When Arizona State faces Texas in the quarterfinal round of the College Football Playoff on Wednesday afternoon, some Sun Devils will experience a full-circle moment at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Arizona State receiver Troy Omeire started his collegiate career at Texas. So did defensive linemen Prince Dorbah and Zac Swanson. Texas fans, do you remember Jake Smith? The receiver who originally signed with Texas during the 2019 recruiting cycle is now a Sun Devil senior.

The most notable of Arizona State’s Texas Exes is Xavion Alford. A junior safety, Alford spent the 2020 season at Texas. Four years and two transfers later, he is Arizona State’s second-leading tackler.

“Now getting to play against (Texas) somewhere else, it’s kind of like the best of both worlds. I played with them, and now I get to play against them,” Alford said on Friday.

Alford’s journey to Arizona State includes stops in Austin, Los Angeles

Alford is a Texas kid. Once a four-star prospect out of Pearland’s Shadow Creek High, Alford was a member of UT’s Class of 2020. Since his last name begins with an “A,” Alford was actually the first recruit that former Texas coach Tom Herman spoke about at his signing day press conference on Dec. 18, 2019. “(He’s) physical, athletic,” Herman said that day.

As a true freshman, Alford appeared in four games during the 2020 season. That December, he elected to transfer.

“It was great, my time there. I had to move on, better things for my future and things of that nature,” Alford reflected.

Alford spent the next two years at USC and then moved to Arizona State. Due to injuries that cost him the 2022 season and an NCAA rule that forced him to sit out the 2023 season because of his second transfer, Alford did not play football for two years.

But this season, he has made an immediate impact for the Sun Devils. A 13-time starter, Alford’s 82 tackles rank behind fellow safety Myles Rowser’s 93 stops on the Arizona State roster. Alford earned a first-team nod on the Big 12’s all-conference team this season, and he has also recorded two interceptions and four pass breakups.

“When he set foot on this campus, he was on a mission, and I think a lot of it had to do with his time at Texas and at USC,” Arizona State defensive coordinator Brian Ward said. “He felt like, hey, this was his last opportunity to really get this done and to make ASU the place that he was going to be the very best he could be, and that’s really all he is.”

Any hard feelings between Alford, Texas?

While speaking with media members over Zoom, Alford didn’t appear to harbor any ill will towards his former team. Four members of a 2020 recruiting class that also included Dorbah and Omeire are still on the Texas roster, and Alford remains close with Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron. Alford added that he is also friends with UT defensive back Jaylon Guilbeau, who joined the Longhorns after Alford left.

“That’s my brother,” Barron said of Alford. “Throughout the whole season we chat literally every week, except this week. But, nah, we’re always chatting. I’m always reaching out to him; he’s always reaching out to me and things like that. Just motivation to keep us going.

“He’s been through so much. I’ve been through so much. We started here together as a brother, and that’s always going to be my brother. I’m just proud of him and how far he’s came. He’s dealt with a lot of issues, just injuries and having to sit out. So I’m just proud that he has an opportunity to showcase the gift that God gave him. So it’s always good to see that out of him.”

Had Arizona State earned a quarterfinal matchup with Oregon, Georgia or any of the other teams still alive in the College Football Playoff, Alford would have heard from plenty of family and friends back home. But Arizona State drew Texas, his former team and the flagship university of the state he grew up in. For his part, Alford isn’t trying to view the Peach Bowl as the site of a reunion.

“I just view it as another game. I went there, signed there, it is what it is. I knew there was a possibility we could play each other in CFP, and obviously here we are a couple days out,” Alford said. “Not really focused on the outside factors, just focus on what I can control, focus on doing my job each and every day and getting prepared for the game.”

Alford, Texas reunion not an anomaly during transfer portal’s new era

Will it be weird for Texas to see its former players on the Arizona State sideline? Texas coach Steve Sarkisian doesn’t think so. It’s just a sign of the times and the transfer portal, UT’s fourth-year coach argued this week.

Besides, Texas has an ex-Arizona State player on its roster. Defensive lineman Jermayne Lole played at Arizona State from 2018-21. Lole transferred to Louisville for the 2023 season, and he has accumulated 20 tackles and three quarterback hurries during his lone year on the Texas defensive line.

“I think this is college football in 2024 and moving forward. It’s almost got a little bit of an NFL feel that way,” Sarkisian said. “I do think that’s the era of college football where we’re at right now. It’s 2024, the portal is alive and well, and 2025 is going to roll around and there will be more faces moving around.”

Most of Arizona State’s ex-Longhorns have contributed to the Sun Devils’ run to an 11-1 record and a Big 12 championship. Alford, Dorbah, Omeire, Smith and Swanson have all appeared in at least 10 games this season. Former Texas defensive lineman J’Mond Tapp was also on Arizona State’s roster this season, but he announced this month that he is entering the transfer portal after not receiving any playing time in 2024.

