Why Texas is Rethinking Offensive Line Construction

0:00This episode of On Texas Football is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, the potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena, from comedy goal to relationship fails, Amazon Music's got the most ad-free top podcasts. Included with Prime, because the only thing that should interrupt your listening is... Well, nothing. Download the Amazon Music app today. Hey, what's up folks? Welcome back to On Texas Football,

1:01and welcome back to another edition of Football Theory. I'm Lifetime Longhorn, right? Babers, please to be joined by my esteemed colleague and good friend, Jeff Howe. And today on Football Theory, we're going to talk about something very close to Jeff Howe's heart. Old line play. And are we witnessing somewhat of a shift in the methodology and the process for Texas and building their offensive line? We'll talk about that just a little bit. I think, oh man, Jeff's got some interesting tidbits. So Jeff, I'll kind of open up too, because I know this is the topic that you wanted to get into. And I think it's fascinating, actually, especially seeing now some of the changes on the offensive line and some of the new acquisitions on the offensive line protection. So I'll get into some of the numbers here in just a minute. But CJ Vogel, I'll credit our colleague here at On Texas Football for bringing this to my attention. And CJ kind of gave me the germ of the idea. And I have run with it. I've gone full on conspiracy theorists that I believe this is happening on the 40 acres right now.

2:03And it's interesting, Rod, because other positions, you know, Lance Jackson, when we met with him on Wednesday after practice, he talked about what Muschamp got to, got the Texas in December, talked about he wanted him to bulk up. He's at 272 pounds. He's tried really hard to gain weight. Some positions they want guys to add weight. I don't think that's the case on the offensive line. Now we talk about the big humans philosophy. And I'm sure there's a portion of this fan base, a portion of this listenership and viewership that is tired of hearing about big humans. And you have the worst run game that this program has had in over a decade. And Archmaning was the most pressured quarterback in the SEC, one of those pressured quarterbacks in FBS last year. It's all fair. It's all out on the table to be discussed. But started to think about this in terms of, hey, and we talked about a little bit because we started noticing it during the portal, not just the guys that they got in from the portal, specifically Melvin Ciani, which looked at some of the guys they were targeting. And it's like, well, they're not like the 34335-ish type guys. They're more like the 310 to 320 type guys and maybe a little more athletic.

3:08And I was debating on, do I run with this? Do I not? Matthew's got the clip chewed up. Mark was talking about Brandon Baker on Monday and kicking him inside the guard. And Rob, there's some lingo in here. I've never heard Sark use when it comes to Lyman size. So here's the clip and we'll discuss it after we hear it. Hey, right, Garb. Yes. I just think when you look at Brandon's measurables and you look at kind of his future of the game, he's kind of got a guard build. And quite frankly, that was one of the hopes we were going to have for him last year. But obviously, Kojo got injured in training camp and he ended up winning the job at right tackle. And we're not going to as a Richard freshman. We've got to play the best players we have available. But I think solidifying ourselves from the inside on that right side of the line with him and Melvin at right tackle is really beneficial for us long term. But natural weight is important to me. I think sometimes just trying to get heavy. One of his strengths is his ability to move and play with great balance and body control.

4:11And that's something that I think will benefit him now. Mass is helpful. Right? But we just want to make sure it's the right type of mass as his weight goes on. Now Rod, we've gotten these in about the off season and I'll get into the numbers. But I want your opinion on this. Tell me I'm not crazy. When have we ever heard stark talk about natural weight and when have we ever heard him get concerned about offensive Lyman getting too big? Yeah. And didn't tell us got to be the right kind of mass talking about body control and balance a lot more with his old Lyman. He wasn't using those terms. He was a lot big humans. We're trying to get as massive as we can on the old line. That's definitely been a shift. I think going to the SEC ecosystem is a big part of that as well. Because in SEC, yeah, you got mass. But these big humans, go look at that combine. Take it, move. You got twitchy big men. And that's how you acquired one and then you're fraud, right? You got big men. They're massive, but there are some twitch tool. And I think this is Texas counter. At least they're at their evolutionary adaptation, if you will, to what was being presented

5:12to them in the SEC. So I still think they want big humans. They still want guys, but definitely they're emphasizing mass so much. And now they want the right type of weight. And he's talking about more balance and overall athleticism on that old line. I think you're on the something. I don't know if they would directly admit it, but it is pretty clear that their focus has changed a little bit on the old line. And the way that they're describing the athletic profile of their offensive lineman is a little bit different to yeah. So I'll try to be as concise as I can with these numbers, but I just want to look at it. So the current starting offensive line, if you include Trevor Goosby at left tackle with Goosby, Jayden Chapman at left guard, Connor Robertson at center, Brandon Baker at right guard, Melvin Ciani at right tackle. Average weight based on what they're listed at on the current roster is 314.8 pounds. This up slightly from the last year's offensive line, which was 312.2. That was the season ending combination.

