Texas will see some familiar faces on the Arizona State sideline at Peach Bowl

AUSTIN (KXAN) — With the transfer portal, player movement in college football runs at a breakneck pace, and in some instances, teammates from one school end up being teammates again at another.

In the case of Arizona State, six former Texas Longhorns are now Sun Devils and will get a shot at taking down their former school in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year's Day in Atlanta.

Texas center Jake Majors, the program's all-time leader in starts, has been with the Longhorns since 2020 and has seen most of the now Sun Devils come and go. He's looking forward to seeing his former teammates again but also knows there's a job to do when the ball is kicked off.

"It's really cool getting to play these guys that I knew when I stepped here in 2020," Majors said. "(Xavion) Alford, Troy (Omerie) and Jake Smith at the time were already here. I think it's super exciting. I'm sure it's super cool for them to play the team that they once played for. But at the end of the day, it's the College Football Playoff and we are playing to win."

Alford, a defensive back for the Sun Devils, has 82 tackles and two interceptions this season and played his freshman year for the Longhorns in 2020 after signing out of Humble Shadow Creek. He transferred to Southern California the year after and landed in Tempe in 2023. He had to sit out a year due to transfer rules (which have since changed so he has another year of eligibility if he wants it) but has anchored the secondary for Arizona State this season.

He said he had to transfer from Texas for his future and is friends with two Longhorns defensive backs, Jahdae Barron and Jaylon Guilbeau.

"I'm really close to those two guys," he said. "Just being a kid from Texas, went, to high school in Texas, it was a great opportunity, great experience. Now getting to play against them somewhere else, it's kind of like the best of both worlds. It's going to be good seeing some familiar faces, being a Texas kid playing against Texas."

Receivers Smith and Omerie, along with defensive linemen J'Mond Tapp, Prince Dorbah and Zac Swanson, all traded burnt orange for maroon and gold. While Alford said he had a good experience at Texas, not everyone can say the same. During bowl practice before the Sun Devils knew who they would play, Swanson sounded off about his time at Texas and said some of the coaches told him to quit football.

"That's a team who kicked me out and said I was never going to be good enough to play there," he told a group of reporters at practice. "Exactly what was said is, if you want to stay at Texas, you might as well quit football and just go to school here. So a lot of motivation there for me."

Swanson was stuck behind T'Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy last season and more than likely would have been behind Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton among others, so transferring back to his hometown school was probably for the best, anyway. He has 16 tackles for the Sun Devils this season.

On the flip side, Texas has one former Sun Devil on its roster, defensive lineman Jermayne Lole.

When Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham was asked about the transfers during a joint press conference Dec. 23 with Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, Dillingham joked that he calls Sarkisian and asks him to send guys his way.

"He said he was going to us about six or seven dudes for this game," Dillingham said, laughing. "He's just going to let me know on gameday. I'm excited for that."