The injury, which occurred Monday evening during a Longhorn camp practice, was initially reported by Anwar Richardson. OTF’s Bobby Burton reported that Goosby "walked off the field fine" after the injury, which occurred in the first half of practice, while OTF’s Gerry Hamilton was told that the injury was a left-knee hyperextension.

Sources with knowledge of the situation told OTF on Tuesday that Goosby underwent an MRI on Tuesday morning. At approximately 10:45 a.m., ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the injury was a bone bruise, which OTF has confirmed.

The timetable for Goosby’s recovery and return to action is still to be determined.

Although Goosby will be out of action for an undetermined period, the burnt orange faithful can breathe easy, knowing that the 6-foot-7-inch, 325-pound first-team All-SEC selection will be back at some point. The focus now shifts to what Steve Sarkisian and Kyle Flood will do to fill a Texas-sized void at left tackle with Goosby on the mend.

One option is to move right tackle Melvin Siani into Goosby’s spot until the projected 2027 first-round NFL draft pick returns.

The 6-foot-6-inch, 317-pound Siani was a 13-game starter at left tackle for Wake Forest in 2025, logging 859 snaps. An accomplished pass blocker, Siani received a glowing review from Sarkisian following the team’s Monday morning walkthrough for his rapid development and prowess as a run-blocking tackle.

“Honestly, I'll be quite frank with everybody — I thought I was getting a pass protector when we recruited him,” Sarkisian said. “I'm getting a tough-ass run blocker who is a good pass protector. That's encouraging for us because, clearly, we know how important the run game is going to be for us.”

If Siani moves to left tackle, the question then becomes whether the Longhorns would move Brandon Baker back to right tackle, where he started all 13 games as a sophomore in 2025, or keep him at right guard, where his athleticism has given the Texas offense a lift?

Baker moving back to right tackle would open a spot for Cole Hutson, who recently rejoined the team after the door was open for members of the 2022 recruiting class to play an additional season. With starts under his belt at center and left guard in his four-year career, Hutson was a 13-game starter at right guard as a true freshman, helping pave the way for Bijan Robinson to become the fourth Longhorn to win the Doak Walker Award and the fifth Texas running back to be named a unanimous All-American.

Hutson and Dylan Sikorski rotated at left guard during the team's scrimmage last Saturday after Laurence Seymore's exit. Sarkisian said on Monday that Seymore is dealing with "a little bit of an injury hiccup."

"Nothing long-term," Sarkisian said of what Seymore is dealing with, "but he only got a chance to play 11 plays of real, live football."

Baker sticking at right guard would cloud the picture of what the Longhorns might do, especially with Siani at left tackle.

Jordan Coleman, who took all of the first-team snaps at left tackle during spring practice while Goosby was recovering from shoulder surgery, could be an option at right tackle or at left tackle if Sarkisian and Flood wanted to keep Siani on the right side. Jonte Newman, who transferred to Texas from Texas A&M during the portal window, has reportedly made strides during camp. Andre Cojoe continues to work his way back from a 2025 preseason knee injury. Jaydon Chatman has worked at both tackle spots throughout his career, including at left tackle in camp.

No matter the direction the Longhorns go, they aren’t dealing with the worst-case scenario, which would be going through the season without Goosby. While a player of Goosby's caliber can't be replaced (for however long he's out, Texas will sorely miss his presence and production at one of the most important positions on the field), Sarkisian and Flood have suitable options to keep the offensive line afloat until Goosby returns.

The arrival of the Wake Forest transfer, who flashed legitimate NFL potential as the Demon Deacons’ left tackle in 2025, strengthened the Longhorns' offensive line by allowing the staff to move Brandon Baker inside from right tackle to right guard.

It’s quite another, however, for Siani to surpass internal expectations before playing a game in burnt orange.

“Honestly, I'll be quite frank with everybody — I thought I was getting a pass protector when we recruited him,” Steve Sarkisian said after the Longhorns’ Monday morning camp practice. “I'm getting a tough-ass run blocker who is a good pass protector. That's encouraging for us because, clearly, we know how important the run game is going to be for us.”

Sarkisian was right to believe in Siani’s ability to protect the quarterback. According to Pro Football Focus, the 6-foot-6-inch, 317-pound Siani allowed only nine pressures on 456 opportunities in 2025.

