Reports: Texas LB Cameron Hampton transferring to Lamar

The Texas Longhorns will have at least one fewer option at linebacker when the 2015 season begins with the Tuesday morning report from Orangebloods that redshirting freshman Cameron Hampton will transfer to Lamar.

The Statesman later confirmed the report through Hampton's mother, who said Lamar was a "better fit."

With the departures of Jordan Hicks and Steve Edmond, the news will leave the Longhorns with four returning linebackers this spring -- Dalton Santos, Peter Jinkens, Tim Cole, and Edwin Freeman.

Texas also has commitments from four linebackers, including early enrollee Malik Jefferson, as well as Cameron Townsend, Breckyn Hager, and Cecil Cherry.

Several of those players may need to contribute early, as Freeman redshirted, Cole played sparingly on special teams, and Santos and Jinkens only received a small number of snaps.

Hampton is a 6'1, 202-pounder out of Dallas Carter whose commitment came at a time when Texas was struggling to find linebackers in the 2014 class, though the previous staff eventually landed Andrew Beck to join Hampton. Then Beck moved to H-back during fall camp, a position he will stick at with the chance to earn the primarily move blocker job moving forward, while late safety take Edwin Freeman has quickly grown into a linebacker.

Of the four returning players, he may have the most upside at the position because of his quickness and instincts, the latter of which he developed as he played linebacker during his last two years of high school at Arlington Bowie.

Texas also lost some linebacker depth this fall when redshirt freshman Deoundrei Davis was dismissed from the team and redshirt freshman Naashon Hughes moved to the Fox defensive end position.

But to get back to Hampton for a moment -- he was undersized coming in and dropped in the recruiting rankings following a strong sophomore season because he seemingly failed to develop, with his lack of weight gain particularly concerning. By the time that he graduated, he was ranked as the No. 61 outside linebacker by 247Sports and bared cracked the state's top-100 players.

As a result, the expectations for Hampton dropped considerably, a fact that should decrease the impact of his departure for the spring and moving forward.