Kyle Flood encouraged by depth of Texas offensive line

Expectations are through the roof at Texas thanks to the return of quarterback Quinn Ewers and top target Xavier Worthy, but the depth of Texas’ offensive line might be equal cause for optimism.

The Longhorns return a whole lot of experience up front, including six players who have started games at the college level.

“It’s unique for sure. I think there’s only one other time in my career I was able to bring back really six players that have started games,” offensive coordinator Kyle Flood said. “Cole (Hutson) started, DJ (Campbell) started, so that’s a little bit unique. But I feel like right now after going through the spring and then the part of the summer that we are able to see — we can’t see all of it, but we can see some of it, where we can work with the guys — I feel like we’ve got eight guys right now that we can win major college football games with.”

Neto Umeozulu and Cameron Williams would be numbers seven and eight adding to the depth of the Texas offensive line, joining a bevy of veterans up front.

Texas will hope it can just lean on that group as the season goes on, which gets easier if injuries are avoided and the depth continues to be built during fall camp over the next few weeks.

“I think right now we’re at eight,” Flood said. “You’d love to get to 10, but I can’t tell you that very often in my career I’ve been able to do that. But we’ve got other guys that are coming along also, the guys like Connor Robertson and then some of the freshmen that were hear early, the early enrollees.

“We’ll wait on that just a little bit with Connor coming off the wrist injury and the younger guys being kind of new to the program.”

The one thing Flood is telling his players as they go into fall camp is that it’s an open competition for jobs. Just because you started last year does not mean you’re guaranteed a starting spot this fall. That’s how the depth of Texas’ offensive line will be built.

Everyone will have to prove their worth all over again.

“Ultimately playing time will be earned. Starting positions will be earned, all across the board,” Flood said. “I know everyone likes to look at preseason depth charts, but I’ve told the players a long time: To me a preseason depth chart is really just a starting point. Because in the beginning of training camp everybody gets the same amount of reps, everybody’s running the same plays, so everybody has an opportunity to show us how high of a level can you play at.”

In speaking to that concept, Flood pointed out that they have a half dozen players on the interior that can play multiple spots in a pinch. That makes them more valuable than players who aren’t cross-training.

It could also get interesting for Flood when he has to make starting decisions, given the depth of the Texas offensive line.

“We do have quite a few players that are going to play on the inside,” he said. “Jake (Majors)‘ gonna play center, Connor’s going to play center, Cole Hutson’s going to play. Jaydon Chatman played center in the spring. Cole’s gonna play guard, Hayden Conner‘s gonna play guard. Hayden Conner played center in the spring.

“So we’ve got a lot of interchangeability with these players and that position flexibility is going to help those guys as they go on in their careers too, but it helps me as the coach to be able to say, ‘OK, here ultimately are what I feel are the best five or the five guys who give us the best chance to win as a collective group,’ now where do the pieces fit? We’ll figure that out a couple weeks from now.”