Siani’s PFF grade of 67 as a run blocker (PFF considers a grade of 70 above average) wouldn’t indicate he dominated Wake Forest’s competition in the ACC (although the Demon Deacons were most successful running the ball over the left side of the line). Still, Siani’s grade on 372 run-blocking snaps would’ve been the fourth-best grade among Texas offensive linemen last season, trailing only Trevor Goosby (82.1), DJ Campbell (73.6) and Cole Hutson (71.6).

Siani graded slightly higher as a zone blocker (68.4) than on gap runs (64.3). With Siani’s athletic ability and Baker's move to guard, the revamped right side of the Longhorn offensive line has the tools to help Sarkisian establish a ground attack with a zone-based foundation.

Nevertheless, that might be the tip of the iceberg for the Texas running game considering Siani has barely scratched the surface of his potential.

Siani played one season of high school football in Canada before attending Wyoming Seminary, a college preparatory school in Pennsylvania. After preserving a season of eligibility after playing in just four games as a true freshman at Temple in 2023, Siani opened the 2024 season as the starting right tackle for the Owls, making nine starts in 11 games and playing 600 snaps.

Siani has shown enough growth to be on the radar as a prospect for the 2027 NFL Draft. Mike Renner of CBS Sports has Siani ranked as the No. 10 offensive tackle prospect for next spring’s draft with a late-third-round grade (Siani is listed on the Texas roster as a senior, but he has two seasons of eligibility remaining).

Where Renner (and, presumably, NFL coaches, scouts and executives) wants to see Siani improve is where Sarkisian has seen notable growth in the seven months that Siani has been a member of the program.

“Where I need to see Siani improve is in his play strength and balance,” Renner said. “Often, those problems go hand in hand, as the latter compensates for the former. He gets overaggressive trying to make first contact and ends up on the turf. He'll have two years to fix that problem against SEC competition if he wants to.”

And Texas might be the perfect place for Siani to continue his upward trend.

Along with Goosby’s return tempering expectations for Siani as a portal addition at one of the most important positions on the field and the aforementioned factors working in his favor (like playing next to Baker, who has a full season of SEC trench battles under his belt), Siani is in an offense that’s similar to the one he played in at Wake Forest under offensive coordinator Rob Ezell.

Ezell was a graduate assistant at Alabama while Sarkisian was an analyst for Nick Saban in 2016 and was an analyst for the Crimson Tide when Sarkisian returned to Tuscaloosa as Saban’s offensive coordinator in 2019 and 2020 (Kyle Flood followed Sarkisian from the Atlanta Falcons to be Alabama’s offensive line coach and then to Austin). Siani's experience in Ezell's offense paid off when he started learning the Longhorns' offense in the spring.

“Some of the plays literally have the same name because it’s all that Nick Saban tree,” Siani said in an interview with "3rd and Longhorn" earlier this month. “There’s a lot of similarities in the offense that just made that transition even easier and more seamless. I wasn’t complaining at all.”

The only complaints coming from Siani's side of the line of scrimmage will likely be the opposing defenders reacting to being on the receiving end of the physical play of Texas' budding star.

— I’ve been a part of post-scrimmage media sessions in which Sarkisian’s thoughts on the running game didn’t give off positive vibes.

The opposite was true on Saturday. Sarkisian was encouraged by what he described as a “pretty good” day running the football.

Specifically, the tone set by the first-team offensive line (left tackle Trevor Goosby, left guard Laurence Seymore, center Connor Robertson, right guard Brandon Baker and right tackle Melvin Siani) is the most positive offensive note from the scrimmage.

“We've been harping on physicality and we've been harping on running the ball all offseason and I thought they did that today,” Sarkisian said. “I thought they played a physical brand of football.”

It can be argued that the offense should’ve succeeded moving the football on a day when Raheem Biles, Brad Spence and Justus Terry were out and Colin Simmons was held out for large portions of the scrimmage. Nevertheless, with Kyle Flood’s top group still learning how to play together (keep in mind that Goosby missed most of the spring recovering from shoulder surgery, Baker was making the transition to guard, Siani was a spring newcomer and Seymore didn’t get to campus until June), coming out of the first scrimmage with confidence after winning its share of battles against Will Muschamp’s defense is a far cry from where the offensive line’s collective confidence stood through the first half of last season.

