The O-Line Will Have More Depth in 2015

[DiderotsGhost]

Time for my second post on the O-line and probably the 8,217th post on the issue in this forum.

We have the worst offensive line in the SEC this year, and it’s not even close. While I won’t say that our O-line issues were inevitable, they were at least probable before the season even started. That’s primarily because we lack experience and depth and all it took was one injury to derail the whole unit. Unfortunately, that injury happened during the first game, and at the worst possible position (i.e. Left Tackle). I’m not going to make the case that we’ll have a top O-line in 2015, but I will make the case that the odds of being “average” are much higher. To understand why, let’s compare the 2014 roster with the potential 2015 roster.

The first thing to note is that most top-tier SEC programs have at least 15 scholarship O-Linemen. Whereas, we only have 14 OLs on the entire roster! The numbers get worse once you dig deeper. Presumably, Butch Jones made a decision to redshirt two Freshmen who weren’t ready: Benson Napier and Ray Raulerson. Subtract two more who are walk-ons and who aren’t likely to be contributors: Marquis Pair and Thomas Edwards. After those subtractions, we’re down to 10 serviceable OLs.

Finally, once Jacob Gilliam beat out Dontavius Blair for the starting LT position, I think Butch Jones made an executive decision to redshirt Blair. This might seem like an ill-advised decision on the face of it given our lack of depth, but consider the other side: we also lack depth at LT in 2015 and probably in 2016. Therefore, Butch might have reasoned if Blair was still a year away from starting, he might as well save him for 2015 and 2016, when we have a better chance at competing. However, this left us with 9 serviceable offensive linemen on the entire roster in 2014.

Here was our starting line at the beginning of the season:

LT: Jacob Gilliam (R-Sr)
LG: Marcus Jackson (R-Jr)
C: Mack Crowder (R-Jr)
RG: Jashon Robertson (Fr)
RT: Kyler Kerbyson (R-Jr)

Here are our four serviceable backups:

Coleman Thomas (Fr)
Brett Kendrick (R-Fr)
Dylan Weisman (So)
Austin Sanders (R-Fr)

Of the 9 serviceable OLs on the roster in 2014, 2 were true freshman (one was shifted to the OL not long before the season started), and another 3 were second-year players with no experience. While our guys are getting blamed a lot for the struggles, a lot of the issues have to do with lack of depth, forcing guys to play out of position, or without enough experience. Once Gilliam got injured, there was basically no one behind him (without burning through Blair’s redshirt year). So Kerbyson was shifted to LT and Coleman Thomas (a true Freshman, originally recruited as a Center) was inserted at Right Tackle. This is far from ideal.

Will 2015 be any better? At least on paper, it seems more probable that our O-line will be average. We still lack depth at Left Tackle, but we should have more experience and more options. Out of our “serviceable OLs” this year, we only lose Jacob Gilliam from that group. We should add the following to the group next year:

Dontavius Blair (R-Jr, Tackle)
Charles Mosley (R-FR, likely a Guard)
Ray Raulerson (R-FR, likely a Tackle)
Jack Jones (FR, Tackle) --- possible redshirt
Zach Stewart (FR, Guard) --- possible redshirt

There are a few other possibilities as well. Chance Hall will join the program as a Tackle, but he recently had surgery, and I think most people expect him to redshirt. Venzell Bouleware is projected to be a Guard, and since we have less depth issues at Guard, it’s likely he’ll redshirt too. It’s also possible that one of the walk-ons will develop and become serviceable. But even if not, we still look like we have better odds next year.

We have 9 serviceable OLs this year. We should theoretically have about 12 - 14 next year. That’s a big improvement. We’ll still be behind many of our SEC rivals (Georgia, Bama, etc), but it doesn’t seem quite as disastrous if one guy gets injured.

Of course, we’ll still have one big issue and that’s the Tackle positions. By 2015, it seems like we should have a lot more depth and a lot of quality-options at the Center and Guard positions. Tackle is still very thin. While we'll still be vulnerable there, we’ll at least have more options next year and more people with experience there.

