Sad news: A contender in the college football playoffs steals a desired transfer from Sooners

The greatest rivalry in college football is perhaps the Red River rivalry between the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns. Its history gained an additional chapter on Thursday.

A player choosing to play for the opposing team during their career is not something that happens very often, but defensive lineman Jermayne Lole did just that when he declared he would be transferring from the Louisville Cardinals to the Texas Longhorns rather than the Oklahoma Sooners.

Even though Lole hasn’t practiced at Oklahoma yet, opponent teams rarely do something like this. It was anticipated that Lole would add depth to Oklahoma’s interior defensive line room; however, Lole chose to go elsewhere after the Sooners acquired Damonic Williams, who was regarded as the best interior defensive lineman in the nation.

He decided to go to Austin, Texas, further south as a result. In addition, the Longhorns required interior defensive line support as they prepare to replace two players selected in this year’s NFL Draft—Byron Murphy in the first round and T’Vondre Sweat in the second.

A player with 141 tackles, 12.5 sacks, and 25 tackles for loss in his career will be coming to the Longhorns. He has had some medical issues, but they were both related to his arms. One involved a triceps injury, the other an elbow one. Not a leg injury, but still not great.

The Longhorns needed to win this game, no matter how they did it, and they did, which only heightens their hopes of making the college football playoffs.

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Former Louisville DT Jermayne Lole is traded to Texas from Oklahoma

The Longhorns return the favor to their Red River foes after Damonic Williams was signed last week.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff took advantage of the choice to pass up former TCU Horned Frogs defensive tackle Damonic Williams to the Oklahoma Sooners a week ago, as they were able to get former Louisville Cardinals defensive tackle Jermayne Lole from the Sooners.

With one year of eligibility left, the 6’3, 310-pound player joins former Wildcats Tia Savea and Bill Norton as the third defensive tackle the Longhorns have added this offseason via the NCAA transfer site. In the 247Sports NCAA transfer site rankings, Lole is rated as the 88th defensive lineman and the 867th player overall.

Despite initially declaring he would return for a final season after being granted a medical redshirt for 2022, in which he played in two games before suffering an elbow injury that ended his season, Lole entered the portal as soon as the spring transfer window opened last month.

Even though Lole committed two days after Oklahoma secured an official visit from him during their spring game, it wasn’t enough to guarantee he would play his college football in Norman. Rather, in the Cotton Bowl, he will line up in burnt orange and white across the field from the Sooners.

After two seasons marred by injuries, Lole returned to play for the Cardinals in nine starts and twelve total appearances in 2023, finishing with 19 tackles, five tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one forced fumble, and two pass breakups. The Long Beach native also had a triceps injury that kept him out of Arizona State’s 2021 campaign.

Lole had a great start to his Sun Devil career before the injuries ruined it. In 28 games over three seasons, he amassed 123 tackles, 20.0 tackles for loss, 11.0 sacks, eight pass deflections, and two forced fumbles while playing at Arizona State.

According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Lole was a unanimous three-star prospect out of Long Beach Poly in the 2018 recruiting class. He was rated as the No. 24 strong-side defensive end and the No. 551 player nationally. Lole had formal trips to San Diego State and Washington State before selecting Arizona State over 13 other offers, which included offers from Tennessee and Arizona, among others.

Now that Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat, the top two interior defensive linemen in the country in 2023, are expected to be replaced by new position coach Kenny Baker, Lole is set to compete with Savea, Norton, and senior Vernon Broughton for the starting spot opposite senior Alfred Collins. This fills the final major need along the defensive line.

For the autumn, Texas has 83 scholarships available.