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Scan the rosters of Texas and Arizona State ahead of the Peach Bowl and the usual names pop out.

Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Thorpe Award winner Jahdae Barron. Arizona State All-American running back Cam Skattebo.

Another Longhorn who draws a lot of attention from Sun Devils coach Kenny Dillingham is Texas senior tight end Gunnar Helm, who has been catching everything thrown his way and even hurdling over defenders in a breakout season.

Helm’s 55 catches for 688 yards are both Texas tight end records as the No. 5-seeded Longhorns head into a New Years Day Peach Bowl matchup against No. 4-seed Arizona State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. He also has six touchdowns.

“He’s dynamic,” Dillingham said. “He’s not a tight end that clumsy and catches it and falls. He catches it and extends completions, which is something you never like to see when you’re going (against) a tight end … You don’t want them to catch it and run.”

In the transfer portal era of college football, Helm is a rare case of relatively unheralded recruit who stayed patient, stayed put and developed in to a first-team all-Southeastern Conference player this season.

“I think somebody this predicted me to have nine receptions this year,” Helm after he caught six passes for 77 yards and a touchdown in a 38-24 first-round win over Clemson.

“We’ve just got a great connection, and (he) just always is open it seems like,” Ewers said.

Rated a 3-star recruit out of Edgewood, Colorado, some recruiting analysts had him as the lowest-ranked player in the Texas class that came to campus in coach Steve Sarkisian’s first year in 2021. Helm had initially committed to former coach Tom Herman but stuck with Texas through the coaching change and a 5-7 season.

“I didn’t really have a choice,” Helm said earlier this season.

Also signed in that class was high school All-American Ja’Tavion Sanders, who over the 2022 and 2023 seasons would catch 99 passes and set the school’s single season and career pass catching records for tight ends. Helm caught 19 passes those two seasons.

The field finally opened up for Helm when Sanders turned pro after Texas made the playoff last season and was drafted by the Carolina Panthers.

Helm’s breakout game came in a 31-12 win at Michigan when he had seven catches for 98 yards and a touchdown. Against Clemson, Helm caught a touchdown pass in the second quarter. He was wide open in the end zone but had to leap high to cradle the ball and still toe-tap his feet in the end zone to stay inbounds.

His size (6-foot-5, 250 pounds), athleticism and versatility as a blocker have Helm projected as an early round draft pick in the NFL.

“We all know the path, his journey, the development that he’s had in our program. I’m super proud of him,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “(Ewers) can place balls in certain spots where he knows maybe if Gunnar doesn’t catch it, it’s probably incomplete … They’ve been together for three years now, and I think there’s a lot of trust there.”

This football season, The Texas Longhorns have had one of the best secondaries in the country, leading it to the SEC championship game and College Football Playoff. While there are several stars in the defensive backfield, All-Americans Michael Taaffe and Jahdae Barron make sure that everyone is on the same page.

While giving up the most yards of the season in the First Round Playoff game against Clemson, Texas got the win but still isn’t satisfied.

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik threw for 336 yards and the Tigers’ offense put up 412 total yards. Even though the Longhorns won 38-24, Taaffe and Barron wasted no time getting back to work.

“It’s the whole thing that Coach Saban always says,” Taaffe said. When you play a game not up to your standard but you still win, some immature players look at that like it’s a win. We can’t learn from it because we won, so let’s just keep moving on.”

Texas has been able to turn losses into lessons twice this season, and while they didn’t lose to Clemson, they still have a lot of work to do to be fully prepared for Arizona State. Back to practice after taking a break for Christmas, Barron was itching to get back out onto the field the second the clock hit 0:00 after beating Clemson.

“But this group that we have is so mature that Jahdae’s on the phone with me at 10 pm after the game,” Taaffe said. “He’s like ‘dude. I just watched it. We need to get better. We need to start tomorrow as early as 8 am and start getting better.’”

Taaffe, Barron and fellow Austin native Andrew Mukuba have led the Texas secondary, working tirelessly with defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski in the offseason to improve all aspects of their game.

Many doubted Texas’ ability to stop the run with the departure of T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II. But Kwiatkowski was prepared, ready to make the changes needed to keep the Texas defense elite.

“So schematically we went to more of a post-style defense going into the season. We lost T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy and we had (Alfred Collins) and (Vernon Broughton) coming back. We weren’t sure how we were going to be able to play the run with two high safeties with lighter boxes, so that was the main catalyst to that switch. And then from the secondary standpoint playing with a middle closed we were able to play tighter coverage, play with more outside leverage on a lot of the route combinations that we’re seeing,” Kwiatkowski said.

“And then credit to those guys. They took their growth and learning to a new level. As much as we like to tell them to stay off social media and not listen to outside noise, they hear it, and so they knew they had to get better. And starting in January all the way to camp to now, they’ve attacked that challenge.”

Now, the Longhorn defense will have at least one more challenge ahead of them as they will head back to Atlanta to face Arizona State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day at 12:00 PM.

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