I won’t completely rule out coaching as a factor in our poor O-line play. However, Mahoney has a history of developing very good Offensive Linemen. There have also been some threads suggesting that Worley’s mechanics are a part of the problem and I’d tend to agree. That said,I don’t think even Gus Malzahn or Kevin Sumlin would be doing well with this line. It’s a leaky ship that we’re trying to plug with a few parts that don’t exactly fit the holes. I think we’ll get a better sense of how the offense really functions under Coach Jake in 2015 and 2016.

Overall, we’ll still have a pretty young line in 2015, and I’d be surprised if we were amongst the best in the SEC next year, but the odds of having an average O-line will be greatly improved. An average line may not sound exciting, but frankly, if we merely had an average line this year, we’d be 5-2 instead of 3-4. We might have even made the Oklahoma game a competitive one.

 

[KBVol]

Time for my second post on the O-line and probably the 8,217th post on the issue in this forum.

We have the worst offensive line in the SEC this year, and it’s not even close. While I won’t say that our O-line issues were inevitable, they were at least probable before the season even started. That’s primarily because we lack any depth and all it took was one injury to derail the whole unit. Unfortunately, that injury happened during the first game, and at the worst possible position (i.e. Left Tackle). I’m not going to make the case that we’ll have a top O-line in 2015, but I will make the case that the odds of being “average” are much higher. To understand why, let’s compare the 2014 roster with the potential 2015 roster.

The first thing to note is that most top-tier SEC programs have at least 15 scholarship O-Linemen. Whereas, we only have 14 OLs on the entire roster! The numbers get worse once you dig deeper. Presumably, Butch Jones made a decision to redshirt two Freshmen who weren’t ready: Benson Napier and Ray Raulerson. Subtract two more who are walk-ons and who aren’t likely to be contributors: Marquis Pair and Thomas Edwards. After those subtractions, we’re down to 10 serviceable OLs.

Finally, once Jacob Gilliam beat out Dontavius Blair for the starting LT position, I think Butch Jones made an executive decision to redshirt Blair. This might seem like an ill-advised decision on the face of it given our lack of depth, but consider the other side: we also lack depth at LT in 2015 and probably in 2016. Therefore, Butch might have reasoned if Blair was still a year away from starting, he might as well save him for 2015 and 2016, when we have a better chance at competing. However, this left us with 9 serviceable offensive linemen on the entire roster in 2014.

Here was our starting line at the beginning of the season:

LT: Jacob Gilliam (R-Sr)
LG: Marcus Jackson (R-Jr)
C: Mack Crowder (R-Jr)
RG: Jashon Robertson (Fr)
RT: Kyler Kerbyson (R-Jr)

Here are our four serviceable backups:

Coleman Thomas (Fr)
Brett Kendrick (R-Fr)
Dylan Weisman (So)
Austin Sanders (R-Fr)

Of the 9 serviceable OLs on the roster in 2014, 2 were true freshman (one was shifted to the OL not long before the season started), and another 3 were second-year players with no experience. While our guys are getting blamed a lot for the struggles, a lot of the issues have to do with lack of depth, forcing guys to play out of position, or without enough experience. Once Gilliam got injured, there was basically no one behind him (without burning through Blair’s redshirt year). So Kerbyson was shifted to LT and Coleman Thomas (a true Freshman, originally recruited as a Center) was inserted at Right Tackle. This is far from ideal.

Will 2015 be any better? At least on paper, it seems more probable that our O-line will be average. We still lack depth at Left Tackle, but we should have more experience and more options. Out of our “serviceable OLs” this year, we only lose Jacob Gilliam from that group. We should add the following to the group next year:

Dontavius Blair (R-Jr, Tackle)
Charles Mosley (R-FR, likely a Guard)
Ray Raulerson (R-FR, likely a Tackle)
Jack Jones (FR, Tackle) --- possible redshirt
Zach Stewart (FR, Guard) --- possible redshirt

There are a few other possibilities as well. Chance Hall will join the program as a Tackle, but he recently had surgery, and I think most people expect him to redshirt. Venzell Bouleware is projected to be a Guard, and since we have less depth issues at Guard, it’s likely he’ll redshirt too. It’s also possible that one of the walk-ons will develop and become serviceable. But even if not, we still look like we have better odds next year.

