A nagging ankle injury limited the Alabama transfer’s production in his lone season on the Forty Acres.
Texas Longhorns junior wide receiver Isaiah Bond declared for the 2025 NFL Draft on Tuesday, announcing the decision to forego his final season of eligibility on Twitter.
— isaiah “007” bond (@isaiahbond_) January 14, 2025
Bond spent one season at Texas after transferring from Alabama following the retirement of head coach Nick Saban.
Coming out of Buford (Ga.) in the 2022 recruiting class, Bond was the No. 43 player overall and the No. 2 athlete in the country, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, as a part of the Crimson Tide’s No. 2 overall recruiting class. A legitimate speedster, Bond won the Georgia 6A 100-meter and 200-meter races as a junior, the same season he turned in a 10.48 100-meter dash.
During his recruitment, Texas was somewhat in the mix and scheduled to receive an official visit that never come to fruition, with the Crimson Tide, Florida, and Miami receiving visits during the process.
In 13 games as a freshman, including one start, Bond totaled 17 receptions for 220 yards and a touchdown and returned one punt for 34 yards.
As a sophomore, Bond finished the season second on the Crimson Tide’s receiving list with 688 yards and four touchdowns in just his first season as a full-time starter while leading the team with 48 catches.
After landing on the Forty Acres just two days after officially entering the NCAA transfer portal, the 5’11, 180-pounder got off to a fast start, with a team-high five receptions for 61 yards (12.2 ypc) and a touchdown and a 25-yard run in the season opener against Colorado State and his first career 100-yard and multi-touchdown performance against UTSA with five receptions for 103 yards and two touchdowns.
But Bond suffered an ankle injury against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl that hampered his production for the rest of the season and caused him to sit out against Vanderbilt. Following the season’s second bye week, Bond showed some of his trademark explosiveness against Florida with three receptions for 55 yards and a touchdown and a 44-yard run, but continued aggravating the injury, including in the SEC Championship game against Georgia.
Bond missed the first round of the College Football Playoff as a result and only recorded one catch for eight yards in the playoff. In the last five games of the season, Bond had two catches for 30 yards, finishing his lone year with the Longhorns with 34 catches for 540 yards and five touchdowns and four carries for 98 yards and a score.
Bond’s game-breaking speed makes him an intriguing NFL prospect, but the lack of production due to the ankle injury could impact his stock.