Iron Sharpens Iron: Texas’ elite defense playing a key role in readying Brandon Baker RT1 job

With the unfortunate news of Andre Cojoe’s 2025 season coming to an end before it’s even started, we are reminded yet again of the ugliness of the sport of football.

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Injuries are terrible no matter what, but there’s a different sort of gut blow when it happens to an important piece of a roster before the season has even begun. For Cojoe, this was just the first week of practice.

The injury to Cojoe does key fans in on one thing: Texas will most likely have to start true sophomore Brandon Baker at right tackle. While this may have already been the plan all along, a lot of onus is on Baker to still compete even when his competition in the room is now sidelined.

So how do you compete when there isn’t actual competition?

If there’s one bright spot to Texas losing four of its starting offensive linemen last year—and now the backup right tackle—it’s that the Longhorns have people on the other side of the ball to test these new linemen.

With Baker seemingly cemented as the RT1, it means that practices are about to become even harder for the young man. As Texas approaches scrimmages and eventually weekly good-on-good practice blocks, the youngster will be tasked with lining up against arguably the best edge rush duo in the nation: Colin Simmons and Ethan Burke.

“I think one of the advantages we have is we’re going to play against a really talented edge group in training camp,” offensive line coach Kyle Flood said last week. “So I think these guys are going to get challenged on a day-to-day basis. And I know it’s going to come fast, but, you know, right now we’re at the beginning of it.”

Flood has the hardest job of any coach on this roster. Replacing over 70% of offensive line snaps from last year is an extremely tall task, but he’s aware of the leverage his tackles can create when playing against the best of the best each week.

Baker’s first start as a Longhorn will be in Columbus, Ohio, with 100,000 raging Buckeye fans spewing noise into his eardrums. Opposite him will be one of four players: senior Caden Curry, redshirt juniors Kenyatta Jackson and C.J. Hicks, and redshirt junior transfer Beau Atkinson.

In 2024, that quartet registered 63 pressures on 531 snaps, with 41% of those coming from the UNC transfer Atkinson. In 2024, Simmons and Burke, as No. 2s at their position, combined for 65 pressures on 150 fewer snaps. Simmons was just a freshman and had 46 pressures of his own.

Even when Texas plays Georgia or Florida later on, no team is going to have a pass rusher like Simmons joined by a run stopper like Burke. And past those two, Texas can throw different speeds, body types, and playstyles at both Baker and LT Trevor Goosby with the likes of Brad Spence, Colton Vasek, Zina Umeozulu, Lance Jackson, and Justus Terry. The EDGE group is nearly eight deep if you count Trey Moore, who’s moving over to off-ball linebacker this offseason.

Texas has been thrown into a troublesome situation. They took a risk in not bringing in an additional offensive lineman from the portal, and now one of the only seven or eight Flood could trust is out for the year, not to mention he was competing for a starting spot.

But in cases like these, having the best EDGE group in the nation across from the line in practice becomes one of the most valuable things for this team. Texas can overprepare Baker heading into the season by letting him learn via trial and error with an assortment of playstyles and body types.

Want him to face an elite pass rusher? Throw out Simmons.

Want a giant wingspan and experience? Give him Burke.

Want 270 pounds of pure strength? Have fun with Terry.

Need a 95th percentile or better athlete hungry for snaps this year? Vasek is your guy.

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Every scenario and every style of play can be found in this edge group, which means getting Baker up to speed is not as daunting as it may have originally seemed.