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Four Longhorns land on preseason Lombardi Award Watchlist

by: Evan Vieth08/12/25
Cam Williams, DJ Campbell
Cam Williams, DJ Campbell (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Texas joins Clemson and Alabama as the only teams in the nation with four players selected to the preseason Lombardi Award Watchlist, an award given to the top lineman, linebacker, or tight end in the nation.

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Texas RG DJ Campbell, TE Jack Endries, LB Anthony Hill, and EDGE Colin Simmons all joined a group of 90 players noted as potential winners for one of college football’s most prestigious awards. If this award sounds familiar to you, that’s because last year’s winner was also a Longhorn.

Kelvin Banks Jr. joined Brian Orakpo, Tony Degrate, and Kenneth Sims as the only Longhorns to earn the award after a dominant 2024 season that saw him selected inside the top 10 of the NFL Draft. In the left tackle’s third year at Texas, he surrendered just one sack on 538 pass-block snaps, one of the most impressive single-season feats in Longhorn history.

Now in 2025, Texas features four players, and possibly a few more, with the potential to go back-to-back.

Campbell is the only returning starter on the offensive line who’s been able to watch his former teammate dominate at LT ever since they came to campus as the two highest-rated recruits in the 2022 class. Campbell is expected to take a fourth-year leap, both as a leader and as a true blocker for the Longhorns. An offensive guard hasn’t won the award since the dominant Nebraska offensive lines of the early ’90s, but Campbell is one of just six guards named to the watchlist—great company heading into the year.

Endries’ name may be a surprise, as the Lombardi Trophy has almost exclusively gone to defensive linemen, tackles, and edge rushers, but TEs are a part of the award. He joins fellow transfer Ohio State TE Max Klare as the only two TEs on the watchlist entering the season. Because of the nature of the award—focusing on leadership and courage on and off the field—it’s unlikely a TE wins barring a sensational season, but Endries making a shortlist of two players is impressive in its own right.

The two main contenders for Texas are Simmons and Hill, a duo that just made the Bednarik Award Watchlist, given to the best defensive players in the country. Both players are expected to be either the No. 1 or No. 2 players in the nation at their position, with Hill holding down Texas’ MLB spot for his second year and Simmons entering year two as a monster pass rusher.

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The Lombardi Award is presented on December 9, 2025, with the hopes of the Longhorns seeing themselves lifting the trophy in back-to-back years.

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