We have 9 serviceable OLs this year. We should theoretically have about 12 - 14 next year. That’s a big improvement. We’ll still be behind many of our SEC rivals (Georgia, Bama, etc), but it doesn’t seem quite as disastrous if one guy gets injured.

Of course, we’ll still have one big issue and that’s the Tackle positions. By 2015, it seems like we should have a lot more depth and a lot of quality-options at the Center and Guard positions. Tackle is still very thin. While we'll still be vulnerable there, we’ll at least have more options next year and more people with experience there.

I won’t completely rule out coaching as a factor in our poor O-line play. However, Mahoney has a history of developing very good Offensive Linemen. There have also been some threads suggesting that Worley’s mechanics are a part of the problem and I’d tend to agree. That said,I don’t think even Gus Malzahn or Kevin Sumlin would be doing well with this line. It’s a leaky ship that we’re trying to plug with a few parts that don’t exactly fit the holes. I think we’ll get a better sense of how the offense really functions under Coach Jake in 2015 and 2016.

Overall, we’ll still have a pretty young line in 2015, and I’d be surprised if we were amongst the best in the SEC next year, but the odds of having an average O-line will be greatly improved. An average line may not sound exciting, but frankly, if we merely had an average line this year, we’d be 5-2 instead of 3-4. We might have even made the Oklahoma game a competitive one.

Flip Jones and Stewart projected positions imo. Jones at guard, Stewart at tackle.

 

[BigOrangeVols]

Thanks for the breakdown.

Still some time before NSD as well. Hopefully we can grab another Tackle.

 

[Rudy123]

We all knew that the O - Line & D - Line were going to have to be retooled because of graduation. I am just glad that the D - Line is in good shape.
Imagine if the D - line was performing as poorly as the O - Line. That would mean we couldn't stop anyone either.

 

[McDad]

Thanks, DG. I really appreciate the analysis.

 

[Plano Vol]

Thomas Edwards is one big dude. Always funny to follow him up Lamont hill and wonder if the suspension on the left side of his vehicle was going to bust loose. Hope he does well for the Vols.

 

[WriterVol]

Just a couple of quick notes. Pair isn't a walk-on. He was a 2010 recruit, and he's participated in two games this year. While you may have only been adding him to the non-servicable list, he is available and is a redshirt senior. Napier, as far as I've ever seen, is a walk-on.

Nice write-up.

 

[hitUMinGUT]

Any golfers on here? What if you were good enough to be in the golfer's Pro Circuit? What if you were so good you only had 2 or 3 bad shots per round? What if you got to play 'Best Ball' with a team of 4 other seasoned Pro's? You would look much more experienced and professional. You would look really good (even with your 2 or 3 bad shots per game) wouldn't you? However, what if you got to play "Best Ball" with a team of unseasoned Pro's like you who also only had 3 bad shots per game? You would look much less experienced wouldn't you? Now imagine that instead of playing "Best Ball" you played "Worst Ball" (more like an SEC football game). Now your group of Pro's (depending on when the random 3 bad shots per game occurred) might look a bit horrible at times. Moral of the story- if you can avoid it, try not to play golf in a "Worst Ball" tournament with 5 unseasoned golfers who may have 3 poor shots each per game. Ideally, if you are unseasoned you should get with 4 other seasoned golfers. P.S. Any 5 of our starting OLinemen COULD and WOULD play for any of the other SEC teams and do very well!

