Pro Football Focus not impressed with our OL play this year

#1
kamoshika

kamoshika

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#1
113. Tennessee Volunteers
Highest-graded player: OG Trey Smith – 77.7 (14th)

Without Smith, the Volunteers' overall grades plummet and look just downright awful on the offensive line. Collectively, they ranked 124th in pass-blocking grade and 76th in run-blocking grade, all but undoing a great season by Smith, who finished as the 14th highest-graded guard in the country.
Ranking all 130 college football offensive line situations | College Football and NFL Draft | PFF

Other SEC OL rankings by PFF...

128. Vanderbilt
106. Ole Miss
104. SC
92. Florida
67. Arkansas
59. Texas A&M
48. Missouri
42. Miss St
30. LSU
28. Auburn
5. Kentucky (surprised by this one)
3. Alabama
2. Georgia
 
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#5
#5
Run blocking was often very mediocre, but pass protection was very good overall. JG holds the ball until the one receiver he is tracking is wide open, then waits a half second after that then throws. He usually had a lot of time, however.
 
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#8
#8
VolInNW said:
Run blocking was often very mediocre, but pass protection was very good overall. JG holds the ball until the one receiver he is tracking is wide open, then waits a half second after that then throws. He usually had a lot of time, however.
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Pass pro was definitely better coupled with, if you can believe it, a little better job by the QBs. Run blocking went from awful to ok at times but mostly poor.
 
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#9
#9
I think this throws out the improvement in the line. Maybe they only watched the first half of our season when JG was running for his life and made their decision but anyone who watched the second half of the season and the improvement at line should have been impressed. I would, based on the entire body of work, put our line in at least the top 50 and probably middle of the SEC over Ole Miss, State, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vandy and even A&M (their offensive line was their big weakness). Hopefully we are just a few years away from the big uglies like Georgia and Bama have.
 
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#11
#11
Hawkeye4588 said:
I would, based on the entire body of work, put our line in at least the top 50 and probably middle of the SEC over Ole Miss, State, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vandy and even A&M (their offensive line was their big weakness).
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So why were we 12th in the SEC in rushing? Maybe you can blame a little of it on struggles at QB, but it wasn’t like we absolutely couldn’t stretch the field with the passing game.
 
#13
#13
GAVol said:
Sincerely,
Old People and Unemployed Coaches
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Yeah, that analytic chart really worked well here under Butch. All joking aside they take out several factors and there's more to the game than stats and PFF really digs into meaningless stats. Analytics according to PFF focus tell us that JG and the QB from UAB are 2 of the top QB's in the country, is that true?

Everyone likes to point to moneyball as an example of analytics working and they love to use the Boston Red Sox as to how that system can work. Well it does work, sort of. What they don't tell you is the year Boston won the World Series in 2004 using "moneyball", they also had the 2nd highest payroll in the MLB.

In 2002, while all the Oakland A's had nice on base %'s they still were a team of crappy ball players and guys who nobody wanted. That 2004 Red Sox roster was full of future HOF's.
 
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#14
#14
Pass protection was very bad early in the year, run blocking was mediocre at best. Not unexpected though, we had two freshmen. They got better as the season went asking but the o line play was not very good all season. I expect them to be much better next year, especially if Smith comes back.
 
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#15
#15
kamoshika said:
113. Tennessee Volunteers
Highest-graded player: OG Trey Smith – 77.7 (14th)

Without Smith, the Volunteers' overall grades plummet and look just downright awful on the offensive line. Collectively, they ranked 124th in pass-blocking grade and 76th in run-blocking grade, all but undoing a great season by Smith, who finished as the 14th highest-graded guard in the country.
Ranking all 130 college football offensive line situations | College Football and NFL Draft | PFF

Other SEC OL rankings by PFF...

128. Vanderbilt
106. Ole Miss
104. SC
92. Florida
67. Arkansas
59. Texas A&M
48. Missouri
42. Miss St
30. LSU
28. Auburn
5. Kentucky (surprised by this one)
3. Alabama
2. Georgia
Click to expand...

We beat five of the teams above. Assuming SC is South Carolina and not S CAL though.
 
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#16
#16
GAVol said:
So why were we 12th in the SEC in rushing? Maybe you can blame a little of it on struggles at QB, but it wasn’t like we absolutely couldn’t stretch the field with the passing game.
Click to expand...

I think that is a very valid point but it is the result of the entire season and I agree we were terrible those first five games. I would be interested to see where we would place if you just looked at the second half of the season.
 
#17
#17
Hard for this to give clear information. Most of the teams across this country are blocking central Michigans and Arizonas. We are blocking Florida's line, Alabama's line and Georgia's line... Every year. The curve is skewed that way and there really isn't a way to take that into account other than to say this isn't all the information.
 
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#18
#18
Our OL was not good this year. There were moments when things clicked, but not consistent enough to compete with the big boys. Hopefully experience and another year in the weight room will lead to improvement. They were young, so no reason to think they can't get better.
 
#19
#19
When opponents laugh at your Qb and don't respect a down hill passing game they stack the box. When the box is stacked your screwed rushing wise and it makes everyone look bad. If you add good QB play into the mix teams will play more nickel packages and make it easier to run. Something we haven't seen much of for a few years.
 
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#20
#20
Over the last 7 games or so, I imagine the oline was much higher... Well, in the 70's or 80's. If you look at UT's Entire O over the first half first vs second half of the season they its something like 112th to 61st or something.
 
#21
#21
TBH, I am not that impressed with our O-line either. They get a lot of love from fans, but i think that is mainly because we compare them to the last 8 years of inept lineman.
I am glad for the players this year and what they have done, but look forward to a time when they can be dominant.
 
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#23
#23
GAVol said:
So why were we 12th in the SEC in rushing? Maybe you can blame a little of it on struggles at QB, but it wasn’t like we absolutely couldn’t stretch the field with the passing game.
Click to expand...

Hate to say it but Ty Chandler is merely an average RB. Great straight line speed, but does not break a lot of tackles, and is not nearly as shifty as Gray. No doubt Chandler has elite top end speed, but I think Gray probably has more burst and quicker acceleration ala Kamara. Chandler May be better suited as a slot WR than pure RB...catching the ball, and running the occasional end around.

Now we need a bigger power RB to compliment Gray. Or is that person possibly already on the team playing LB??? Crouch may be needed on defense more but... Hmmm??
 
#25
#25
I think our OL improved but it took several games to do so.....It was about mid season before Trey got to his true form.....2 true freshman and Kennedy missing a year due to ACL surgery.

Based on offensive stats I saw on NCAA.com we finished 100th in total offense and 88th in rushing offense.
 
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