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Texas football 2025 offensive line preview: Besides guard DJ Campbell who else returns?

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Texas football 2025 offensive line preview: Besides guard DJ Campbell who else returns?


With Texas football now in the offseason, the American-Statesman is breaking down each position group.

Who’s gone from the 2024 squad that went 13-3 and fell a win short a national title-game appearance? Who’s back? And what portal arrivals and freshmen from the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class have joined the team?

The Longhorns are coming off an impressive season that include a record 16-game schedule, a spot in the SEC championship game, a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals for the second consecutive season, and a final ranking of No. 3 in the US LBM Coaches Poll for the past season. The ranking marks the best showing for the Longhorns in the final coaches poll since 2009. The 53 coaches who vote in the coaches poll listed Texas behind just national champion Ohio State and national runner-up Notre Dame.

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Can Texas make another push for a CFP spot in 2025? The roster has a few holes but also boasts loads of potential, as evident by the program’s high ranking in way-too-early preseason polls.

This week, the Statesman will have a daily position-by-position breakdown of the 2025 Texas roster entering the offseason. Earlier this week, we looked at quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers. Today, we look at the Longhorns’ offensive line.

Texas football OL: Who’s gone?

Center Jake Majors (eligibility); guard Hayden Conner (eligibility); tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. (early NFL entry); tackle Cameron Williams (early NFL entry).

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Texas football OL: Who’s back?

Rising senior guard DJ Campbell; rising senior guard Cole Hutson; rising redshirt junior center Connor Roberston; rising redshirt junior guard Malik Ogbo; rising redshirt junior guard Neto Umeozulu; rising redshirt sophomore tackle Trevor Goosby; rising redshirt sophomore tackle Jaydon Chatman; rising redshirt sophomore tackle Andre Cojoe; rising redshirt sophomore guard Connor Stroh; rising redshirt freshman tackle Brandon Baker; rising redshirt freshman tackle Nate Kibble; rising redshirt freshman guard Daniel Cruz.

Texas football OL: Who’s new?

Freshman Nick Brooks, a four-star recruit from Loganville, Georgia; Jackson Christian, a three-star recruit from Port Neches-Groves; Jordan Coleman, a three-star recruit from Cedar Hill; Devin Coleman, a three-star recruit from Cedar Hill.

Texas football OL: Overview

Four players depart after starting multiple seasons, but the Texas coaches are quietly optimistic about welding together another formidable front. Campbell returns as one starter at guard, and fellow guard Hutson also has plenty of starting experience. The versatile Hutson could also start at center, which would free up a guard spot for Umeozulu, who has impressed the coaches. Goosby will enter the season as a presumed starter at one tackle spot after getting one-game starts on both ends in 2024, and former five-star recruit Brandon Baker has the look of a prototypical left tackle. Plenty of young talent will battle for the remaining snaps.

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Reach Texas beat reporter Thomas Jones via email at tjones@statesman.com.

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Judge Jack’s removal from Texas foster care case hurts kids

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Judge Jack’s removal from Texas foster care case hurts kids


This month, the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld its decision to remove U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack from a 14-year lawsuit against the Texas foster care system. The refusal to rehear the case also threw out Jack’s most recent finding of contempt against the state agencies involved.

It was an unfortunate outcome. Jack has been resolute and effective. Her orders prodded the state to spend more than $150 million reforming the foster care system — and the system has improved.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2011 on behalf of children stranded in the state’s foster care system. It named the governor and the chief executives of the Health and Human Services Commission and Department of Family and Protective Services as defendants.

As the case progressed, it revealed dire problems with investigations, placements, providers, staffing and caseloads. It also revealed the state’s recalcitrance toward court oversight, which occasionally drew Jack’s ire.

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In its ruling, the 5th Circuit cited snippets of Jack’s courtroom remarks as proof that she was no longer impartial and should be removed from the case. In a strongly worded dissent filed Feb. 11, Judge Stephen A. Higginson disagreed.

“I worry that we have concluded, from Judge Jack’s assiduous effort in the face of structural friction and intense factual complexity … that Judge Jack is not suited to preside over this case for precisely the reasons that she is suited to preside over this case.”

He also argued that, while the foster system had improved, one group of children still needs the court’s diligent protection. These youngsters are in permanent managing conservatorship; they will never be reunited with their families. They have intellectual and developmental disabilities, often are medically fragile and are exceptionally vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

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Booting tough Texas judge from foster care case would be huge mistake

His concerns were validated in the court monitors’ most recent report about deaths among these foster children. One case, involving an 11-year-old child with autism, is horrifying.

The boy, identified as O.R., had been placed in a residential treatment center in Greenville with a decade-plus history of serious violations. O.R. died during an outing with 19 other residents of the center to see the R-rated action movie Gladiator II.