 

[WriterVol]

Any golfers on here? What if you were good enough to be in the golfer's Pro Circuit? What if you were so good you only had 2 or 3 bad shots per round? What if you got to play 'Best Ball' with a team of 4 other seasoned Pro's? You would look much more experienced and professional. You would look really good (even with your 2 or 3 bad shots per game) wouldn't you? However, what if you got to play "Best Ball" with a team of unseasoned Pro's like you who also only had 3 bad shots per game? You would look much less experienced wouldn't you? Now imagine that instead of playing "Best Ball" you played "Worst Ball" (more like an SEC football game). Now your group of Pro's (depending on when the random 3 bad shots per game occurred) might look a bit horrible at times. Moral of the story- if you can avoid it, try not to play golf in a "Worst Ball" tournament with 5 unseasoned golfers who may have 3 poor shots each per game. Ideally, if you are unseasoned you should get with 4 other seasoned golfers. P.S. Any 5 of our starting OLinemen COULD and WOULD play for any of the other SEC teams and do very well!

That's 10 to 15 bad plays per game across the o-line. Sometimes a bad play is mitigated by a good play elsewhere, but often it just blows up a play. The margin for error is slim when the level of competition is so high.

Tough spot these guys are in.

 

[morristown vol]

Thanks for the very good post.I wonder if Richardson would have came back would
have made a diffence.

 

[WriterVol]

Thanks for the very good post.I wonder if Richardson would have came back would
have made a diffence.

If his knees weren't messed up, it would have been a HUGE boost for this team.

Gilliam or Kerbyson would have been at RT. If Gilliam at RT, Kerbyson would stay at RG. Jackson and Crowder are still at LG and C respectively. So, you'd have Kerbyson at a way more natural position and way more experience across the line. It would have been huge, and this team would have 1 or 2 losses right now.

But that didn't happen, and reports were that Richardson's knees were a problem even last year. The Vikings put him on the IR, and he needs surgery on both knees last I saw.

 

[morristown vol]

Your right,he took his chance before it was too late,but it sure would be nice
to have this year.Next year should be better.At least the qb will have more then
3 seconds to get rid of the ball,i hope

 

[WriterVol]

Your right,he took his chance before it was too late,but it sure would be nice
to have this year.Next year should be better.At least the qb will have more then
3 seconds to get rid of the ball,i hope

Another year of S&C (very important for linemen) and an offseason of extra work should help quite a bit.

 

[Nocleats]

Time for my second post on the O-line and probably the 8,217th post on the issue in this forum.

We have the worst offensive line in the SEC this year, and it’s not even close. While I won’t say that our O-line issues were inevitable, they were at least probable before the season even started. That’s primarily because we lack experience and depth and all it took was one injury to derail the whole unit. Unfortunately, that injury happened during the first game, and at the worst possible position (i.e. Left Tackle). I’m not going to make the case that we’ll have a top O-line in 2015, but I will make the case that the odds of being “average” are much higher. To understand why, let’s compare the 2014 roster with the potential 2015 roster.

The first thing to note is that most top-tier SEC programs have at least 15 scholarship O-Linemen. Whereas, we only have 14 OLs on the entire roster! The numbers get worse once you dig deeper. Presumably, Butch Jones made a decision to redshirt two Freshmen who weren’t ready: Benson Napier and Ray Raulerson. Subtract two more who are walk-ons and who aren’t likely to be contributors: Marquis Pair and Thomas Edwards. After those subtractions, we’re down to 10 serviceable OLs.

Finally, once Jacob Gilliam beat out Dontavius Blair for the starting LT position, I think Butch Jones made an executive decision to redshirt Blair. This might seem like an ill-advised decision on the face of it given our lack of depth, but consider the other side: we also lack depth at LT in 2015 and probably in 2016. Therefore, Butch might have reasoned if Blair was still a year away from starting, he might as well save him for 2015 and 2016, when we have a better chance at competing. However, this left us with 9 serviceable offensive linemen on the entire roster in 2014.

