Line of scrimmage –
Jim Harbaugh, a few days ago speaking to the NFL Owner’s Association, argued that the offensive line was the most important group on the field because the offensive line can make everyone else better but it doesn’t really get any help from anyone else for itself. He said not only does the offensive line help out the offensive skill players but it also helps out the defense by stringing together 12-play drives and giving the defense time to rest up.
Last year we lost four games and those four games were the worst performances on the year for our rushing attack. If you didn’t know better you might say that’s the reason we lost those games. Well, maybe last year, since we relied so heavily on our run game, that could be the reason we lost those games. The point is in general the evidence is not as conclusive for 2021 and 2022, i.e., our rushing attack faltering leading to a loss.
Most of our losses in 2021 were because we didn’t have much of a defense. In 2021 we had 10 games where our defense allowed 20 or more points. In 2022 we reduced that to 7 games and in 2023 we pushed it down to 5 games. In 2021 we had 7 games where we gave up 30 or more points. In 2022 and 2023 we reduced that to 3 games each year. In 2021 we had 5 games where we gave up 40 or more points. In 2022 we reduced that to 2 and in 2023 we dropped it to 0.
I’ve argued it takes a couple years for a new staff to heat up on the recruiting trail. The reason is in person relationship building including email, texts. phone contacts, etc. can’t really begin until the prospect is in his junior year for the most part. So recruiting really starts in earnest for rising juniors in high school. Well, that’s your 2 years. Our staff got here in 2021 so they were behind by a year working on the 2022 class because for the most part the kids they had been recruiting to UCF were not the same level of talent they would need to be recruiting to play in the SEC. Their first shot at being in the game and having mostly the same window as everyone else would be for the 2023 class and moving forward. I think that’s the way things played out. If our staff had been coming from another major P5 program maybe they would have already been building relationships with prospects at the required talent level. jmo.
In recruiting we had other challenges, primarily our issues with the NCAA. The roster implosion of 2021 was a huge hurdle. Even this year that hurdle remains. We have at least 18 offensive line recruits on scholarship this year and at least 20 defensive line recruits on scholarship. Want to know how many of those kids are from the 2021 high school class? None, nada, not a single one, on either side of the ball. 2021 high school kids should be redshirt juniors or true seniors this year and on the line of scrimmage this year we have none. We’ve been creatively backfilling our roster on the LOS with 2018 (Campbell), 2019, and 2020 guys to keep us in the game until we can bridge that 2021 gap. Almost all of those guys are gone after this year. The 2022 class was built with one hand tied behind our back but on the defensive line we’re good. On the offensive line Nichols was supposed to be a win in ‘22 but it didn’t work out so the 2023 class with Umarov and now Lance Heard is the foundation for our future offensive line. The 2024 class is bringing the cavalry. In 2026 at long last the 2021 hurdle should pretty much be finally behind us. The redshirt seniors that year will have finished high school in 2022.
So what’s the point? It doesn’t matter whether we like it or not but our staff has been jumping through hoops to keep us somewhat in the game against adverse odds, especially on the line of scrimmage. I think we’ve probably done better on the defensive line but we’ve had to work there too. I just think if we continue to recruit going forward as we have in ’23 and ’24, life may very well become perhaps a bit easier for our staff within the next couple of years. jmo.
Adam Friedman is the national recruiting analyst for Rivals and in mid-February after NSD he published his rankings for the top 5 offensive line hauls (not including transfers) in the 2024 cycle. He had Tennessee at #1, Michigan at #2, Ohio State at #3, Georgia at #4, and Notre Dame at #5. If as claimed the offensive line group is the most important unit on the field I’d say that was pretty good. jmo.