Whose offensive line is more experienced, Texas’ or Ohio State’s?
It is common for fans and analysts to point to the offensive line as an area that leans in favor of Ohio State, and the reason is often because of returning starts. This is likely because they are just looking at the games from the previous 2024 season, and not the overall career of the projected starters. If you look at the careers, the experience among these offensive lines begins to look extremely even.
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When you look at the 2024 starts, sure Ohio State does seem to have an edge. The Buckeyes are returning four offensive linemen with two or more starts to their names in 2024. Only two Longhorns can claim that: Trevor Goosby and DJ Campbell.
Something that has not been considered is the career experience in these offensive linemen. We will get to the snaps here in a second, but something needs to be said about learning the playbook, the language, and the flow of the offense they are currently in.
Ohio State has two projected starter with three years at their school. Texas has three players that can say they they have been in the meeting room and on the practice field with Kyle Flood. Texas has 12 combined years of listening to Steve Sarkisian in team meetings, offseasons being built up by Torre Becton. Ohio State has 10 combined seasons in Columbus. Consistency has to matter.
However it isn’t just the consistency. Something often lost in the counting OL experience shuffle is that Cole Hutson has 1,314 career snaps and 13 starts from the 2022 season. When counting both offensive lines, he comes in just shy of the second most experienced OL in the upcoming game. Though it does need to be noted that he played at guard in all of those snaps with center his job entering 2025.
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Texas not only has the edge on years in the system, they hold an edge in career snaps among the projected starters. Texas has 3,670 snaps to Ohio State’s 3,312 total career snaps. When counting total starts, Ohio State gains a slight edge with their 49 starts over Texas’ 45, but again it is far from the lopsided nature that has been sold by some.
Granted there is something to be said about the accuracy of the grades from PFF, and the small sample size for the Longhorns. But the PFF grades come in with a strong Texas lean. Only one Longhorn in 2025 registered a grade lower than 62.5, the best from a projected starter grade for Ohio State.
The gap between the two teams experience is much smaller than advertised, and might even be flipped as to who is the most experienced. Both offensive lines will have their hands literally full of the best defenders each team may likely face in 2025.