With Derrek Cooper, who Sarkisian described as “a hard-charging guy” who’s been pushing the veteran running backs and “going for it and trying to earn his opportunities,” helping reestablish a physical edge in the backfield (something Jabbar Juluke deserves his share of credit for cultivating), the offensive line doesn’t need to be perfect for the offense to succeed. From that standpoint, the unit is a microcosm of the offense as a whole: the multitude of playmakers in the fold should make the Texas offense one of the most potent attacks in the country if every player focuses on doing their job with some level of consistency.

— Arch Manning’s legs and his feel for when to bail out of the pocket and pick up whatever yardage he can also take pressure off the offensive line.

It was Manning’s arm, however, that was under the microscope on Saturday.

Two interceptions (one by Jonah Williams near the goal line and a pick-six by Graceson Littleton) seemed to overshadow the big plays on which he connected with Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo.

Sarkisian described Manning’s scrimmage as “a little up and down,” although he took the blame for the uneven collective showing when Manning, Coleman, Wingo and Emmett Mosley V were on the field together.

“Blame Coach Sark for not being quite as fair to him,” said Sarkisian, who wanted Saturday to feel more like an NFL preseason opener for Manning and the proven commodities in the passing game. “(It was) one series and then sit for, you know, 30 minutes and then one series and then sit again.”

The team’s second scrimmage next Saturday will be a different format, Sarkisian said. To use the comparison between college scrimmages and NFL preseason games, the second scrimmage is typically what NFL teams would do in their dress rehearsal (the third preseason game), with the starters seeing more action and the coaches structuring it more like a regular-season game.

That should lead to a more even performance by Manning, who “had a great first week and a half of training camp,” Sarkisian said.

Ahead of the scrimmage, I said there was nothing Manning could do short of putting up a complete clunker that I’d consider a red flag. To that end, I’m not concerned about Manning and neither is Sarkisian, who said Manning “can play cleaner than he played today and a little bit more efficient, a little bit more accurate."

While the interceptions on their own shouldn’t be discarded or completely written off, Manning’s play in the second half of last season was impressive enough to make me believe that the early-season struggles he went through are behind him for good and won’t rear their ugly head in his second season leading the Longhorn offense.

— Maraad Watson was the member of a deep Texas interior defensive line rotation I was most intrigued by before playing like one of the Longhorns’ top run-stoppers in the scrimmage. If the 333-pound Watson can truly play multiple shades as a reliable early-down defender, he could become the biggest asset in Kenny Baker’s room.

Watson’s ability to play closer to the ball would allow him to spell Ian Geffrard and maintain the kind of presence Muschamp wants in the middle of his defense. A tandem of Geffrard and Watson would also let the development of Zion Williams and Josiah Sharma continue, rather than forcing them into high-leverage snaps if they're not ready for such roles.

Watson can also play next to Geffrard if the Longhorns want more beef on the interior, forming an impenetrable wall in front of Biles, Justin Cryer and the playmaking potential Texas has at the second level.

Geffrard, Alex January and Hero Kanu in the fold set a high floor for the kind of presence and production Muschamp and Baker can count on from the guys who serve as the tip of the spear defensively. Watson and Justus Terry, however, will determine where the ceiling is for a group that looks deeper and more versatile than it did last season.

First and foremost, Vince Young absolutely ran away with the No. 1 spot. Vince received more than 82% of the first place vote, with only one ballot (out of hundreds) not including him in the top three spots.

His lowest ranking from anyone who voted for him? No. 4.

Ricky Williams was nearly as universal. Ricky appeared on 94.9% of ballots, and 88.1% of those voters had him inside the Top 3.

In fact, Vince and Ricky were basically the consensus top two. On 76% ballots, they occupied the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in some order.

Then things got really interesting.

Colt McCoy did not receive a single first-place vote, yet still finished comfortably at No. 3. Derrick Johnson finished fourth.

This created what looked like a pretty obvious Big Four among the fan base:

Vince, Ricky, Colt, DJ

After that, the debate really started.

