The program essentially had six starting caliber offensive lineman last season and only two of those are back. So Brian Callahan will have to rely on returning underclassmen and the the transfer portal to field another excellent line. Will this group be an upgrade over 2024?

2025 Offensive Line

2024 Starter: Aireonte Ersaey, Greg Johnson, Tyler Cooper, Quinn Carroll, Philip Daniels, Ashton Beers
2025 Starters: Nathan Roy (LT), Greg Johnson (LG), Ashton Beers (C), Tony Nelson (RG), Dylan Ray (RT)
Depth: Marcellus Marshall, Kahlee Tafai, Jaden Ball, Brett Carroll

Ersary was a 2nd round draft pick, Carroll & Cooper graduated and Daniels moved back home to play for Ohio State. Leaving only Johnson and Beers as your returning linemen with significant experience.

Johnson enters his junior season after starting all 13 games at center last year and playing significant snaps at guard as a true freshman. He’s moving back to guard and it is expected that he will be one of the anchors of this year’s rebuild OL. Expect Johnson to start all 13 games at left guard.

At center will be the only other returning lineman from a year ago, Ashton Beers spent time last year as a starting guard for nine games. Beers chose Minnesota out of Slinger, Wisconsin, he redshirted in 2022, played mostly on special teams in 2023, became a significant contributorin 2024 and now is going to start at center for the 2025 Gophers.

After those two, things are a little murkier, but there is a mix of transfers and underclassmen who are going to have the opportunity, to earn their snaps.

At left tackle, it is expected that Nathan Roy is going to start the season at this key position. Roy is formerly the top-rated recruit out of Wisconsin and chose the Gophers over a couple dozen other power-five offers. Now, as just a redshirt freshman, he is locking down the most imporant position along the offensive line.

On the right side of the line, there are two guys in the mix at right guard. Tony Nelson is entering his junior year and has exactly one start under his belt when he was the starting LG in last year’s bowl game. And then you have Marcellus Marshall, a transfer from Central Florida who started 11 of 12 games for the Knights last year. He has just one season of eligibility and likely didn’t come to Minnesota if wasn’t confident in his chances to start.

At right tackle, you’ll likely see the Kentucky transfer, Dylan Ray starting. Ray spent his first two seasons at West Virginia, transferred to Kentucky for two and is now at Minnesota for his final season.

Behind those six names are a couple more transfers and one returner.

Jaden Ball, a transfer from Purdue who redshirted at Purdue last year and has 4 years of eligibility. Kahlee Tafai is a Washington transfer who had serious portal offers from other major schools. Tafai started four games for the Huskies last year as a redshirt freshman and will have 3 years to play at Minnesota. And returners Jerome Williams and Brett Carroll will be in the mix at guard and center respectively.

Upgrade/Downgrade

What will this remade and rebuilt line look like in 2025? And is it possible that it can be an upgrade?

Great questions. And before I attempt to answer them, here are two things I firmly believe about the program’s offensive line situation.

One, Brian Callahan is elite at his job. He develops players, he gets his units to play together and this is consistently a group that can reload with talent. Do you remember how we routinely lost out on big-time OL recruits because Minnesota hadn’t produced a drafted lineman in many years? Now Gophers are being drafted, they are being drafted high and they are contributing on Sundays.

Secondly, often times the Gopher OLs start out slowly in a season and by the end of the year they are elite. I would expect to see the same again this year, especially with all of the new faces.

So is this an upgrade? I cannot call it that. Having Ersary drafted in the second round, having another elite tackle transfer to Ohio State and then losing 60 combined starts from Carroll and Cooper…I would lose all credibility by declaring this year’s unit as an upgrade. I do believe they can approach getting to neutral, but for now I will call this a downgrade. Not so much of a downgrade that I’m overly concerned, this unit will still perform at a high level. But it will be a work in progress throughout the season.