6:13That doesn't include at points during the year where you had Nick Brooks at 349 and Connor Strowett 341 playing guard. So the combination you finished with in 2025 that was your best group, weighed a little over 312 pounds. Now you start looking at other lines, Sark and Kyle Flood have fielded the 2024 offensive line, average 324 pounds. The 2023 line 324.6. So you're getting lighter as you go along and where CJ brought this up is when we're talking about the combine and I'm calling this for the staff rod along with the issues of run game and protection issues in 2025. I'm calling this their DJ Campbell reckoning because let's look at DJ Campbell throughout his time at Texas. He played his best without question. He played his best football as a longhorn in 2025 and he was at 321 pounds. First team all SEC picked by the AP 13 picked by the coaches. He set his single season career high PFF grades for his overall grade and his run blocking

7:14grade and his past blocking grade was the second highest of his career. Bested only by his freshman year, which we know is a true freshman DJ Campbell didn't play that much because Cole Hudson was your starter that right guard the whole season in 2022. DJ Campbell going into 2023 wait 343 pounds and he was listed at 330 on the 2024 roster. Wow. So you're talking over a 20 pound difference and it's like hey DJ Campbell is about 20 pounds lighter. He didn't lose any of the power or the run blocking prowess that made us want him out of high school and actually move better. He was more agile. He became a better past blocker like he was really good. If you're I don't care if it's the AP, me and you, the coaches, Joe Blossett on the couch. If somebody votes you first team all SEC on the offensive line, you had a damn you balled out. Yes. So then DJ Campbell takes it a step further though listed at 321 on the roster. He goes to the combine rod at 313.

8:16He weighs in at 313, weighs in at 313 and Indy and damn near breaks five seconds into 40 yard dash ran a 501 now and other serving lists like I don't put too much stock in the offensive line 40 times because if an offensive lineman's ever having to run 40 yards, it's probably really bad. That means he's probably trying to run somebody down on a fumble return or section return to make a tackle. You don't want that. But I think it just adds to the fact that DJ Campbell further helped his draft stock as stock as a draft. I'm not saying he's going in the first round, but he's helped his stock as a draftable prospect at an even lighter weight than what he was listed at in 2025. So there's nothing the staff can do at this point about DJ Campbell. He's off to the league and he'll be drafted in April and he'll be, you know, cashing an NFL paycheck in 2026. But there is something they can do about the other guys on the roster. Whether it's the listed weight or not, Rod, we're just seeing bodies reshape. Like if you, if you look at Melvin Ciani's body type, yeah, man, it's, it is.

9:17Yeah. And like compare him to like Cameron Williams or even Christian Jones, he doesn't look like those guys like he's more leaner, he's slicker, he bends a little bit better and just go on down the line. So I think this staff has realized to your point, Rod, you said it a minute ago. Yeah. We can still be big, but let's not be big and go overboard on size at the risk of losing athleticism and movement skills because it's much easier, Rod, to be a really good zone blocking offensive line as much zone as this team runs, whether it's inside zone, outside zone, it's much better to be a zone blocking, a zone blocking offensive line when you can actually move. Yeah. If you can't move and I like, I understand the philosophy and start, you know, for everybody, I actually asked Sark about it at the Texas High School Coach Association convention a couple of this episode of on Texas football is brought to you. You can buy progressive insurance, fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary

10:20magicians, these are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds because progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more plus you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way, visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. progressive casualty insurance company and affiliate to potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Here's a go. No, everybody got carried away with big humans, but nobody asked Sark, hey, why, and that's what I want to know. That's why we have the show called football theory. I don't know why, like, what is the logic? What is the rationale? And Sark said when he was in the NFL with the Falcons, the Falcons had, as you know, Rod, he took over that offense from Kyle Shanahan. They run a lot of zone running, it's the Mike Shanahan zone run game, it's where it's founded. He had a cleaner, lighter, more athletic offensive lineman. Sark said we had probably the lightest offensive line in league. The problem with that was whenever you went against the Eagles or the Patriots or the Ravens

