ORLANDO, Fla. — As a finalist for the Joe Moore Award last season, Texas was one of the top offensive lines in college football.
That has not been the case in 2025.
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Texas’ offensive line struggles this fall have been well-documented. Averaging 129.7 rushing yards per game, the Longhorns barely boast a top-100 ground game. They have given up 23 sacks. Of the seven linemen who have started at least one game this season, only left tackle Trevor Goosby and right guard DJ Campbell received a season-long grade of better than 70% from Pro Football Focus.
Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Connor Robertson (62) talks to his teammates during a break in the play in the first quarter of the Longhorns’ game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Nov. 22, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
The offensive line issues have been among the sources of blame for what became an underachieving Texas team. The Longhorns, who opened the season as the country’s No. 1-ranked team, went 9-3 and missed the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2022. Texas instead will play Michigan in Wednesday’s Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.
Throughout the season, Goosby has served as the offensive line’s de facto spokesman at press gatherings. Campbell has spoken with reporters a couple of times this fall and versatile senior Cole Hutson’s most-recent meeting with the media happened after Saturday’s bowl practice at Celebration High School just south of Orlando.
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Texas offensive coordinator Kyle Flood watches his team warm up before an NCAA college football game against Iowa State at Memorial Stadium, Saturday, Oct., 15, 2022.
Stephen Spillman/Special to American-Statesman
But since Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian prohibits his assistants from speaking with the media during the season, one person who had not publicly talked about the offensive line over the past few months was position coach Kyle Flood. That was until Sunday when Texas and Michigan coordinators spoke at Citrus Bowl press conferences. Flood also holds the offensive coordinator title for Texas.
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NO. 13 TEXAS VS. NO. 18 MICHIGAN
When/where: 2 p.m. Wednesday in Orlando, Fla.
TV/radio: ABC; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM (Spanish)
“Really what we have been searching for all year is consistency, and I think we have found that a little bit better toward the end of the year,” Flood said of his offensive line. “You like to have continuity. Continuity generally leads to consistency. It is the most important part of that position. It is what we have been searching for. I think we found that later in the year. And that is exciting for us, and now we have to continue against a really good defense.”
What’s next for Texas on the offensive line?
Texas has seemingly settled on a lineup that features Goosby and Campbell alongside center Connor Robertson and right tackle Brandon Baker with Hutson lined up as left guard. That group has started the last four games, when Texas went 3-1 with wins over ranked Vanderbilt and Texas A&M teams.
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Since none of those linemen are among the Longhorns who have announced their intentions to enter the transfer portal and/or opt out of the Citrus Bowl, it seems likely that the same quintet will start against Michigan. Texas won’t start next year with the same lineup up front, however:
• Goosby has yet to announce if he’ll enter the NFL draft, but the 6-foot-7, 312-pound redshirt sophomore is rated as the fifth-best offensive tackle prospect on ESPN analyst Mel Kiper’s list of prospects for this upcoming draft cycle.
• Campbell and Hutson’s collegiate careers will end whenever the Citrus Bowl does.
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• Since he redshirted in 2022, Robertson could return to Texas next year though he went through Senior Day activities last month.
If those four linemen all leave, Texas will need to replace 75% of its regular-season starts on the offensive line since sophomore Connor Stroh also entered the portal after losing his job following five rough starts at guard.
Texas Longhorns offensive linemen Brandon Baker (73) and DJ Campbell (52) celebrate an offsides in the fourth quarter of the Lone Star Showdown, the rivalry match-up between the Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Nov. 28, 2025. The Longhorns won the game 17-27.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Sarkisian has said Texas will address its shortcomings on the line in the portal. But is that a realistic approach? Just two of the linemen currently in the portal are rated by 247Sports as four-star transfers although that number will likely increase as the transfer window officially opens and more teams are eliminated from the playoff. Texas also hasn’t taken a transfer lineman of significance since 2019, when Tom Herman was the head coach.
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“I think if you asked any college coach, they would tell you, in a perfect world, you would love to recruit your own players, retain them and develop them over three, four, five years, whatever that looks like,” said Flood, who has first- and second-year options like Baker, Nick Brooks and Daniel Cruz on the roster. “That is not college football anymore. It is not. If you recruit really good players, they may have options at other places that they may decide to take, and that is just part of college football now.
“Is it realistic to do it? I think everybody is going to try to do it, certainly at a place like Texas, where we can recruit the best high school players in the country and recruit at a high level, we are always going to try to do that. But I always think, going forward, the portal is always going to be part of that process as well.”
Trevor Goosby isn’t ready to talk about the NFL yet
For Texas, retaining Goosby would be a bigger win than landing a coveted transfer. On Sunday, though, the tackle had little interest in discussing his future plans. When asked if he had made a decision about the draft yet, Goosby responded that “I am going to go throughout this game,
focus on this game and make a decision after that.”
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Like the Longhorns, Michigan also went 9-3 this season. Texas was ranked 13th and Michigan was 18th in the final CFP standings, which meant they both were left out of the 12-team field.
“For us, it is (about) sending a message to College Football Playoffs and the rest of the nation that we are a dominant football team, and we are a physical football team,” Goosby said. “Whether we should have been in or not, that is up to the College Football Playoff, but we are just here to send a message and dominate this game.”
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