Jeff Howe

I've always believed that to be the crux of it. There's at least a kernel of truth there.

When one door closes, another opens. I would've liked to have landed on the OTF team under different circumstances, but I'm thankful every day that I'm here and that I get to be a part of what we're building. I love the community and the support we've received. Without you, there is no us.

Worked for this guy:

He has been rehabbing in Austin during the summer. I don’t know how far along his is in his recovery.

It depends on how long Goosby is out. If going to be a couple of weeks or even days, there’s no need to start shuffling guys around for the sake of it. Let Siani and Baker continue to work together to keep building the right side of the line.

If Siani moves to the left side, my guess would be Newman or possibly Cojoe. There’s a case to be made for plugging Coleman in at left tackle and keeping everything else the same.

I added to the original post with some scenarios about what Texas could do as long as Goosby is out. With that said, I'm with @Gerry Hamilton — I want to keep Brandon Baker at left guard if at all possible.

We'll keep the other Goosby thread going, but we wanted to get the news up for those who are just now getting to the board or haven't seen the diagnosis.

Texas avoided disaster along the offensive line on Tuesday, with left tackle Trevor Goosby's left knee injury diagnosed as a bone bruise, as On Texas Football has confirmed. 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. View full news story

FWIW, the NFL draft article I referenced has Trevor Goosby rated as the No. 1 tackle for the 2027 draft.

It's crazy how good the ACC portal guys were to Texas in the recent cycle: Siani (Wake Forest), Sterling Berkhalter (Wake Forest), Rasheem Biles (Pitt), Hollywood Smothers (NC State), Justin Cryer (Florida State) and Mac Chiumento (Florida State) all came from ACC programs (the same with Emmett Mosley last season, transferring in from Stanford).

Here's the Melvin Siani interview with @Rod Babers and the "3rd and Longhorn" crew:

AUSTIN, Texas — It’s one thing for Texas to enter the transfer portal and land a plug-and-play offensive tackle like Melvin Siani. 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. View full news story

I’ll settle for a competent running game against high-level competition. Texas hasn’t had that against teams like Ohio State and Georgia.

I don’t know.

I'm in love with the idea of Maraad Watson being a significant part of the defense. I don't know that he can be a big-time disruptor, but he doesn't need to be with the havoc defenders around him.

Between what Steve Sarkisian said after the first scrimmage of Texas camp and what sources told On Texas Football about what went down on Saturday, there are three things on my mind with 20 days to go until the 2026 season opener. — 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. View full news story

There was a day in February 2021 when I needed a friend to pick up the phone. I'm thankful every day that they did.

The best No. 21 in the history of Texas football!

Is Bobby Layne the best two-sport athlete in school history? He's for sure in the conversation.