Inside Texas Football

Breaking: Starting Corner Terrance Brooks Enters Transfer Portal

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Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 23 Apr 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Brooks entered the portal. What does this mean for the secondary? Use Promo Code “IT1” To Get 2 Months of InsideTexas.com for Only $1: https://www.on3.com/teams/texas-longhorns/join/

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Welcome to the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel, powered by InsideTexas.com, some breaking news. Here on this Tuesday afternoon, starting cornerback, Terrence Brooks, announced earlier he plans to enter the transfer portal. We had seen some portal departures from the Longhorns throughout this window, even throughout the most recent winter window. But they had avoid losing starters for the most part until Brooks decided today that he was going to enter the portal. It was going to be a third year guy, the field corner. But Eric, the portal has finally come calling for someone who's in the starting 11 on the defense. Yeah, it was a matter of time before they lost the, who I think is a pretty good starter. But you know, this isn't, it's not an indictment on the player, I don't think, not an indictment on the coaching staff. It's just a mutual party of ways. Wish him luck. I'm sure he's going to end up in a very good spot, maybe a spot with a, where he fits a scheme a little bit better, a play to his strengths. And Texas will be fine too. I don't, you know, I don't think this would have happened if Texas was all in on content on keeping him. You know, so we'll see what they do from here. At this juncture, you know, he was a starter, started what you, you've tallied 16 starts, I think. And he had started at the tail end of his freshman year, took over that spot for the most part last year and had held onto it most part. But now at this juncture, you had reported that Gavin Holmes had had a solid spring. Obviously, Manny Mahadev, a Muhammad drew a significant amount of praise. But, you know, thinking about what's left in that cornerback room, Holmes gave Texas a little bit more, I guess, optimism in what he could provide on the field this spring, correct? Yeah, I mean, you know, last we saw him, he was getting beat by bond over the top. But yeah, he had a good spring. A lot of people are going to get beat by bond over the top this year. Yeah, he had a good spring. I think he's a better fit, probably for what Texas wanted to do over in the on the field. You know, the field is going to cover a lot of space. He's got to be a little bit faster. I, you know, I didn't like seeing Brooks over 200 pounds, you know, over 205 pounds. That's just a lot of weight to carry at the position. Normally you're going to see safeties that size. But I think you've got, you know, we got a number of options today, Baron. I think today, Baron could play corner. If I've always felt today, Baron could play corner. I don't think you ever move from corner to star because he lacked corner, corner back ability. I think it was just they like to play a corner back at star. That's the whole reason he's there. Jalen Gilbo's had a very good spring, very good off season in total. So I think they've got a lot of options and maybe they even had another one. Ian, I feel like that this is where we bring you in. You wrote pretty extensively about what the Texas Longhorns could do, putting Jadae Baron at corner if they needed to. Like Eric mentioned, Jalen Gilbo having a good spring, Austin Jordan providing depth behind him has made that an option, correct? And one that you think could be a maybe, you know, there's a lot of time in the portal window, a lot of time until preseason camp starts. But that may be the first thing they turned to like if there was a game tomorrow, they might turn to that. But why do you think that would be a successful option for for Pequet Kowski and the Texas defense? Well, I think he's the best defensive back on the team, Jadae Baron is. It's notable that they had Gilbo and Jordan getting somebody reps the spring at star. It kind of seems like this might have been in the works all along. Maybe they would have just moved Baron back there in the fall. They said that, Hey, we know we got with Baron. We don't need to we don't need to play him too much. Also possible because he was recovering from some injuries. But you wonder if this was always the plan. He could be an NFL draft pick. We thought he'd be an NFL draft pick last year and he wasn't. And part of the reason may have been that film at nickel doesn't impress as much at film at star. The only reason he was playing star was because Texas needed a real guy there. It's not because he can't play corner like Eric is saying. I think he might be immediately the best corner back on the team. I don't know about because Mohammed has gotten so good, right? But I think top two with or without Brooks on the roster, I think Baron would have been one of the best two corners on the team. And as far, you know, looking into the portal, you wonder if they maybe they want somebody with a little bit of eligibility. They can be a bridge to Kobe Black, Warren Roberson, the other incoming freshmen, right? Because those guys may need a year or so before they're really ready to just completely own the corner back room. Eric, I'm curious maybe what you heard about some of the other guys who are in that cornerback room over the course of the spring. We just mentioned Mohammed and Gavin Holmes at the top that leaves Kobe Black who had his ups and downs in the spring game. Warren Roberson, who's in his second year. They're awesome. What are you hearing about other players who are still here who until a portal edition is made if one at all that could possibly help out with this problem? We're hearing a lot of good things about Warren Roberson in the offseason before spring ball, just his athleticism, a lot of upside, a lot of athletic upside for the position. However, he had a pretty quiet spring, more quiet than I was expecting. You know, I was thinking before spring ball started that he might be able to emerge as one of the top three cornerbacks. But Holmes held him off. Now Brooks is gone. We'll see if they, you know, try to expedite him a little bit, a little bit more. I just think they got to go with Baron. I don't think Kobe Black is quite ready and it doesn't have anything to do with, you know, that play against Wingo. It's just a hard position to play right out of the gates. There's not a lot of Manning