The Key Difference For Texas In Fall Camp That is Pushing The Offensive Line

The Texas Longhorns have flushed what occured last seaso when the program failed to reach the College Football Playoff despite being overwhelming favorites to win the national championship.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian is working on the 2026 season, a critical year for his program with returning quarterback Arch Manning and a revamped offense around him that could have an argument to be the most talented group in the country on paper.

One of the perks of having the talent, and veteran experience the Longhorns have, is the competition is naturally apart of day-to-day practice. Sarkisian has noticed it through the first week, and how the intensity has worked its way to the offensive line, who might be the biggest receiving beneficiaries from the first week of camp.

"No Thud, No Play"

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on before a game against the Michigan Wolverines at Camping World Stadium | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Longhorns were expected to be one of the best offenses in the country last season, but they failed to live up to their expectations. While injuries certainly played a role, struggling offensive line play also did the group no favors, and Sarkisian ensured that wouldn't happen again, shoring up the top-end talent and depth up the room, while also ramping up the expected intensity from that group, and the whole team.

"I think I think one thing that this camp has been, it's been very physical, and I give our players a lot of credit on both sides of the ball for playing with a level of physicality that's needed for us to be the type of team that we want to become, right?" Sarkisian opened up his presser after practice with. "And I think about the style of play in which we want to play the game, and that we have to recreate it every year. It just doesn't happen. And we're a really fast football team, we take a lot of pride in how fast we play the game, and that's our guys knowing what to do, and utilizing their ability to play with speed."

Changing an identity isn't easy for any team, especially for one trying to establish it during the opening week of fall camp. For the Longhorns, though, this isn't about starting an identity, but rather homing in on one and making it theirs, identifying that it would further help them with reaching the goal they have in place.

"I want to commend our team—I think they're working extremely hard. As I said, this has been a very physical camp. There's been moments of one side of the ball doing really good things and the other side of the ball doing really good things. I talked about that today about the start of practice, team run. The offense is really physical, running the ball well." Sarkisian continued on.

The offensive line, which entered camp with the most question marks surrounding it, has leaned into the physicality, which will only help it develop. Combine that with going against a staunch defensive front, and the Longhorns are working to build one of their toughest teams in recent memory.

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