Texas just signed seven O-linemen. Could any start in 2022?

The Texas Longhorns brought in a historic group of offensive linemen as part of their 2022 signing class. All seven members were rated as On3 Consensus four-star or higher prospects, and all were within the top 450 of the On3 Consensus.

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Three were in the top 50 of the On300: Kelvin Banks, Devon Campbell, and Neto Umeozulu. Banks is rated as On3’s No. 1 2022 offensive tackle. Campbell and Umeozulu check in as the No. 1 and 2 interior offensive linemen, respectively, in On3’s rankings.

Wit the influx of talent, could any of Banks, Campbell, Umeozulu, Malik Agbo, Connor Robertson, Cole Hutson, or Cameron Williams start in the upcoming season? Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will give them every opportunity to earn the chance.

“It’s not about if you’ve been here four or five years or if you’re a true freshman,” Sarkisian said Wednesday. “We try to make sure that the guys that earn it, that are the best players, that give us as a team the best chance to succeed, will play.”

He immediately followed up that statement with an admission that of all the positions in football, offensive line is one of the more challenging spots for a true freshman to earn playing time. A decade’s worth of evidence in Austin backs Sarkisian up.

Despite fielding several mediocre-at-best offensive lines over the past 10 seasons, only five Longhorn true freshman have started along the offensive line since the beginning of the 2013 season.

Kent Perkins played in six games in 2013 and started versus Texas Tech late in the year due to others’ injury problems. The start versus the Red Raiders helped springboard Perkins to 33 more starts in his career, which included All-Big 12 second-team honors in 2016.

Connor Williams started every game at left tackle during his true freshman season in 2015. He was joined on the line by Patrick Vahe, who started 10 games at guard before missing the final two games due to injury. Both were mainstays on the Longhorn O-line after their ESPN true freshmen All-American seasons.

The following year, Zach Shackelford started nine games at center after flipping from Kansas State and enrolling early with the 2016 class. He earned freshman All-American honors from the FWAA during his first season as a Longhorn.

In 2017, Derek Kerstetter started the final 10 games of the season at right tackle. Like Shackelford, the early career appearances helped Kerstetter become a consistent presence in the Longhorn starting lineup over the next few years.

Perkins saw the field due to being ready earlier than some of his other classmates (he was rated as the No. 55 2013 prospect in the On3 Consensus). Williams, Vahe, Shackelford, and Kerstetter all saw early playing time as a result of both their own efforts and the poor evaluation and development that plagued Texas throughout the 2010s.

Kerstetter was the only true freshman O-lineman from 2017-2020 to receive a start. Tom Herman made an effort to redshirt the almost all of his offensive linemen.

After the 2021 transition class saw Texas sign two offensive linemen in Max Merril and Hayden Conner, Texas needed bodies at the position in order to get roster numbers closer to where Sarkisian and offensive coordinator Kyle Flood want them to be.

Between numbers and need, could one of the seven 2022 signees see the field early?

“This is a very talented group, so I don’t want to put a ceiling on any one of these seven, or two, or three, that could have the potential to be a real contributor for us in the fall,” Sarkisian said. “But whoever it is and whoever they are, they’ll earn it. We are not closing the door on that.  We’re going to give these guys every opportunity to compete and compete at a high level.”

Two factors will determine if any member of Texas’ class sees the field early: talent and need.

Campbell and Banks are two of the highest-rated linemen to sign with Texas in several cycles. Their lofty ranking does have their talent and potential in mind, but they also don’t arrive at Texas as raw prospects with outstanding athleticism but little skill refinement. They’re ready to play.

Fifth-year senior Junior Angilau likely has the inside track at one guard spot. Campbell doesn’t project to center, which is manned by junior Jake Majors anyway. He could compete for the other guard role but he’ll have to top a group headlined by Conner, who never started but did play in eight games last season as a true freshman.

Banks could find a quicker path to the field. Kerstetter completed his collegiate career, and Texas’ other 2021 tackles of Christian Jones and Andrej Karic never played well enough to lock down the role entering 2022.

One thing working against not just Banks and Campbell, but six members of the O-line class is that most aren’t arriving in Austin until the summer. Only Hutson made his way to campus in January.

Five-star rankings for Banks and Campbell suggest they have the best chance of playing early. While most of the class won’t show up until the beginning of summer school, the sheer size of the class means almost half of the O-linemen on campus in the fall will be true freshmen.

Numbers, need, and talent may place one of Texas’ 2022 signees on the field this fall in a starting role. It will be a difficult adjustment to make from the high school level, and they’ll need to earn it while competing against an experienced defensive line.

They’ll get their chance to do so from Flood and Sarkisian once they are all on campus.