evening. Texas will need a strong answer here, this game should be out of reach and instead it is reviving the A&M fanbase. Texas needs a lengthy drive to settle things back down and it would be even better if they found the end zone. Tre Wisner has been spectacular (again) tonight. Now up to 141 rush yards and Texas is firmly into the red zone. Geez, man. Ewers scrambles on the outside and fumbles. Two consecutive turnovers on two drives in the red zone in this 3rd quarter. Texas has dominated, yet A&M is in a position to make this a one score game. Texas won the time of possession in the 3rd quarter 12:34 to 2:19, yet lost the scoring battle 7–0. *** 4th quarter *** Texas A&M has done just enough to move the ball here. Over midfield after the intermission. Liona Lefau has been spectacular tonight. A passed deflection and a forced fumble which Reed hopped back on. Maybe my player of the game tonight on defense. Andrew Mukuba! Another big time PBU to force a punt. Texas must take care of the football and they must take off some time with this drive. Tre Wisner now over 160 yards on the ground. Texas is trying to take off some time from the clock, yet back to back A&M defenders have gone down with injuries to delay that progress. There is no reason for there to be miscommunications between Ewers and Bond in this stage of the game. Just absolutely none. Ewers throws to the sticks. Bond runs ten yards, Incomplete. Next, Texas A&M blocks the punt and gets the ball immediately in the Longhorns red zone. Disaster upon us? We will see. I am running out of superlatives for this Texas defense. An unreal stop on the goal line leaves A&M without points and roughly 3:00 of the clock. Texas has the ball back just over 4:00 remaining and Elko has two timeouts left. Texas has closed out ballgames each of the last two weeks, none would be biggest than if they could do it tonight. 2:00 timeout. Texas was a first down from icing the ballgame. A&M has one final bit of life. Trey Moore! Strip sack! Texas is going to the SEC Championship Game for a rematch with Georgia. View full news story

Florida has flipped back 2025 defensive line commit Joseph Mbatchou from the Texas Longhorn 2025 class. The Longhorns had previously won the Mbatchou commitment just over a week ago on November 23rd, though it is the Gators who come in swinging to get the talented Georgia DL back into their class. Florida is going down swinging with their top remaining prospects and Texas will need to be on high alert for Jaime Ffrench and Myron Charles for the final hours of the ESD period. Texas is back down to 23 commits in the 2025 cycle.

Myron Charles note Texas 4-star++ defensive line commitment Myron Charles (Port Charlotte, Fla./High) is expected to be in Tallahassee today for the FSU vs. Florida game. Florida also pushing to get Charles on campus Sunday.

Note on Texas commit Zelus Hicks Per a source very close to Carrollton (Ga.) High 4-star++ safety and Texas commitment Zelus Hicks, he does still plan to sign December 4. Hicks, 6-1.5 and 190-pounds, made an official visit to Texas last weekend for the Kentucky game. Hicks had visitis Florida, Georgia Tech and Tennessee on the Saturday's prior. There had been a report that Hicks is/was considering official visits to Colorado and Florida. The only way that happens is if Hicks decides not to sign December 4. Carrollton High (12-0) plays in a third round playoff game tonight against Hillgrove (11-1)

A rundown of who saw time on the field for the Texas Longhorns in the win over Kentucky on Saturday. *** Offensive Snap Count Out of 81 possible snaps. 81 – Kelvin Banks, Hayden Conner, Jake Majors, Cam Williams, Gunnar Helm, Quinn Ewers 65 – DJ Campbell 59 – Tre Wisner 54 – Matthew Golden 42 – Isaiah Bond 40 – Ryan Wingo 39 – DeAndre Moore 35 – Jaydon Blue 24 – Silas Bolden 23 – Juan Davis 16 – Cole Hutson 3 – Amari Niblack, Jerrick Gibson 1 – Colin Page, Ryan Niblett – I was a bit surprised seeing as many snaps for both DeAndre Moore and Isaiah Bond, felt like incredibly quiet days for both. – 59–35 snap count for Wisner-Blue. Blue had 18 touches on Saturday, meaning he touched the rock on more than half of his snaps. ••• Defensive Snap Count Out of 57 possible snaps. 57 – Jahdae Barron 53 – Malik Muhammad 52 – Anthony Hill Jr. 44 – Michael Taaffe, Andrew Mukuba 41 – Trey Moore 38 – Barryn Sorrell 37 – Jaylon Guilbeau 34 – Colin Simmons, Alfred Collins 32 – Vernon Broughton 28 – Liona Lefau 27 – Jermayne Lole 26 – Jelani McDonald 21 – Gavin Holmes 19 – Ethan Burke 16 – Bill Norton 11 – Mo Blackwell Jr. 4 – Sydir Mitchell 3 – TyAnthony Smith, Alex January, David Gbenda – What was interesting to me was the amount of snaps with just one true linebacker on the field. Texas rocked with Hill for just about every snap, but Lefau saw rough half the snaps in the game on defense and then there was Gbenda and Smith for some change. – Second most snaps in a game for Colin Simmons this season. – Continues to be a very impactful 26 snaps for Jelani McDonald. INT was the highlight.

A couple of tidbits from the early week practice sessions ahead of Texas-Texas A&M this weekend. *** I won't get too much into the health of Quinn Ewers, however, I can pass on that Ewers has been practicing this weekend as expected. Ewers suffered a bit of an ankle sprain on Saturday vs. Kentucky. The expectation is that Ewers is listed as 'Questionable' later Wednesday evening on the first Availability Report of the week. *** Ahead of the Kentucky game, I was told WR Isaiah Bond might be a bit limited coming into the game. Bond saw 42 of the 81 possible snaps from the Texas offense. I was not told, however, if Bond was still dealing with an ankle that hampered him during the OU and Georgia games. Bond is expected to be just fine for the Texas A&M game, but we will see what the snap count looks like for the game. On another hand, DeAndre Moore is on the practice field and doing well this week as well I was told. Moore got dinged against Arkansas but saw 39 snaps against Kentucky. *** Steve Sarkisian was asked Monday about the stories of old Texas-Texas A&M matchups and some "issues" the Longhorns came across when traveling over the College Station. "We'll be ready." To no surprise, no additional details were given in regards to travel details. The return of the rivalry will have extra emotion involved, and Texas would like to ensure no funny business is at stake this weekend before the game. ***

As we inch closer and closer to National Signing Day, we'll be bringing you a daily "Recruiting Today" thread that will be your one stop shop for all recruiting updates when it comes to the Longhorns and their targets. Does Texas Have A Shot At A No. 1 Class? https://ontexasfootball.com/forums/topic/4850-no-1-ranked-class-loading-yes-maybe-or-no-tuesday-652am-cst Speaking of No. 1... Texas Baseball Lands Nation's Top Prospect https://ontexasfootball.com/forums/topic/4847-breaking-horns-land-nations-top-prospect-mon-755-pm/ More to come...