Cedric Benson edged Bijan Robinson for No. 5 despite Bijan appearing on more ballots. Bijan showed up on five more ballots than Cedric did, but the fans who voted for Cedric generally ranked him higher. Bijan was the only player, outside of Vince and Ricky, in the eventual top ten to receive a first-place vote.

The tightest race came near the bottom of the Top 10, however:

Michael Huff - 226 points
Casey Hampton - 225 points
Earl Thomas - 220 points

Six total points separated three Texas legends.

Hampton actually had stronger high-end support than Huff, with 19 Top-5 votes compared to Huff’s 11, but Huff appeared on more ballots and narrowly grabbed the No. 8 spot.

When we compared the fan vote to the OTF staff composite, both groups independently produced the exact same Top 6 in the exact same order:

Vince Young, Ricky Williams, Colt McCoy, Derrick Johnson, Cedric Benson, Bijan Robinson

Ten staff voters and hundreds of fan voters somehow agreed on the top six perfectly.

That’s pretty remarkable.

Now let’s argue.... here is your Top 15, as selected by OTF Subscribers:

Steve Sarkisian referenced physicality or toughness 13 times in the opening statement of his post-practice media availability on Monday. For a coach who likes to point out that you get what you emphasize, Sarkisian knows the kind of team Texas has to be to get where it wants to be in 2026.

“There's a mindset to it that this team, maybe, better than some other teams, have really embraced that mindset,” Sarkisian said. “I think that's a credit to the coaches, as we touched on that first practice, that they've got these guys buying into the physicality of which we need to play the game. Our players aren't naive to the schedule that we have and the teams that we're going to play and that physicality is going to be required to have the type of team in the season that we want to have.”

— If physicality hasn’t been the main theme of the first week of camp, it might be that Sarkisian and the Longhorns are getting back to basics.

Whether it’s something as significant as starting the program’s Culture Wednesday meetings in the spring instead of the summer, or moving players into the dorms on campus for camp, Sarkisian is taking the steps he feels are necessary for Texas to consistently play the fast, physical, smart and tough brand of football he sought to bring to the Forty Acres when he was hired in 2021. While describing the process the Longhorns are going through to put that kind of product on the field, Sarkisian delivered one of his most profound statements of the offseason.

“When I think about the style of play in which we want to play the game and that we have to recreate it every year,” Sarkisian said. “It just doesn't happen.”

Although it hurt everyone in the program to miss out on a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff, in hindsight, it might’ve been the best thing to happen to Sarkisian and the program. Along with using the transfer portal window to turn the roster and put together a championship-caliber squad, the time between the team’s triumph over Texas A&M in the regular-season finale and its Citrus Bowl win over Michigan forced Sarkisian to take a long look at what changes had to be made to get Texas back on the path toward a championship.

So far, Sarkisian’s changes to the coaching staff, the program’s offseason structure and what he, as the leader of the organization, had to fix to be better in 2026 have benefitted the organization.

— Leadership doesn’t form during camp so much as it crystallizes. The best news in that regard is that Arch Manning continues to let his authentic voice and leadership style evolve, which is a big part of him taking the next step in the hierarchy of college football quarterbacks.

“Arch loves football. He loves to practice. He loves to work. It's funny because Arch probably talks a little more shit than people give him credit for outside of our building, so in practice there's a good amount of banter that goes on,” Sarkisian said. “Now, Arch has more confidence.”

It’s hard to be the kind of leader a quarterback needs to be when he isn’t confident. It’s also hard for said quarterback to be confident when he isn’t playing well.

Manning has done a 180 in that regard, fighting through some forgettable performances in the first half of last season to end his 2025 campaign playing as well as any quarterback in the country.

It’s fun to think about the jawing back and forth between Manning and Colin Simmons that Sarkisian described on Monday. What Sarkisian’s words said about where Manning’s confidence and comfort levels are ahead of the season, however, shouldn’t be lost while taking delight in the head coach dropping an unexpected expletive during a press conference.

Here’s the first part of the official university release:

“Excitement surrounding the 2026 Texas Football season continues to build in anticipation of the Longhorns’ home opener on September 5. Season tickets and individual game tickets for all home games at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium are officially sold out through Texas Athletics.

