Ranking every day of the 2026 Transfer Portal, so far

Today, we entered a dead period in the transfer portal process. Over the next 72 hours, players are not allowed to take visits to school. It’s a clear stalling point, as teams have chances to secure prior targets and talk with returning players, but will struggle to pursue anyone new.

With it being a slower day on the news, and it coming after a big weekend, IT thought of doing something fun.

Let’s rank every day of the transfer portal frenzy so far, from worst to best, as it pertains to the Texas Longhorns.

No. 10: Tuesday, Jan 6

The Parker Livingstone day.

Just under a week ago, former starting WR Parker Livingstone committed to Oklahoma out of the portal, crossing the Red River and creating an uproar around the fanbase.

It was a viral moment, something you rarely see in the sport, and one that shocked Texas fans.

Texas hasn’t had too many terrible losses in the portal, but this was one that felt personal. To make matters worse, the Michigan OL duo decided to fully return to Ann Arbor on the sixth, AND Jadan Baugh announced he would be returning to Florida. It was a tough day for Longhorn fans, filled with misses and odd losses.

At least Bo Mascoe committed!

No. 9: Wednesday, Jan 7

Just a day later, Texas learned that Elijah Barnes was entering the transfer portal. It was a shocker: the No. 1 LB in the previous class, someone people were extremely excited for, had entered the portal.

Texas was extremely light on transfer additions at this point, and the Longhorns now had zero depth at the LB spot.

To make matters worse, Daniel Cruz entered the portal, a favorite to be the starting center in 2027. Texas was nearing 20 portal entrants with just three non-specialist additions.

Fans were starting to get agitated. It had only been losses, and the additions felt more focused on depth than true difference makers. Where were the moonshots?

No. 7 and 8: Friday, Jan 2 and Saturday, Jan 3

We were two days in, and Texas had done…. NOTHING.

The portal was quiet on all fronts, and Texas fans were already starting to be impatient. They were expecting fireworks, a promised ‘All In’ mentality, and yet the only news we had was that Texas was pursuing players who hadn’t fully entered the portal.

More than anything, those two days were more boring than we expected. The wave of players that planned to enter early on had already made that decision, and most of the interesting things were happening behind the scenes, anyway.

At the very least, we did have a sourced confirmation that Trevor Goosby would return to school on the third, which was later verified.

No. 6: Sunday, Jan 4

The process begins for Texas! The Longhorns landed the commitment of three players, Nose tackle Ian Geffrard, K Gianni Spetic, P Mac Chiumento and LS Trey DuBuc.

Texas had made its first moves, and the dominoes hadn’t really fallen, outside of learning that Texas was out of the Isaac Brown sweepstakes, who returned to school.

You could rank the 2nd-4th any way you’d like between No. 6 and 8, based on whether you cared most about retention, addition, or losses.

No. 5: Monday, Jan 5

Into the top five, Monday was the beginning of the fun.

Texas earned its first offensive commitment, TE Michael Masunas, but what was going on elsewhere made it even better.

Texas was RPMed the commitment of Zion Williams, who we’ll get to later, and set a visit for future commit Raleek Brown. It was a slow day that ended up having some important future ramifications.

No. 4: Friday, Jan 9

The calm before the storm, the ninth was the beginning of good things to come for Texas.

Texas earned two commitments, LB Justin Cryer and OG Dylan Sikorski. Adding an offensive lineman alone was enough to make Texas fans rejoice.

This also brought in some fun intrigue, as the Cam Coleman noise began to grow, and IT reported the likelihood of Texas hosting RB Hollywood Smothers.

No. 3: Thursday, Jan 8

The eighth did have its negatives; it was announcedthat Jamie Ffrench and Zina Umeozulu were to enter the portal, and Texas had begun to lose steam on the Bo Barnes front.

But that day brought two big commitments in Williams and Brown.

Williams was nice, but Brown was the prize. Texas had added its first really, really notable commitment at a position everyone was intrigued to find more value at. Brown jumped Mascoe as the highest-rated Longhorn in the portal, and Texas was starting to build momentum.

No. 2: Saturday, Jan 10

The 10th only brought one true commitment, but it was a big one.

Rasheem Biles from Pitt committed to the Longhorns, and Texas had its LB core returned in two days. Biles jumped Brown as the highest-rated transfer, and it’s easy to see why. He is a true difference maker who will elevate this defense.

Saturday also just had a lot of positives. Kobe Black withdrew his name from the portal, Texas was hosting more offensive linemen and Texas basketball won in Tuscaloosa. Is that important? Well…

No. 1: Sunday, Jan 11

The unanimous top choice, it couldn’t have been anything else.

Texas fans had no idea of the treat they were in for when they woke up yesterday, ready to watch some NFL playoffs.

In the morning, Texas fans were treated to the commitment of Cam Coleman, arguably the best player in the entire portal process and a true game-changer on the offensive side. One of the most prized WRs to ever enter the transfer portal, Texas not only got a huge win, but did it over a big rival and SEC competition.

Then, Texas flipped Smothers from Alabama, absolutely destroying the Crimson Tide on the weekend. Texas had beaten them in basketball, stole their commit and won the biggest battle of the offseason.

Texas also learned about the return of Connor Robertson, and Goosby officially announced his return for the 2026 season. Texas had made four offensive starters official in the span of a single day.

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Now the question is, what day between now and the end of the month will jump into the top 3? How much better can you get than Brown and Williams? Do we have a worse one still to come? What was your favorite?