After the Texas Longhorns went from preseason No. 1 in both major polls to missing the College Football Playoff for the first time in three years, head coach Steve Sarkisian shuffled his coaching staff after the regular season ended, firing first-year running backs coach Chad Scott, first-year defensive pass game coordinator Duane Akina in his return to the Forty Acres, and longtime defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski.
Notably escaping accountability for the disastrous left guard position was offensive
coordinator and offensive line coach Kyle Flood, whose unit played a big role in the disastrous road loss to the Gators to open SEC play that ultimately kept the Horns out of the CFP.
So the pressure has increased on Sarkisian’s longtime colleague, who is now entering his 10th season on the same staff.
It’s not hard to say that the Texas offensive line is in a better position than it was when Flood and Sarkisian first took over.
Since being completely blanked from the 2022 NFL Draft, the Longhorns have had six offensive linemen drafted into the NFL, including a top-10 pick in Kelvin Banks — a member of Flood’s first recruiting class on the Forty Acres. On the same token, you can say that the 2026 version of the line was a step back from the previous group.
It took the Longhorns most of the season to even land on its best five players, due to either injury or on-field struggles. It took until the final three games of the season for Texas to play the same combination of five offensive linemen for longer than three games – finally settling on a group of, from left to right, Trevor Goosby, Cole Hutson, Connor Robertson, DJ Campbell, and Brandon Baker. Texas likely would have settled on that group one game earlier for the home tilt against Vanderbilt if not for DJ Campbell’s injury in the win against Mississippi State.
Using those final four games of the regular season as a sample of what the Texas offense can do with simply competent play from the line, quarterback Arch Manning averaged 287 passing yards per game, throwing 10 touchdowns to just one interception. That average is dragged down by a 179-yard game against Texas A&M, a game in which Texas rushed for 218 yards at a more than six yards per carry pace. Perhaps most importantly, Texas averaged just 1.25 sacks allowed per game in those contests, keeping Vanderbilt and Arkansas from bringing Manning down in the pocket.
Despite Campbell exhausting his eligibility — and Hutson doing so initially before recently receiving assistance from the court system — the Texas offensive line should start 2026 with a group of personnel that closely resembles how they ended 2025
The biggest offseason win for the Longhorns, in a portal cycle where they landed 10 four-star transfers, was retaining Goosby to hold down the left tackle spot amidst talks of him being an early selection in the draft class. The 6’7, 325-pounder is a preseason first-team All-SEC selection who is competing with new LSU tackle Jordan Seaton to become OT1 in next year’s draft thanks to his elite pass blocking, athleticism that translates well to a Texas running game that often relies on movement rather than downhill, brute force.
One of those 10 portal players looks to slot in opposite Goosby is former All-ACC tackle Melvin Siani, the Wake Forest transfer ranked as No. 65 player in the 2026 portal class.
The 6’6, 317-pound Canadian was a force for the Demon Deacons a year ago, holding down the left tackle spot at an elite level. In fact, Siani went the entire 2025 campaign without surrendering a single sack in his 914 snaps in his first season as a full-time starter. Like Goosby, Siani is a well-rounded tackle who might have more power in the running game while also representing a strong fit in the outside zone and pin-and-pull schemes that Sarkisian and Flood prefer — Siani’s impact on the Longhorns should well out stripe his portal rankings and potentially position him as an early-round pick in 2027.
Siani’s addition to the roster not only gives Texas an incredible set of bookends in the trenches, but allows Flood and the staff to lean into the positional versatility of Baker, who might even be a more natural fit at right guard next to Siani.
As the regular season ended, Sarkisian was transparent about the program’s need to find offensive line solutions in the portal for the first time in his Texas tenure. But how the Horns went about targeting portal lineman came as a surprise — instead of targeting multiple starting guards, Texas went after proven tackles because the staff’s plan was to move Baker from right tackle inside to guard.
”I just think when you look at Brandon’s measurables, and you look his future in the game, he’s got a guard build,” Sarkisian said during the spring.
In fact, the expectation from the staff was that Andre Cojoe would win the starting job at right tackle during preseason camp last August, allowing Baker to move inside to fill the need at left guard.
“Quite frankly, that was one of the hopes we were gonna have for him last year, but, obviously, Cojoe got injured in training camp, and he ended up winning the job at right tackle. We’ve got to play the best players we have available,” Sarkisian said.
At the other guard position is one of the most important battles of preseason camp. Late in the portal cycle, it appeared like Texas with former Western Kentucky guard Laurence Seymore, but Texas had to sweat out his eligibility appeal with the NCAA. With that appeal secured, Seymore’s presence, particularly his consistently effective pass blocking, will elevate the floor of a position that served as a massive weakness far too often last season, although Seymore’s lack of height and questionable upside as a run blocker, along with his late arrival during the summer, ensure that there will be a real competition for the starting job.
Other contenders include Cojoe as he works his way back from the knee injury that ended up his 2025 season before it began and Oregon State transfer Dylan Sikorski, a part-time starter for the Beavers last season as a true freshman who took first-team reps during the media viewing window during last Thursday’s practice, the second of preseason camp.
Also potentially factoring into the mix is redshirt junior Jaydon Chatman, who has received snaps inside and outside over the last three seasons.
Holding the two sides of the line together is redshirt senior Connor Robertson, who permanently slid from guard to center halfway through 2025, replacing the injured Hutson for the road game against Kentucky. Robertson’s experience make him a reliable force in the middle setting protections. And although Robertson lacks ideal athleticism, he is remarkably good at making blocks in space despite that limitation.
Hutson’s return provides proven depth for the Horns along the interior — albeit with a limited ceiling — while several transfers offer more developmental depth.
In a year where Texas has spent big and is seemingly going all-in with skill players on both sides of the ball, the offense’s ability to live up to its preseason billing hinges on the five players up front. If they can create space for Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown, while ensuring Manning only has to scramble when he wants to, the offense can be good enough to compete for hardware at the end of the season.
“I will say this — I think our offensive line is playing a really physical brand of football right now, and I think that’s a byproduct of some experience with Connor, with Trevor, with Brandon, guys who have been in the system. I think Melvin Siani’s playing really physical, and he’s going for it,” Sarkisian said on Monday.
Saturday’s scrimmage will provide Sarkisian better perspective on where the offensive line is at in their trajectory, but through the first five practices, he’s been impressed with the group.
“So far, these guys are working hard, and they’re playing tough, and they’re playing physical, and that was the first thing we wanted to make sure we address with this group,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got plenty of work to improve upon. I think the communication’s been good. Can it be better? Sure, but I think the level physicality they’re playing at is probably the most encouraging thing for me.”
