Committing penalties on offense and special teams limited Niblack’s playing time after arriving from Alabama.
Expected to provide an athletic option at the tight end position following the early entrance of Ja’Tavion Sanders into the 2024 NFL Draft, former Alabama Crimson Tide tight end Amari Niblack is expected to depart the Texas Longhorns program and enter the NCAA transfer portal after one disappointing season on the Forty Acres, according to multiple reports on Friday.
Texas tight end Amari Niblack is expected to enter the transfer portal, a source tells @CBSSports/@247Sports.
Niblack, who transferred to Texas from Alabama, had five catches this year. Had 20 catches and four touchdowns at Alabama in 2023.https://t.co/Zc0OgsKT4i pic.twitter.com/kaL5R0Zu5O
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 17, 2025
The Florida product has one season of eligibility remaining.
Niblack originally committed to Alabama in the summer of 2021 after picking up his offer from the Crimson Tide at a camp, finishing his recruitment with 15 other offers, including Florida, Florida State, Georgia, and LSU, among others. Ranked as a consensus four-star prospect, Niblack was the No. 146 player and No. 5 athlete nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
After enrolling in Tuscaloosa during the summer, Niblack appeared in 10 games, starting one for Alabama in 2022, recording one catch for 15 yards. As a sophomore, Niblack’s athleticism started to impact games as a part-time starter with 20 receptions for 327 yards and four touchdowns. Perhaps his most impressive touchdown came against Texas, a 39-yard reception on which he broke three tackles.
So the expectations were for Niblack to take the next step after he transferred to the Longhorns following the retirement of Nick Saban — the depth chart looked open at the H-back position with Sanders moving on to the NFL.
But the late rise of senior Juan Davis, who became a contributor at the H-back position for the first time in his career as Niblack arrived, made the path to playing time more difficult for the 6’4, 245-pound Niblack.
Errors in execution also hurt the Alabama transfer early in the season — Niblack saw time on the field-goal unit and the punt-return unit, but two holding penalties on punt returns against UTSA and Louisiana-Monroe during non-conference play resulted in Niblack’s removal from all the special teams units for the remainder of the season.
On offense, the story wasn’t much better, as he committed two penalties as a run blocker and two penalties in three snaps as a pass blocker, resulting in Niblack not playing on offense between the Week Three game against UTSA and the Week Nine game against Vanderbilt. Niblack did not play in the three postseason games after playing three snaps against Kentucky and five snaps against Texas A&M.
Because the coaches couldn’t trust Niblack on special teams, as a run blocker, or as a pass blocker, his pass-catching opportunities were limited to six targets that produced five receptions for 33 yards this season as Niblack only saw 90 total snaps offensively.
With Davis and fellow senior tight end Gunnar Helm both out of eligibility, the loss of Niblack means the Horns will have either have to find an upgrade in the portal or rely on inexperienced players like rising redshirt sophomore Spencer Shannon, rising redshirt freshman Jordan Washington, and 2024 signee Nick Townsend, who will enroll in June.