Texas vs. Ohio State: The trench matchups everyone should be watching

It's finally time. The Longhorns play the Buckeyes on Saturday in a long-awaited battle that's been on the minds of every single Texas player since their devastating loss last season.

Though there are crucial personnel matchups all over the field for both teams, the battle in the trenches could end up being one of the deciding factors in this one. Both schools have new offensive and defensive linemen starting for them in 2025, and two specific matchups should be exciting to watch throughout the game.

Let's jump right into it:

Texas LT Trevor Goosby vs. OSU DE Beau Atkinson

The Longhorns' new starting left tackle will face off against new Buckeyes pass rusher Beau Atkinson quite a bit on Saturday, and there should be tons of fireworks here. Atkinson (6'6", 258 lbs.) was an absolute monster in the ACC for North Carolina last season before transferring to Ohio State in 2025. He's an incredibly long and powerful edge rusher who can take over a game if allowed to. Trevor Goosby is going to have his hands full all day long with Atkinson and the Buckeyes' other top pass rushers, so he'll need to have an excellent, technically sound performance in week 1.

Goosby's an insane athlete at offensive tackle and can recover from being out of position from time to time, but he needs to make sure he's careful with his pass sets. Atkinson does a great job of influencing offensive tackles into setting incorrectly in order to take advantage of speed-to-power moves.

OSU LT Ethan Onianwa vs. Texas DE Colin Simmons

Onianwa was Ohio State's "key" transfer this offseason, as they were looking to bring in a new starting left tackle following Josh Simmons' vacancy. Onianwa is a big (6'6", 350 lbs.), wide offensive lineman who relies on his size and length to make it hard for defenders to run around.

Texas' elite pass rusher Colin Simmons has a fairly refined repertoire of moves that he's able to use on a down-by-down basis, depending on the type of player that he's facing. This is the type of matchup that Simmons needs to study lots of film on to understand Onianwa's tendencies.

If Onianwa tends to short-set or jump-set speed rushers, then Simmons should be able to be effective with double moves or different swiping techniques to set up and swipe away Onianwa's hands. Simmons will most likely focus on doing anything he can to get to Onianwa's hip level as soon as possible to negate the blocker's recovery ability. Jump-setting can be a good or bad thing for offensive tackles, and Simmons' job is to make it the latter.