The sellout continues the incredible momentum surrounding the program under Head Coach Steve Sarkisian and marks the fifth consecutive season that Texas fans have sold out DKR well before the opening kickoff of the season. While tickets available to the general public are sold out, returning and incoming UT students can still purchase the Big Ticket with Football student ticket package, providing access to 100+ Texas Athletics regular season home events during the 2026-27 season. Student tickets for football home games must be claimed during each game’s mobile ticket claim process.”

At the top, two of the most iconic players in Texas football history separated themselves from the rest of the field.

Vince Young finished No. 1 overall, narrowly edging Ricky Williams for the top spot. Young totaled 247 points across the 10 ballots, while Williams finished just four points behind with 243.

Young received seven first-place votes, while Williams received the other three. Every voter ranked both players either first or second.

Behind them, Colt McCoy came in at No. 3 with 227 points, followed closely by Derrick Johnson at No. 4 with 223.

The top four created a clear consensus among the OTF staff, but the rankings became much tighter from there.

Cedric Benson rounded out the top five, followed by Bijan Robinson, Casey Hampton, Michael Huff, Kelvin Banks Jr. and Brian Orakpo.

Banks, Orakpo and Earl Thomas were separated by just one point, with Banks finishing ninth at 160 points and Orakpo and Thomas tying at 159. Orakpo earned the No. 10 spot through the composite tiebreaker (using the highest individual placement on any ballot).

The list features players spanning more than three decades of Texas football, from stars of the early 1990s to members of the Longhorns' recent College Football Playoff teams.

It also highlights just how difficult it is to compare players across positions and eras.

Quarterbacks and running backs dominate the very top of the ranking, but the Top 25 also includes elite linebackers, defensive backs, offensive linemen and defensive linemen who helped define their respective eras.

Still, the biggest debate may be the one at the very top.

Williams owns one of the greatest individual résumés in college football history, including the 1998 Heisman Trophy, while Young delivered perhaps the most iconic season and championship performance Texas football has ever seen.

When the votes were totaled, Young had just enough support to claim the title of On Texas Football's No. 1 Longhorn.

“I thought Arch had a good day,” Steve Sarkisian said after the Longhorns wrapped up Wednesday’s practice. Five minutes into his post-practice press conference, Sarkisian was asked which Longhorns, in his opinion, stood out in the team’s first official practice, held at Denius Fields with 31 days to go until the Sept. 5 season opener against Texas State.

Manning’s name was the first out of Sarkisian’s mouth.

“I've seen a lot of rough quarterback days (on the) first day of practice,” Sarkisian said. “The defenses have seen all of these same plays, I feel like, all summer long. I thought he looked good.”

If Manning can be efficient, successfully build a rapport with the revamped Texas wide receiver and offensive line groups (making up for time he missed while recovering from foot surgery in the spring), continue to protect the football and find ways to create explosive plays, it’ll be a successful camp for the redshirt junior. While checking the boxes next to those items on the to-do list, Manning needs to make strides to elevate his game and the offense as a whole is making his layups, as Sarkisian calls them.

According to Pro Football Focus, Manning was one of the least effective quarterbacks in the SEC when throwing the ball up to nine yards down the field. Of the 20 SEC quarterbacks who attempted at least 30 passes from a depth of 0-9 yards last season, Manning ranked last in yards per pass attempt (5.3), posted the fourth-worst completion percentage (69.2) and threw for the fifth-fewest yards (624).

The Longhorns’ improvement in the short passing game isn’t squarely on Manning’s shoulders. Only 28.7 percent of Manning’s pass attempts last season came within the area of the field that PFF defines as a short pass (Georgia’s Gunner Stockton was the only SEC quarterback with a lower percentage on at least 30 attempts). Still, Manning’s 10 percent drop percentage (nine drops on short pass attempts) was the fifth-highest in the SEC; Manning threw just one interception and was charged with only two turnover-worthy plays on short passes.

Among 17 SEC quarterbacks who attempted at least 30 passes behind the line of scrimmage in 2025, Manning’s PFF passing grade (72.6) was the fifth-best in the conference. That’s also where Manning's grade on intermediate throws (10-19 yards down the field) was, with an 89.5 putting him just outside the top quarter of SEC quarterbacks.