11:24or the Steelers, a team that could run an odd front and put a big mobile, you know, 330 plus pound nose over the ball. You couldn't run the ball. Yeah. And he said he told himself if I ever get to run my own program or run my own team again, I'm not going to go into a stadium and be at a disadvantage on game day just because we're not big enough. And Nick Sabin had a lot to do too with the big humans philosophy. The difference is though, the guys Nick Sabin recruited Alabama, those guys are freaks. You don't find those guys guys like Evan Neil or Alex Leather with the guys at R330 plus and can move, have great movements, kills, those guys don't grow on trees. So you got to be careful when you're recruiting. If you're recruiting 330 pound plus guys out of high school, that's fine. Based on what you need them to do, you need to figure out, and this is a crapshoot with recruiting and it's why it's easier to do this in the portal, you've got very limited information to figure out, okay, is this guy going to be able to, can we drop him weight and can he still be as powerful or can we add weight on him?

12:27Is he able to add weight? And if we can't add weight on him, he's going to be able to move. So it's really crapshoot. And I think just their whole philosophy offensive line wise rod, everything really came to a head because it was homegrown talent, you know, they didn't go into the portal for 25 homegrown talent thing and you kind of had what you had now going into the portal, which Sark and Kyle flood, finally threw up the white flag, like, okay, yeah, we can't be stubborn about this. We got to go in the portal for a line hub. Now you can build whatever kind of offensive line you want with portal help. And as a result, you saw it on Wednesday, Wednesday practice, right, and we're in the stadium. The 2026 offensive line looks a lot different than the last few Texas offensive lines we see. And it saves like, it's more athletic over it's leaner to your point, more athletic. And I feel like they're going to have, if you start looking at ultimately, you know, we brought up last year at the end of last year when they had co-huts and new kind of Roberts and inside, essentially got two guys playing the center, they essentially had one guard on the line, where it was all kind of, it's one true guard, where it was all kind of

13:27sitting down, which was DJ Campbell. And I feel like there is a thought process in building the offensive line. With an emphasis on athleticism, which is why you essentially want three tackles, because you're going to have Goosby, you'll have Ciani, and you're going to bump Brandon Baker inside, but they like his body, they like his, his hip flexibility too as a guy that can bump inside. And then you have Connor Robertson and you'll end up having, you know, whoever that other guard is going to be, right, a true guard. But way stark is describing it, he's cross-training a lot of guys at center, I've never heard him say, he's cross-training with four or five different guys, I think they want their interior offensive line to kind of look like it did last season, where what are centers known for, right? They're known for their football acumen, these are the intellectuals of the offensive line, right? So they set the protections, they make a lot of the checks and the articles. And if you have tackles on your own line, the emphasis usually is, and man, these guys

14:31are uber athletic, that's what tackles are known for. Those are the most athletic freaks on the offensive line. And I think that's what Texas wants more of. I think you'll end up getting kind of one true guard, just like you did in the last year on that old line with an emphasis on intellectual, kind of the intellectual center, the intellectual like a hub, if you will, with two potential guys who can play center, at least understand the magnitude and understand like how to make the checks and articles. And then also three tackles on your own line, with basically three guys who can be uber athletic. And those are the guys who kind of build that run game around and they won't be at a disadvantage in cash protection. I feel like they want as few true guards on the old line as possible. And nothing gets guards, but I'm just saying guards are known for their, they're not known for being the intellectual center of the offensive line, they're not known for being the uber athletes of the offensive line, they're usually the guys, I'm a bumper guy inside

15:33so we can play guard or hey, I'm going to try to move things around. That's usually where you kind of experiment with the old line. I feel like Texas wants athleticism and they want acumen. And those come from two positions on the line, tackle and center. That's like the basis. And we've been doing shows rod for, you know, almost about a decade and a half now. And as much football as we talked and I listen to you whenever you're talking about the secondary. And I realize, man, there's a lot of synergy between how an offensive line operates and how a secondary operates. It's communication. It's a lot of teamwork. Everybody's got to be on the same page. If one guy doesn't do his job right, then the whole thing can get screwed up. And to me, when you look at premium positions in football, I feel like to me, there's a lot of similarities between safeties and interior offensive linemen. You would love to get an ad read or Troy Palomalu in Earl Thomas, like just like going into your offensive line. You'd love to have a Jason Kelsey. Everybody would love to have a Quentin Nelson. Those guys are rare though. Think about how many guys have had Hall of Fame careers starting out at corner.

