Steve Sarkisian reflects on ‘tough decisions’ he had to make to open cap space for incoming Texas transfers
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Steve Sarkisian and Texas welcomed 22 players from the transfer portal this past offseason, by far the highest total of the Sarkisian era and double the number of incoming transfers in 2025.
A few of those players, such as Cam Coleman and Hollywood Smothers, are expected to make a major impact for the Longhorns as they seek a return to the College Football Playoff. But, noted Sarkisian, for every Coleman and Smothers (and others) who came into the program, some incumbent players were encouraged to seek other opportunities elsewhere to open up cap room.
And there were some specific names brought up by Steve Sarkisian on The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday.
“To make the moves we make … we had to let DeAndre Moore go. We had to let Parker Livingstone go. We had to let Tre Wisner go. We had to let CJ Baxter go,” Sarkisian said, per On3. “We had to let some pretty good players leave to create the cap space to bring those guys in.”
While Moore moved on to Colorado and Wisner left for Florida State, Baxter and Livingstone remained in the SEC. Baxter is now at Kentucky, while Livingstone joined the Oklahoma roster and will become one of the few to play on both sides of the Red River Rivalry.
Sarkisian, for his part, stated that the offseason’s roster decisions weren’t easy.
“I think strategically, there were some tough decisions to make. But we made them,” he said. “I think we all can agree that we’re probably better around Arch today than we were a year ago at this time.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