One of the top Power Four quarterbacks last season on deep throws (a PFF grade of 91.5 on attempts of 20 yards or more down the field was the fourth-best in the SEC among the 14 quarterbacks who threw at least 30 deep balls), the short game is the passing depth where Manning noticeably struggled to find his footing last season. To that end, Sarkisian would be surprised if that part of Manning’s game isn’t markedly better in 2026.

“I think that he's put in a lot of work and I've seen the progress that's been made by him, and that's a credit to him and the time and effort he's put into this thing,” Sarkisian said. “My goal and hope for him is that he just does what I've been watching him do because I think if he can take that next step, we know the big-play potential is there.

“Like I say, making your layups is huge.”

Thankfully, Steve Sarkisian shelved coachspeak last month after praising Laurence Seymore for the strides he’s made since joining the Texas program in June. It painted the most realistic picture of what to expect from Seymore when the Longhorns hold their first preseason practice on Wednesday.

“It’s difficult in the summertime. We’re in underwear,” Sarkisian said during his press conference at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention in Houston. “We'll find out a lot in training camp, especially when we get into the second week, when we're really in full pads and we're getting going. But so far, so good with him.”

If Seymore, a 2025 second-team All-American with 27 career games played and 21 starts over parts of four seasons at Miami, Akron and Western Kentucky, wins the starting job at left guard, he’ll fill the biggest need Texas had on either side of the ball coming out of spring practice.

But Seymore must win the job. It won’t be given to him.

Seymore has to prove to Sarkisian and Kyle Flood that he’s the best option to protect Arch Manning and elevate the running game over Jaydon Chatman, Jackson Christian, Dylan Sikorski and any other challengers Seymore might face in camp.

Before the 6-foot-2-inch, 316-pound Seymore hits the field for the first time in a formal practice with the Longhorns, there are three things to consider regarding the left guard competition:

— Seymore’s presence as a pass blocker could be the most significant upgrade any of the transfer portal additions on offense will bring to the table in 2026.

Seymore’s Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade of 82.6 ranked 30th among FBS guards with at least 100 pass-blocking snaps last season (eight pressures allowed on 503 opportunities). While he dominated the competition in Conference USA, Seymore also allowed just one pressure on 48 opportunities against LSU and was charged with only one penalty on 840 snaps for the season.

Those are important numbers against the backdrop of what Texas got out of the left guard position in 2025.

According to PFF, the left guard position was responsible for 26.5 percent of the dropbacks on which Manning was pressured. That was the highest percentage of any position on the Texas offensive line and the highest percentage for any FBS offensive line’s left guard spot among the 136 quarterbacks in the country who were pressured on at least 50 dropbacks.

— One of the legitimate questions regarding Seymore’s potential impact is how he’ll operate within Sarkisian’s zone running game.

PFF’s run-blocking grades rated DJ Campbell (73.6) and Cole Hutson (71.6) as better overall run blockers than Seymore (63.9; PFF considers a grade of 70 above average). Of Seymore’s 308 gradable run-blocking snaps, 62.7 percent of them were on gap schemes; on zone runs, Campbell (81.2) and Hutson (74.5) graded out significantly higher than Seymore (60.2).

Seymore should help the Longhorns improve as a gap/power running team. Still, Seymore must be well-rounded enough to keep opponents from successfully attacking a vulnerable part of the line.

— Whether Hutson rejoins the team or not, Chatman, Christian, Sikorski and the other contenders for playing time at left guard have an advantage over Seymore with their varying levels of experience in Sarkisian’s offense.

How fast Seymore absorbs the offense and takes to the field could be the biggest factor in how long the competition lasts. If Seymore needs time to get things down, Sarkisian and Flood could look at other options, some of which could significantly alter the projected depth chart as camp progresses.

Andre Cojoe, Jonte Newman or John Turntine III emerging as a viable third tackle option behind Trevor Goosby and Melvin Siani could lead to Jordan Coleman, who spent the spring at left tackle while Goosby was recovering from shoulder surgery, getting a look at guard.

Not only would Seymore winning the left guard job put the starting five for the Sept. 5 season opener against Texas State in stone, but it would also let Sarkisian and Flood get their depth pieces in order. Maximizing the available depth by turning to the best possible combination in a pinch is pivotal to the offense maintaining consistency and potency during a potential 17-game season, to say the least.

