“I feel very good about that group. Now, granted, there’s nothing like game experience.”
In the process of replacing four starting offensive linemen who totaled 157 career starts, the ability to protect Arch Manning and create rushing lanes is one of the biggest question marks facing the Texas Longhorns this offseason.
It’s a moment that head coach Steve Sarkisian and offensive line coach Kyle Flood have been preparing for since signing seven offensive linemen in the 2022 recruiting class. Two of those players, left tackle Kelvin Banks and right tackle Cameron Williams, were selected in the NFL Draft last month. Another, Malik Agbo, departed via the NCAA transfer portal during the spring window.
But the other four 2022 signees are still on campus and three of them project as starters this season — senior right guard DJ Campbell, entering his third year as a starter, senior center Cole Hutson, who started at right guard in 2022, and redshirt junior Neto Umeozulu, a first-time starter in 2025.
“We’re really not that young of a team — you just have new faces, right? Beauty of it is, a lot of these new faces have been developing in our program,” Sarkisian said on the On Second Thought podcast last week.
With seven defensive linemen from Texas selected in the last three NFL Drafts, the behind-the-scenes development from the new starting offensive linemen was hard earned in practice and forged in offseason conditioning sessions in the brutal Austin heat.
“Those guys have been having to go against all those defensive linemen that just went to the NFL or that just moved on. They’ve had to compete at a really high level every single day. And Coach [Kyle] Flood’s been developing them and Torre Becton has been developing them. So I feel very good about that group,” Sarkisian said.
The caveat for the fifth-year Texas head coach is that all that development still has to coalesce into on-field execution this fall.
“Now, granted, there’s nothing like game experience, and so are we going to have some growing pains? Sure, we are. I’m not naive to think that we’re not going to have some. But that doesn’t mean that we have to go out there and play like a bunch of freshmen, because we’re not,” Sarkisian said.
Of the 45 career starts by the Longhorns, 30 are by Campbell, who rotated with senior Hutson at the position last year. With Campbell taking over at right guard in 2023, Hutson hasn’t received a start since starting all 13 games at right guard as a freshman in 2022, but he’s played in 25 games since then, totaling 533 snaps.
So for Campbell and Hutson, the concern isn’t a lack of experience, it’s whether they can finally become impact players. Hutson has improved from bad as a true freshman playing through a torn labrum in his shoulder to a below-average player rotating with Campbell in 2024. In addition to keeping Hutson engaged in the program, the playing time for the Frisco product was a result of Campbell’s trajectory failing to match the developmental trajectory commensurate with his ranking as the nation’s top interior offensive linemen in the 2022 recruiting class.
Blocked by three-year starter Hayden Conner at left guard, redshirt junior Neto Umeozulu has had a more difficult path to playing time, totaling 166 snaps over the last three seasons. Playing 81 snaps at the end of four blowouts in 2024, Umeozulu was sound as a pass blocker in the 16 snaps tracked by Pro Football Focus and above average in 65 snaps as a run blocker, but sample size and competition caveats apply to both grades.
Perhaps the greatest expression of confidence in Umeozulu from the Texas staff is the fact that the Sarkisian and position coach Kyle Flood pursued a transfer portal upgrade during the winter window before declining to do so in the spring. If that’s the generous reading, the less generous reading is that there weren’t any spring options that were fits in ability, mental makeup, and NIL price point.
“I would say I’m confident in our ability, that we have some high-level players on that unit. You know what DJ Campbell looks like when he’s at his best. I’m very confident in what Trevor Goosby looks like at his best. I’m very confident in with Cole Hutson, Neto, the Brandon Bakers of the world. These guys when they’re on, it’s really, really good,” Sarkisian said at the Houston Touchdown Club in April.
With Goosby taking over for Banks at left tackle as a junior, the position that featured the most competition during the spring was at right tackle, where redshirt freshman Brandon Baker battled redshirt sophomore Andre Cojoe with Baker taking the lead and receiving that perhaps telling mention from Sarkisian.
It’s not clear whether that competition will extend into preseason camp because of the pressure on the entire unit to develop a high level of cohesiveness heading into the season.
“I think that the key for this unit, as we start to move forward, summer, fall camp, early in the season is going to be continuity and consistency. We had such a comfort level of continuity over the past few years because of so many familiar faces, that now we have to make sure that we almost force feed consistency and continuity amongst that group,” Sarkisian said.
For a unit so dependent on working together from pre-snap calls to post-snap execution, trust is a key factor.
“Trust in calls, trust in footwork, trust in the guy next to you. We’ve seen some practices where it’s been a really beautiful thing and it feels great. You’ve seen other days when it’s been a little bit off, which is understandable in spring practice. I wasn’t sounding the alarm in spring ball about it, but we’re gonna have to continue to find that growth throughout the summer and into fall camp,” Sarkisian said.
And the trust needs to lead to consistency.
“It’s not going to be about talent with that group. It’s going to be about the level of consistency that they play with, individually and collectively, and that’s going to be about the continuity that they play with as a unit when they take the field.”
Sarkisian trusts Flood to produce that consistency, and Flood’s ability to do so will determine whether this team is good enough to play for and win a national championship.
