Texas football added 43 scholarship players to its roster this offseason
Nineteen of those newcomers were recruited out of the transfer portal. Six of them will line up on the Texas defense. Linebackers Rasheem Biles (Pitt), Justin Cryer (Florida State) and Markus Boswell (Akron), defensive linemen Zion Williams (LSU) and Ian Geffrard (Arkansas) and cornerback Bo Mascoe (Rutgers) are all now Longhorns.
The Longhorns also have a new defensive coordinator in Will Muschamp, who replaced Pete Kwiatkowski in December. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has since described Muschamp as Texas' "head coach of the defense."
MORE:
If Muschamp is viewed as the head coach of the defense, does that mean that he's also the authoritative recruiter for that side of the ball?
While addressing local media Monday for the first time since the Longhorns' season ended with a win over Michigan in the 2025 Citrus Bowl, the offensive-minded Sarkisian said he was still involved in the recruiting of defensive players.
"I think I'm still very hands-on," Sarkisian said. "I think I was raised in the profession looking at it through a defensive lens. Working for Pete Carroll (at USC) for seven years, working for Nick Saban (at Alabama) for three years, working for Dan Quinn (with the Atlanta Falcons) for two years, I've worked for defensive head coaches and listening to them talk and what they look for in defensive players at varying positions, the profile of the specific players at specific positions from height, weight, speed, football, IQ, character, all those things."
Sarkisian said he believes Texas did a good job of recruiting defensive players under Kwiatkowski, who recently resurfaced as an assistant coach with the Arizona Cardinals. Sarkisian, however, assessed that mixing in Muschamp has been "another added bonus."
When hiring Muschamp, Sarkisian was aware of his play-calling abilities and his reputation as a motivator. But how Muschamp — the former Florida and South Carolina head coach and a former defensive coordinator at LSU, Auburn, Texas and Georgia — has already asserted himself as a recruiter was a surprise, Sarkisian said.
"He's very defined of what he's looking for," Sarkisian said. "He's a tremendous recruiter. He's relentless at that. I think it's been a real added bonus, something that maybe I wasn't counting on, but it's something that in a short amount of time has definitely caught my attention."
MORE:
All of UT's defensive transfers committed to Texas after the hiring of Muschamp, so the Longhorns should have an idea of how they'll fit with a coach who helped coordinate a top-five scoring defense at Georgia in 2022 and 2023. Biles was rated by 247Sports as the No. 2 linebacker in the portal while Geffrard and Mascoe were evaluated as four-star transfers.
Muschamp, who previously coached at Texas from 2008-10, returned to Austin after UT had signed 23 of the 24 members of its 2026 high school recruiting class. The lone late signee was California defensive lineman Elijah Ali.
Steve Sarkisian explains how Texas settled on its spring schedule setup
Texas is set to start its spring practices March 9. The Longhorns will practice three times that first week before taking time off for spring break. The Longhorns will practice on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays upon their return with the program's revived spring game set for April 18.
MORE:
Why is Texas practicing for a week before it takes a weeklong break? Sarkisian explained that the Longhorns have used this scheduling format before, and that he needed to be mindful of UT's academic calendar when deciding on when the Longhorns would practice.
"Our players have to go to school at the University of Texas. They have to go in-person. We don't get to go online every day and do it maybe like some other folks get to do it," Sarkisian said. "I have to give them a week to get ready for finals. If I would have pushed spring ball all the way back until after spring break, we would be butting up right to finals (that start on April 30)."
Sarkisian argued that there were benefits to the way this schedule was set up. With the majority of the team's newcomers on campus this spring as well as a few new coaches, Texas can spend that first week working on the basic installation of things like Muschamp's defense. When the Longhorns get back from spring break, they'll go over everything again.
"We're stealing a week that way," Sarkisian surmised.