Three Texas football players should be replaced on the depth chart in 2024.
The roster for Texas football is in good health, and head coach Steve Sarkisian will join the SEC for the 2024 season. During the spring, competition for slots on the two-deep can continue to flush out the roster as the young and talented players signed on the recruiting trail in recent years push up into bigger roles.
After exceeding expectations with a College Football Playoff appearance and a Big 12 Championship in 2023, Texas football has established a high bar for themselves in the SEC in 2024. Head coach Steve Sarkisian has gone through a process to maintain Texas among the top competitors in college football as they begin their first year of competition in the SEC this season.
Sarkisian and the Longhorns’ coaching staff will return more than half of last year’s starters in 2024. In some of the roster situations where the Longhorns lost key players, the coaches used the NCAA Transfer Portal to add immediate impact starters.
Texas football has successfully reloaded its roster joining the SEC in 2024.
Texas also boasts a record amount (18) of early enrollees from the 2024 signing class who will play spring ball. Among the 18 early registrants are several talented former blue-chip talents who can make an immediate impact this season.
It’s easy to see why Sarkisian and the Longhorns are anticipated to compete in the SEC and the newly formed 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024. Texas has been regularly producing players and putting more guys in the NFL year after year under Sarkisian than it has in the previous several coaching regimes.
Younger and more talented players are outperforming more seasoned veterans on the depth chart in camp and practice, which is contributing to the program’s progress. Texas saw several true freshman make an immediate impact in 2023. This tendency is anticipated to continue when the Longhorns join the SEC in 2024.
Here are three Longhorns players who may be eclipsed on the depth chart by 2024.
Michael Taaffe (S)
Much of Texas’ early offseason roster reloading efforts have focused on transitioning the secondary into a new era as the team enters the SEC in 2024. According to the 247Sports Composite, Texas has signed the nation’s best defensive back class for 2024. The Longhorns also acquired a big-time DB to their secondary in former Clemson Tigers junior safety Andrew Mukuba through the portal.
Texas adds seven additional scholarship players to its secondary in 2024.
As a result, Texas lost several safeties with starting experience to the transfer portal. This offseason, senior safety Jerrin Thompson, senior Kitan Crawford, and senior Jalen Catalon all transferred to other programs in search of increased playing time.
Texas lost three safeties who started multiple games last season, leaving only two on the roster who will start any games in 2023. Rising redshirt junior Michael Taaffe and sophomore Derek Williams Jr. are Texas’ only returning safety starters from last season.
Williams had a significant impact on Texas as the team’s best cover safety last season. He is predicted to be an All-SEC standout for Texas.
Meanwhile, Taaffe was one of Texas’ most consistent safeties last season. While he has athletic limitations when compared to other highly regarded safeties on the roster, such as freshman early enrollee Xavier Filsaime and Williams, Taaffe has been a significant player for Texas in recent years, always knowing where to be.
The return of senior defensive back Jahdae Barron for a fifth year may result in Taaffe losing snaps in 2024 compared to the previous two seasons at Texas. Barron was perhaps Texas’ finest defensive back last season, as well as its best and most flexible cover man.
Barron’s return for the 2024 season means that Mukuba may switch to safety instead.
