If the O line is a liability it will have a very negative impact on how well Joe can perform. That sh!t needs to be cleaned up.
This is my take on our OL –
I listen mostly to Cooper to get a sense of where we are on the OL. It’s his OL. I think everyone knows what we get with Cooper. He’s on the Remington award watch list for best center in the nation this year.
Spraggins has gotten some preseason hype and is projected by CBS to be a first round draft pick.
Crawford and Mincey split the starts and reps at LT last year for the #1 offense in the nation and from everything I’ve read and heard so far from the spring and now in fall camp it seems that Campbell is likely an upgrade at LT this year, especially in pass protection.
Mincey worked at RT during the spring and Crawford mostly stayed at LT. So far this fall early on Crawford has worked at RT and Mincey at LT. I think for both of those guys their primary position this year is probably RT and the reps from the spring was to get Mincey ready at RT and now we’re working to get Crawford ready also at RT. Either one of those guys will need to be able to back up Campbell at LT so which ever one is on one side at this point in camp I’d expect the other to be on the opposite end of the line. jmo.
Cooper has repeatedly praised Dayne Davis, both in the spring and now this fall, as someone he trusts and Dayne can play either side. (He can also play inside). Elarbee said he has 4 tackles ready to go this year. I take him at his word. jmo.
The only position that I think is less settled is LG and we have probably 3, maybe 4, guys trying to win that spot, Lane, Lampley, Karic, and Nichols. Cooper has also had praise for a couple of the younger guys in Clipper and Reddick, both of which stood out to me in the spring game. Cooper has also been positive about Lang at center.
I did a lot of homework on Karic from his high school days through his time at Texas and I’ve assumed that if he can get the offense down he could be a bit of an upgrade for us this year at LG. We’ll see. jmo.
I don’t think we’ll know the expected starting lineup until maybe after the second scrimmage. We have to get reps for all the guys we’re going to be counting on at their respective positions for this season and some of those guys are expected to have the versatility to play more than one position, so they’ll need reps at more than one position as we go through camp.
Some time ago I read a research report on the physiology of college football players and based on multiple research projects it has been determined that on average the greatest strength gains an offensive lineman makes in his entire college career are achieved in the first year of a college strength and conditioning program. In fact they say approximately 40% of career gains in both bench press and squats occur by the end of the first year. There is a slight drop off in the second year to between 34-38% but after that gains are much more modest. The third year produces gains in the 14-16% range and the fourth year averages gains in the 8-10% range for both bench and squats.
Bigger, faster, stronger, it seems, takes a minimum of two years, two years in which between 75-80% of strength gains that a player on average will make in his entire college career are earned.
With that in mind and the conventional wisdom being it takes 3 years to develop a high quality offensive lineman I think you’re probably hoping to field an offensive line composed mostly of older guys. Playing experience is incredibly valuable and playing experience in the same system might be the most valuable. jmo.
We had a good offensive line last year. Football outsiders had our OL as 17th best at run blocking and 57th best at pass blocking. From what’s I’ve heard this year we’re working to improve our pass protection and at least so far the returns from coaches and players have been favorable. I think overall our offensive line could be marginally better this year than it was last year so we’re probably going from good to slightly better. jmo.
$9.99 please. lol
