Steve Sarkisian remains excited about developmental offensive line heading into 2025

While the Texas Longhorns still remain the national title favorites on websites like FanDuel, there have been two key factors that have kept neutral pundits and analysts bearish on Texas’ national title hopes.

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One stems from the Longhorns relying on a quarterback with just two career starts. While it’s historically been true that first-year starters are hard to rally behind as national title-winning quarterbacks, there’s different gravity with Arch Manning under center. Texas is confident they have one of the best three QBs in the country, and so does Vegas, which continues to list Manning as the favorite for the Heisman Trophy.

The other factor that holds many back is the offensive line—and for good reason. Anyone not familiar with the process of Texas’ roster churn can easily see the Longhorns being without four of their starters from last season, including first-round pick and All-American Kelvin Banks Jr. blocking the QB’s blindside. That group—outside of turning Christian Jones into Cam Williams for the 2024 season—had been the same nucleus that led Texas to success since 2023.

Now in 2025, the sole remaining part of that cast is DJ Campbell, a fourth-year guard who was ranked as the No. 1 IOL in the class of 2022. Campbell has been solid on the interior, but maybe not quite a five-star-level player at this point. In a contract year, that might be changing.

Texas then supplements two of the starting spots with familiar faces for those who have followed the Longhorns closely. Cole Hutson will take over the reins at center, and 2025 will be his fourth season in a row playing over 100 snaps for the Longhorns. While he spent most of 2023 on the sidelines, Hutson was a starting guard for Texas in 2022 as a true freshman and rotated with Campbell in almost every game in 2024. If there’s any player in the nation who can be called a veteran without having started the last two seasons, it’s Hutson.

“On the offensive line, we’re replacing four starters. D.J. Campbell will be the one coming back. But Cole Hutson has played a ton of football for us,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We found out a lot about Trevor Goosby last year. He played in some big-time games against some big-time fronts, and we’re excited about him.”

That other familiar face was Goosby, who Sarkisian mentioned as someone they learned a lot from last year, when Goosby was tasked with playing over 45 snaps in four of Texas’ final five games. In relief of Banks against Georgia, Goosby looked like a natural despite being a redshirt freshman playing over 20 snaps for the second time in his career. In 319 snaps last year, mostly from left tackle, he gave up just five pressures.

Texas believes they have a potential first-rounder next year in Goosby, as well as two high-caliber veterans in the interior, with Campbell looking to make a push to be the highest-drafted guard in the 2025 NFL Draft. But what about the other two spots?

“But the beauty of when you have that group the way that we had it for the last few years, we had a chance to develop offensive linemen, and that’s one thing that you really love to do is develop those players throughout their time and not throw them into the fire,” Sarkisian said. “So we’re really excited about that group and what they can do.”

There’s no player that quote exemplifies more than Neto Umeozulu, the expected starting left guard. While Campbell was the No. 1 IOL in the ’22 class, Umeozulu was the No. 5 interior lineman. But his path has been much more blocked than Campbell’s, having to sit behind future draftee Hayden Conner up until this year. While we’re yet to know if he is a starting-caliber guard on a championship team, you can feel good about replacing a sixth-round pick with a former top-100 recruit entering his fourth year in the program.

That leaves the right tackle spot, which Sarkisian will have to look toward youth to fill. While the IOL is filled with fourth-year players, Brandon Baker is expected to start in just his second year of college. That can be a daunting task at any position, but offensive tackle may be one of the hardest. Still, what helps Sarkisian’s confidence is knowing Baker’s natural skill. He’s replacing Williams with not just a talented OT, but a five-star one—the No. 2 tackle in the 2024 class.

With all that being said, Sarkisian noted that the key to success transcends star ratings and prior evaluations of talent.

“Now, their continuity, the quicker they can gel and grow together, is going to be critical.”

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That’s what it will come down to with this room. If this unfamiliar group of five can communicate at the highest level and work well as a unit, Texas has the talent to shine at the line of scrimmage. While it may be nerve-wracking now to think about this line, in 10 months, this may just be a group sending three players to the NFL, two of which near the top of their position groups.