Staff claimed the boy had been fine and walked into the movie theater on his own. However, law enforcement officers reviewed the theater’s security video and saw that the boy had been unable to walk unassisted, fell to the ground beside the ticket counter and had to be half-carried to a seat. He was dead by the time the movie was over.

Treatment center residents told investigators the boy had been screaming in pain that morning, hadn’t eaten any meals and had slept most of the day. A preliminary medical examiner’s report revealed the boy had a twisted intestine that had caused a bowel obstruction, a serious medical emergency.

O.R. was one of the foster children Jack worked to protect. We hope the next jurist assigned the case is as relentless in that effort as she has been.

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We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com



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Warmer temps and sunshine ahead as rain moves out of North Texas

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Warmer temps and sunshine ahead as rain moves out of North Texas


Rain clears out, leaving North Texas with a week of sunny skies

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Rain clears out, leaving North Texas with a week of sunny skies

02:39

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A weak disturbance is passing through North Texas this morning, bringing rain to parts of the area.

This system will continue tracking eastward, moving the rain out of the Metroplex by late morning. However, eastern counties may continue to experience some light, scattered rain into the afternoon.

The morning will start with some cloud coverage thanks to that disturbance, but clouds will break as the rain exits, giving way to afternoon sunshine.

Temperatures will continue to warm this afternoon, with highs into the upper 50s and low 60s across North Texas, just a couple of degrees below normal for this time of year.

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CBS News Texas


By Monday, however, temperatures return to above average. Monday morning lows start in the upper 30s and lower 40s, and highs top out near 70 degrees for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Sunshine will kick off the week, warming Tuesday’s highs into the mid 70s.

A few clouds return midweek, with a bit of a breeze Wednesday.

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Highs top out in the lower 70s Wednesday as a dry cold front advances through the region. That front drops temps back into the middle 60s by Thursday.

North Texas warms back into the 70s to end the workweek and kick off the next weekend.

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No. 16 Texas holds on for 4-3 win over Dartmouth

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No. 16 Texas holds on for 4-3 win over Dartmouth


The No. 16 Texas Longhorns had to wait three extra days for the season opener at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, but weren’t able to put on the expected offensive display against an overmatched opponent, settling for a narrow 4-3 win over the Dartmouth Big Green on Friday.

Frigid temperatures in Austin pushed up the start time to noon Central, a combination that produced a small crowd at the Disch as winds blowing in from left field and the cold resulted in some hard-hit outs for Texas, which only had six hits, although three of them were doubles, two by sophomore left fielder Tommy Farmer.

The Big Green had more hits than the Horns with seven while matching Texas with six walks. In the decisive moments of the game, however, the Longhorns pitchers were able to strand those runners as the Big Green left 10 on base.

The first inning for Texas senior left-hander Jared Spencer was emblematic of how the game went — the Indiana transfer allowed a leadoff base hit and a two-out walk, but picked the leadoff batter off second base to end the threat.

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Two runs in the bottom of the inning appeared to put the Longhorns on track for a comfortable victory as junior shortstop Jalin Flores hit a sacrifice fly to left field after two singles to start the game.

After a two-out walk drawn by sophomore center fielder Will Gasparino, Farmer came through with his first double, driving in the inning’s second run.

Spencer had to work around two two-out walks in the second and a single in the third, but finally paid for all the baserunners in the fourth when a leadoff walk and a single up the middle followed by a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out. Dartmouth broke through with an RBI groundout to Flores.

After a one-out walk by Spencer in the fifth, he was replaced by junior right-hander Ruger Riojas, who retired both batters he faced.

Texas added an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth after sophomore second baseman Ethan Mendoza drew a walk and stole second base, advancing to third on a throwing error by the catcher and scoring on a sacrifice fly by senior first baseman Kimble Schuessler. Gasparino ultimately stranded two runners on a groundout to second.

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Farmer led off the sixth inning with his second double and advanced to third on a flyout by sophomore designated hitter Easton Winfield, scoring on a groundout by junior catcher Rylan Galvan. The Longhorns left two more runners on base, however, after Mendoza drew another walk, but couldn’t score on a double by Schuessler prior to junior right fielder Max Belyeu striking out looking to end the inning with a 4-1 lead.

Riojas started to run out of gas in his fourth inning of work in the eighth after retiring eight straight batters, allowing back-to-back singles before recording the first out. The UTSA transfer departed the game without getting a second out in the eighth after two singles each drove in a run. Riojas hit the next batter with the first pitch of the at bat, departing in favor of sophomore right-hander Thomas Burns, who recorded a strikeout and a flyout to end the inning without any further damage.

Burns allowed a one-out walk in the ninth prior to recording his first career save and preserving the victory for the Horns.

First pitch on Saturday was moved back to 1 p.m. Central due to rain in the area with the game airing on SEC Network+.



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