16:37Those guys are special athletes. They've got special tools, special measurables. How many guys have had Hall of Fame careers starting at tackle and then kick it inside the guard? How many NFL careers got sustained? You know, two guys that I think about that you would think of as NFL draft bust, right? Tony Mandorich and Robert Gallari are two guys I think about. You both got struggled at tackle. Tony Mandorich had his off field issues, which he's talked about and have been documented. Robert Gallari didn't have ideal arm length and there was little things in that evaluation. I think you've changed the way people evaluate offense tackles. Gallari was a borderline all pro at guard. Tony Mandorich actually came back and was a full season starter for the Colts at guard. So it's much easier to go at tackle for to not work out. And then you can kick inside and that athleticism will play. It's really hard if you're just a guard to find another spot for you to be just like right. If you're, if your skills start to tear hitting it's safety, there's no way you'd ever think about moving that guy to court like a guard.

17:38If someone's not working out, I don't even think about moving to you at you moving you to tackle unless there's something really, really extraordinary. So I'm with you on the philosophy and if you look at how this offensive line should be, could be constructed, whichever groups will be at left tackle. Let's assume Laurence Seymour is eligible, right? She's your true guard. You're true guard. Robert's in the center, you got converted tackle kicking the guard and Brandon Baker, you bring him up and see on the out of the portal. And the other reason to get lean too, right? And I want your thoughts on this as we close this out. If you're talking about playing a 15 16 game season, if you really want to compete for national championship, and if you got a bunch of 330, 330, 140 pound guys, you guys are going to wear down. They're not probably not going to have enough gas in the tank and you think, okay, yeah, but you're playing against 330, 330 pound defensive lineman, right? But defensive lineman platoon, those guys aren't playing 7, 800 snaps a year out. Go look at the PFF numbers for every team in the country, every national championship contender. There's two position groups that are going to gobble up all the snaps on offense. Your snaps leaders are going to be your quarterback and your offensive lineman.

18:40You don't get offensive lineman because especially now in the NIO portal era, the drop from your top two tackles to your third, it's a much steeper drop than it used to be. You think about the 2023 Texas offensive line, right? Well, why did it work? Because Trevor Gooseby came in and he came in for Kelvin Banks in the A&M game and started the SEC championship game and then came in when Cameron Williams got hurt against Clemson in the playoff game and then started the pitch ball against Arizona State. Right. Talking about a guy special enough to play left tackle and right tackle in the same season. Oh, by the way, your number three tackle on that team is going to end up being a first-round pick. Exactly my point. Are you very rarely now or are you going to have a first round number three left tackle on your roster? That guy's going to get in the portal and go somewhere else. Yep. Now, you're right about that. And to your point about comparing the secondary to the O line, guards like safeties, they oftentimes are seen as less athletic period, right? You're going to look at some of the great safeties in history of the NFL.

19:42He'll go look at the RAS score for Ed Reid, his relative athletic score. It's like a six. Go look at Earl Thomas relative athletic score. I'm going to hit it up. It's like a five or a six. You told me it's one of the worst of all the Texas guys that have been to the combine and gotten drafted in the top three rounds. Yes. Some of your best safeties have some of the worst relative athletic scores because it's more about I think the intellectual kind of capacity and the football acumen of those guys and them being football investigators and having the basically having all of the information available because they can see they can see the entire field and they have the vision. And just like the interior offensive lineman, I'm with you, nobody talks about the athleticism of guards and interior and sinners. They talk about often sinners and their intellectual capacity and football acumen and how smart they are and for guards and usually about how tough you are and how physical you could be, how powerful you could be. So I'm with you on that. I mean, I think safety, safety is a great position. It's just getting freaky or athletically, but go look at some of your all time great

20:45safeties. And athleticism is not really their, their asset. It's not really something that's a strength for them. It's more about what they offer intellectually. They're the two guys I was thinking about the two woods and there's a reason why when Charles Woodson and Rod Woods and when their body started breaking down and they weren't the athletes, they weren't where they were still able to kick inside safety and be all pros bumping inside. Yeah. It's a tackle. It's like, I don't know if you can handle me in a doubt, let's just bump them inside. Yeah. You know, great stuff. They're Jeff. Appreciate it. That's a great stuff about the offensive line and folks, it thanks to Matthew behind the scenes as well. Twisting and tweaking down, doing a great job for Jeff and for Matthew on my time on one ride. Babers until next time. This episode of on Texas football is brought to you by progressive insurance, fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds because progressive offers discounts for paying in full owning a home

21:46and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. This episode of on Texas football is brought to you by progressive insurance, fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds because progressive offers discounts for paying in full owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.