— Typically, when reports about live portions of practice come out from behind the burnt orange curtain, the defense is ahead of the offense. I’m preparing for that to be the case this month, especially given the time several key cogs in the offense missed during spring practice.

A lot of that focus has rightfully gone to the offensive line, where Laurence Seymore will attempt to win the left guard job while playing between Trevor Goosby (who spent most of the spring recovering from shoulder surgery) and Connor Robertson. Beyond the left guard battle, however, camp will be a great opportunity for Goosby, Arch Manning and Ryan Wingo to knock the rust off while learning how to operate with the new pieces around them.

It’s not like the offense is starting at a deficit because there's no substitute for the live snaps and overall experience that Goosby, Manning and Wingo have in Steve Sarkisian’s system. Still, with everybody healthy and ready to go, Sarkisian has a full slate of practices to ensure his offense is better prepared to step on the field than the unit was at this time last year, the importance of which can’t be overstated.

I don’t know if anyone reading this can handle the offense trudging through any portion of the September schedule, let alone the first half of the season before finding its groove.

—  The competition to enter Sarkisian’s circle of trust at wide receiver and the battle between Michael Masunas and Spencer Shannon to be the No. 1 in-line tight end shouldn’t be overlooked. The same can be said for the running back pecking order, where not enough is being said about Derrek Cooper pushing Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers for playing time.

Cooper’s stature (6-1, 212) is more in line with the type of bell-cow running back Sarkisian has typically preferred to see emerge. He drew rave reviews as a pass protector during spring practice and Cooper has the kind of physical running style and forward body lean that could be a key ingredient to resolving the offense’s long-running short-yardage and red-zone issues.

The 2026 Texas ground attack could mirror what Sarkisian had at USC in 2007 and 2008, when he called plays for an offense that produced three running backs with 500 or more rushing yards in back-to-back seasons. Or Cooper could be the latest in a long line of Longhorn freshman running backs who grabbed the bull by the horns right out of the gate, leaving those outside the top three spots on the depth chart fighting tooth and nail for the remaining consequential snaps.

— For all of the talk about a disruptive defensive line presence emerging to go along with Colin Simmons, a healthy Maraad Watson could go a long way toward solidifying the rotation and allowing Will Muschamp to get creative with how he utilizes an embarrassment of riches at EDGE.

The 333-pound Watson worked with the nose tackles and with the tackle group in the spring. If he’s truly a 330-plus-pound defender who can play multiple shades, Watson would become one of Muschamp’s most valuable chess pieces.

In theory, Watson could play next to Ian Geffrard when the situation calls for Texas to beef up the front. Watson could also be paired with Alex January and Hero Kanu on standard downs and then be lined up with Justus Terry and Muschamp’s plethora of edge defenders on more predictable passing downs.

For me, Watson is in a group with Cooper, Terry, Brandon Baker, Jermaine Bishop Jr., Ty’Anthony Smith, Brad Spence and Bo Mascoe as players who can raise the Longhorns’ ceiling.

— When the On Texas Football staff picked the player they were most excited to see in camp for our latest "Sideline Debate," I almost picked Xavier Filsaime.

As good as Graceson Littleton was as a true freshman, I can’t get over Sarkisian going out of his way to mention Filsaime as a nickel candidate while addressing the Muschamp hire last December. While surgery after the Citrus Bowl had the 6-foot-1-inch, 193-pound Filsaime on the mend during spring practice, he fits the physical profile of the bigger-bodied nickel Muschamp has typically preferred.

While I don’t think Muschamp will experiment with Littleton at safety (even though I think he’d thrive there in Muschamp’s scheme because of his instincts and ball skills), the idea of Littleton getting freed up to solidify an area of concern with Filsaime occupying the nickel role is intriguing, to say the least. Regardless, if Filsaime approached Muschamp’s arrival and the return of Blake Gideon to the Forty Acres like a man who has a new lease on life, he has a chance to remind people why several elite defensive back evaluators (Corey Raymond, Nick Saban and Brent Venables among them) thought so highly of him during the 2024 recruiting cycle.