CB Warren Roberson withdrawing from NCAA transfer portal, returning to Texas

Four days after the news broke that Texas Longhorns cornerback Warren Roberson was entering the NCAA transfer portal, the Red Oak product is returning to Austin.

The 5’10, 188-pounder has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

A late addition to the 2023 recruiting class, Roberson flipped from TCU on National Signing Day in 2023, a rare post-early signing period recruitment — he didn’t even take his official visit at Texas until January.

Roberson also took an official visit to USC and held offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Nebraska, Ole Miss, Oregon, and Texas Tech. A consensus four-star prospect at the end of the cycle, Roberson was ranked as the No. 236 player nationally and the No. 23 safety, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Although Roberson was a late target for the Longhorns as a late-rising prospect, his offer list and rankings set the expectation that he could at least emerge as a rotation player on the Forty Acres, a baseline that Roberson hasn’t yet been able to achieve in playing 187 snaps as a junior after logging 26 snaps in 2024 and two snaps as a true freshman.

Roberson was a core contributor on special teams, however, starting in 2024 when he totaled 299 snaps across five units — the only one he didn’t play was the field-goal block unit — and making five tackles, according to Pro Football Focus.

The problem? Roberson was a penalty machine, getting flagged seven times, an astonishing number because Roberson kept committing penalties and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks kept sending him out on the field for almost every play on special teams.

In 2025, Roberson maintained those same roles with 267 snaps over those same five units and getting flagged for three more penalties, a number most notable because it wasn’t at least four — Texas benefited from an uncalled block in the back by Roberson on Ryan Niblett’s game-sealing punt return touchdown.

That sort of felt like the best-case scenario for Roberson by that part of his Longhorns career, committing a penalty that went uncalled rather than getting flagged for the clear and regular rule-breaching.

Defensively, Roberson struggled to take advantage of Kobe Black struggling early in the conference play, although teams didn’t get much against him through the air, completing 6-of-14 targets for 39 yards with a long reception of 12 yards. That’s actually pretty good, even as Roberson still did the penalty thing, getting flagged twice in his 187 snaps on defense.

With Roberson’s return, the defensive staff, including new coordinator Will Muschamp and returning secondary coach Blake Gideon, clearly believe that there’s remaining potential to unlock in Roberson, a belief justified by the flashes of being able to play with physicality and effectiveness in man coverage.