Fresh Faces on the Forty: Wake Forest WR Sterling Berkhalter

Texas has made another late addition to their portal class, adding former Wake Forest WR Sterling Berkhalter . Berkhalter’s career has been a transient one, starting his career at North Carolina A&T, made a stop for a year at Cincinnati before playing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 2025. He had to apply for a medical waiver to play a 6th season in 2026, which was granted last week.

2025 Stats:30 catches, 416 yards(13.9 yards/catch), 2 TDs

This addition seemingly has caught many Longhorn fans by surprise, which makes sense considering the talent level in the room already. It’s known Cam Coleman, Emmett Mosley V and Ryan Wingo will be the top three, but the depth was largely young players before this addition. Berkhalter adds experience Kaliq Lockett, Daylan McCutcheon and Jermiane Bishop Jr. will be able to learn from and will help the depth of the unit.

I’d expect Berkhalter to fit in as a possible backup for Cam Coleman at the “X” position. His 6’3”, 203lbs frame is similar to Coleman and he brings that deep play ability that Coleman excels in as well. That could push Kaliq Lockett into more of a Ryan Wingo-type role off the bench, using his YAC ability more. Cam Coleman was a “ceiling-setter” for this WR room. Now, Berkhalter is the “floor-setter” if the Longhorns were to sustain injuries at WR.

This is an addition that could end up being as valuable from Sunday-Friday as he will be on Saturdays. Giving the young, talented WRs (another) leader to learn from and emulate as they make their way through important offseasons. Berkhalter has made his way up from the FCS, has learned three different offenses and played tons of football during his time in college. On top of that, he’s never been the “WR1” at any of those stops, which can be a valuable thing for the younger players to learn from.

The Texas WR room would’ve been one of the best in the country whether Berkhalter was added or not. Berkhalter gives Texas something that is increasingly hard to come by: experienced depth. Plenty of teams around the country have talented depth at skill positions, but few have talented and experienced depth. Berkhalter gives that to Texas and helps them avoid a disaster if Cam Coleman or Ryan Wingo were to go down.

This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Texas Football transfer profile: Wake Forest WR Sterling Berkhalter