Muhammad's that are so mentally advanced that it's not, you know, Manning's a good athlete. Manning's not some exceptional revolutionary athlete. He's just a good athlete. But what sets him apart is his mindset, his ability to process, his field awareness, his football IQ. Wardell Mack is not ready yet either. You got Santana Wilson coming in. He's got the pedigree and I think he's got really good athleticism. But you know, I don't, if we're not expecting Kobe Black and Wardell Mack to, to log a lot of snaps, I think it'd be really hard to say the same that Santana Wilson would start or would have a lot of snaps this season coming in so late. It's just, it's just a tough position. So I think they need to go with, I think they need to try to find somebody out of the portal, but I also would still put Baron there if Gilbo can hold up at star. Ian, there's a guy we haven't mentioned in all this. It is a transfer portal edition that Texas did make during the winter window. And that is, that's also Andrew Makuba. And I don't think he would factor in at the corner discussion, but he played enough, I guess, of Clemson's version of star to where maybe he could be an option there. We talked a lot about Gilbo in the positive spring that he had and Jordan providing good depth. Could Makuba maybe facilitate Texas moving Baron out the corner? Would he be an option there or is that kind of robbing one position safety to pay another? I think he definitely could. It's hard to know if he's like in the top two or in the top three at safety right now. Seems like it's Taft Williams and Makuba. And I'm not sure which to win or maybe it doesn't super matter. But you know, in the spring game, Gilbo looked as good as everybody said he looked all throughout practice. And Austin Jordan, Eric kept reporting that he was looking good in practices as well. Austin Jordan made a bunch of plays in the spring game at star. He had a pass breakup on a blitz. He was blowing up perimeter blocks on screens. Nearly got to Wingo on that double pass. So I think they're really in great shape at star. Like whether or not they would have wanted to move. I mean, if they weren't moving Baron, you'd be worried about the portal with one of these other guys. Because Jordan and Gilbo and Makuba all deserve playing time based on their quality. And it can be a lot easier to get snaps for all of them now if Baron moves like we suspect he might. I'm trying to look up who the on threes top available transfer portal cornerbacks are. And there's a lot of questions we've seen in the chat about Takario Davis and Eric, that's someone I think if we remember right, they kicked the tires on during the winter window, correct? I don't know how much they kicked the tires on. I mean, his name was speculated a lot back then. I haven't heard his name as a tangible target yet. You know, obviously now we need to circle back on that question with this new opening. I'm going to figure it out. That's why, you know, that's why we do what we do. We'll get on the phone with some people already been on the phone with some people. I actually heard there was some good news today about them being able to keep a player that they were a little worried about that's a very good player. So retirement is just as important as acquisitions. I'm not worried about it. I think Jeff Cook was out as an end the guy that had the very first comment in this chat. I think he nailed it right when he said that Texas is in a good place. This is just the nature of the beast these days. I'm not worried about it, especially with Baron coming back now if they didn't have Baron, we'd be we'd be sounding a different alarm. Yeah, I think so I researched a little bit on Ticario. He entered the portal. He is not withdrawn. And sometimes that means that a compliance department is being lazy. But I think he's still in the portal yet also showing up at Arizona spring practices under Brent Brennan. So maybe trying to do get the best of both worlds. I don't know how how much he's participating. But I don't know if that door is is fully shut at least to the the portal market at large. Maybe not to Texas specifically looking at the the on three rankings of available corners. There's Cormonie McLean and you get everything associated with what is going on with him. Another interesting name. I thought it interesting was Trishan Devones from Duncanville and was one of Rice's top corners this past season and had some good stats. But I mean, how big is that? How big is that kid at Rice? He's listed at 60165 on on three. I'll have to double check what his Rice listing was. He visited Notre Dame. We had some friends who cover Notre Dame, asked about him. He got to go check out the Fighting Irish's spring game. But that kind of just looking us looking at the top list kind of shows where we are in this process and where Texas may be as well. They'll know the Rice kid. They'll have that kid scouted from playing them last year. You know, they last in the last portal, you know, they got a couple of players that they had familiarity with. Matthew Golden, Isaiah Bond, Mario and I Black. So that kid if that kids if they need a corner and that kid's good enough, then you know, they'll be all over it. You think a Rice kid and Duncanville would be a match made in heaven. But it just depends on if he's good enough. Like we wrote a couple of weeks ago, not a couple, but last week, they're going to be proactive and they're going to look at guys. Maybe the position isn't an exact need, but maybe they can make it better. And so, you know, they'll keep keep all options open. I wouldn't be surprised by a defensive back or a linebacker. You know, it's that's still what we got seven days another week left of the portal being open. So I think we're headed for for a surprise or two. We've got analysis over on InsideTexas.com from Eric about where Texas might look to head to InsideTexas.com read that article used a promo code IT1. You can get two months of InsideTexas.com for one dollar. Here on April 23rd, two months from now is June 23rd. That's the tail end of Texas big official visit weekend. You're going to want to get all the intel leading up from that leading up to that. And we know you're going to want to stick around after that. So head to InsideTexas.com. We'll have as many updates as we can unearth on the portal situation at quarterback, other positions, even some hoops stuff going on in the next few days. So head to InsideTexas. Ian, Eric, thank you so much. And we'll see you next time on the InsideTexas Football YouTube channel, powered by InsideTexas.com.