Penn State has its starting offensive line, and Matt Campbell made the call public Tuesday morning in his first weekly press conference as PSU coach.
The five-man group features Brock Riker at center, Cooper Cousins at right guard, Anthony Donkoh at right tackle, Trevor Buhr at left guard and Malachi Goodman filling out the unit.
Riker lands the center job as expected, beating out veteran Dominic Rulli. He arrives with real buzz after earning freshman All-American honors at Texas State last season, and there are already people around the program who think he could be one of the Big Ten’s best at the position right away.
Cousins is set at right guard after a season that gave Penn State plenty to like. He played in 12 games last year, made two starts and picked up Academic All-Big Ten honors.
He also showed up on the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy Watch List and was a Good Works Team nominee. His first career start came at Ohio State, and he helped the offense put up 465 yards against Villanova, 412 against Nebraska and a season-best 509 at Rutgers, where Kaytron Allen ran for 226 yards.
The numbers back up the steady profile. According to Pro Football Focus, Cousins logged 177 offensive snaps in 2025 and finished with a 67.5 overall blocking grade, including a 66.6 run-blocking grade and 65.8 pass-blocking grade. His strongest outing came in the bowl game against Clemson, when he played 78 snaps and earned a 69.7 overall grade.
What stands out most about Cousins may be his range. He’s taken game reps at center, right guard, left guard and left tackle. Cousins said his focus going into spring was likely on the right side, but he also made it clear he would line up wherever Penn State needed him.
Donkoh is back in the starting lineup at right tackle after missing spring practice with an injury. In 2024, the redshirt freshman had already put himself in the conversation as maybe Penn State’s best offensive lineman before a late-season injury kept him out of the College Football Playoff run. Now in his fourth season, he’s also one of the team’s leaders.
Buhr brings a familiar connection to Campbell, having spent two years as a starter at Iowa State under him. PSU OC Taylor Mouser pointed to Buhr’s consistency, physical edge and pass protection when talking about him earlier in fall camp.
“I think just the consistency that he plays with,” Mouser said. “He plays a very, very physically demanding position (left guard).
He and (right guard) Cooper Cousins are o-linemen that take pride in how violent and physical they can be. And Trevor has done a good job of that.
And he’s consistent in pass pro every rep, doesn’t lose him in pass pro, and is violent at the point of attack. And we got some really big, stout dudes in there on the defensive line.
So I think just being the same guy in a time period where it’s hard to find.”
Goodman rounds out the group after redshirting last season, which means there still isn’t a huge sample size on him yet. Even so, the expectation inside the program is obvious: the pieces are there for him to become a star.
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Campbell made it clear the numbers are part of the process without taking over the process. He said analytics inform his decisions, but they do not dictate them, which leaves room for feel, experience and the rhythm of the game to matter just as much. For Penn State, that kind of balance may be the real takeaway: aggressive, informed and willing to trust the moment when the moment matters most. [Read more 🡒]