Texas Longhorns Lose DT to Transfer Portal After Just One Season

With the transfer portal officially opening at midnight on Jan. 2, the Texas Longhorns are seeing more players elect to leave the program.

After wide receiver Parker Livingstone announced Thursday he would be transferring, another Longhorn joined him.

Per reports from On3's Pete Nakos, Texas defensive lineman Lavon Johnson is hitting the portal after just one season in Austin.

Lavon Johnson's 2025 Season at Texas

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on before a game against the Michigan Wolverines at Camping World Stadium. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Johnson, who transferred in from Maryland last offseason, signed a contract with North Carolina and head coach Bill Belichick but eventually spurned the Tar Heels before inking a deal with Texas. It's unclear how the legality of it all will be resolved, but nonetheless, Johnson made his way to the Forty Acres.

Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out as fans had hoped.

Johnson finished the 2025 season appearing in seven games while posting five total tackles (three solo, one for loss).

An Allentown, PA. native, he tallied 19 total tackles (14 solo) and one sack across two seasons at Maryland before arriving to Texas. In a 29-13 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2024, he had a career-high six solo tackles. He also had three total tackles in a loss to then-No. 4 Penn State a week later.

Before Texas hosted Sam Houston during non-conference play, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian admitted that the team needed to "get Lavon Johnson going" as the defensive line prepared for the physical SEC schedule.

"We need to get Lavon Johnson going. I think he's on the cusp ready to go," Sarkisian said. "So we need all those bodies. We know how physical the SEC is going to be. I mean, as I told the team today, the war is coming, right? The war is a couple weeks out, and it's coming, and we need all the big bodies and physical players on the inside of our defensive line to be ready to go and to be playing at a high level. So that's what we keep pushing those guys towards."

On defense, the Longhorns have now lost linebacker Liona Lefau, safety Derek Williams Jr., defensive lineman Melvin Hills III and defensive back Santana Wilson to the portal.

Additionally, Texas' defense has been hit hard by NFL Draft departures, with linebackers Anthony Hill Jr. and Trey Moore, cornerback Malik Muhammad, safety Michael Taaffe, edge rusher Ethan Burke and more all declaring.