Steve Sarkisian Confident As Texas Longhorns Face Offensive Line Overhaul in 2025

The Texas Longhorns will look toward their offensive line depth and recruiting to build the line for the 2025 season.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) looks for a pass in the first quarter as the Texas Longhorns play the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semi-final at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, Jan. 10, 2025. | Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As the countdown for the long-awaited return of college football is now under 100 days, the SEC is beginning their annual spring meetings, and a big topic of discussion for the Texas Longhorns is the offensive line.

With good reason, as the Longhorns enter the 2025 season needing to replace four out of their five starting linemen, all of which went on to the NFL. Left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. was drafted No. 9 overall by the Saints, right tackle Cameron Williams was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles, left guard Hayden Connor was picked by the Arizona Cardinals, both in the sixth round, and center Jake Majors was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after going undrafted.

Steve Sarkisian seems confident in the group he and offensive line coach Kyle Flood have built.

Dec 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Trevor Goosby (74) against the Clemson Tigers during the CFP National playoff first round at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

“We’ve utilized the portal like a lot of schools have to fill needs,” he said at the SEC's spring meetings. “We haven’t tried to build our roster through the portal; we’ve tried to fill needs in the portal. And we just haven’t felt like we’ve had those needs at the offensive line. We’ve recruited it well. Coach (Kyle) Flood is a great teacher, he’s a great coach. We’ve got good continuity in that room, we’ve got good leadership in that room.”

Coach Sarkisian's faith in his O-line room can be justified as he returns the only starter from a year ago, DJ Campbell, for his senior season. And sophomore lineman Trevor Goosby, who showed flashes a year ago, who down the stretch of the season gave the Longhorns pivotal snaps coming in for an injured Banks against the Texas A&M Aggies and making his first career start in the SEC championship game against the Georgia Bulldogs.

However, he understands that there will be growing pains with the new group.

“Part of that, for us, is to live through maybe some of the growing pains that we just don’t have the continuity that we’ve had the last couple years, but there’s still a lot of good players that if we felt like they weren’t good enough maybe we would have gone to the portal," he said. "But we felt like we had more pressing needs that we needed to address, and that room was going to be good enough for us to compete at a high level.”

The Longhorns in recent years have recruited well from the high school ranks at the O-line position. Since arriving at Texas and his first full recruiting class in 2022, Sarkisian has signed highly touted prospects for his O-line room: two five stars, eight four-stars, and eight three-stars, though they've lost a few to the NFL or the transfer portal.

With championship aspirations for the 2025 season and the long-awaited Texas offense led by Arch Manning, the new look Texas offensive line will need to be ready quickly, facing a tough opposition in the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes in week one.