Here was our starting line at the beginning of the season:

LT: Jacob Gilliam (R-Sr)
LG: Marcus Jackson (R-Jr)
C: Mack Crowder (R-Jr)
RG: Jashon Robertson (Fr)
RT: Kyler Kerbyson (R-Jr)

Here are our four serviceable backups:

Coleman Thomas (Fr)
Brett Kendrick (R-Fr)
Dylan Weisman (So)
Austin Sanders (R-Fr)

Of the 9 serviceable OLs on the roster in 2014, 2 were true freshman (one was shifted to the OL not long before the season started), and another 3 were second-year players with no experience. While our guys are getting blamed a lot for the struggles, a lot of the issues have to do with lack of depth, forcing guys to play out of position, or without enough experience. Once Gilliam got injured, there was basically no one behind him (without burning through Blair’s redshirt year). So Kerbyson was shifted to LT and Coleman Thomas (a true Freshman, originally recruited as a Center) was inserted at Right Tackle. This is far from ideal.

Will 2015 be any better? At least on paper, it seems more probable that our O-line will be average. We still lack depth at Left Tackle, but we should have more experience and more options. Out of our “serviceable OLs” this year, we only lose Jacob Gilliam from that group. We should add the following to the group next year:

Dontavius Blair (R-Jr, Tackle)
Charles Mosley (R-FR, likely a Guard)
Ray Raulerson (R-FR, likely a Tackle)
Jack Jones (FR, Tackle) --- possible redshirt
Zach Stewart (FR, Guard) --- possible redshirt

There are a few other possibilities as well. Chance Hall will join the program as a Tackle, but he recently had surgery, and I think most people expect him to redshirt. Venzell Bouleware is projected to be a Guard, and since we have less depth issues at Guard, it’s likely he’ll redshirt too. It’s also possible that one of the walk-ons will develop and become serviceable. But even if not, we still look like we have better odds next year.

We have 9 serviceable OLs this year. We should theoretically have about 12 - 14 next year. That’s a big improvement. We’ll still be behind many of our SEC rivals (Georgia, Bama, etc), but it doesn’t seem quite as disastrous if one guy gets injured.

Of course, we’ll still have one big issue and that’s the Tackle positions. By 2015, it seems like we should have a lot more depth and a lot of quality-options at the Center and Guard positions. Tackle is still very thin. While we'll still be vulnerable there, we’ll at least have more options next year and more people with experience there.

I won’t completely rule out coaching as a factor in our poor O-line play. However, Mahoney has a history of developing very good Offensive Linemen. There have also been some threads suggesting that Worley’s mechanics are a part of the problem and I’d tend to agree. That said,I don’t think even Gus Malzahn or Kevin Sumlin would be doing well with this line. It’s a leaky ship that we’re trying to plug with a few parts that don’t exactly fit the holes. I think we’ll get a better sense of how the offense really functions under Coach Jake in 2015 and 2016.

Overall, we’ll still have a pretty young line in 2015, and I’d be surprised if we were amongst the best in the SEC next year, but the odds of having an average O-line will be greatly improved. An average line may not sound exciting, but frankly, if we merely had an average line this year, we’d be 5-2 instead of 3-4. We might have even made the Oklahoma game a competitive one.

The scary part is that two syllable word, Freshman. True freshmen are NOT ready for the week in and out demands that come with big time college football. The difference between an 18 year old kid and a 22 year old man are not even fair. Redshirt freshmen do a little better but on the whole, particularly in the trenches, you do not want freshmen in there at all. They need a year or 2 to marinate and get physically ready to compete. Had kitten not blown up the roster when he took over Stone, J James, Z Fulton, and Probably Tiny Richardson would all be 5th year SRs and this group of lineman would be building up.
The next issue will be at QB next year where we either bite the bullet with Peterman or Dobbs or try our hand with a "true freshman" QB which is not good.. Lets face it even P Manning struggled his freshman year and he may be the most prepared QB mentally to ever come out of HS.
To those who say they are tired of the freshman excuses, I would say those are not excuses, they are reasons. Freshmen dominating a lineup is almost never going to be successful. Yes we can all point to 4 or 5 examples of freshmen who do well but remember that their are roughly 2200 freshmen a year so look at the ratio. Be patient fans, there is a vision, and a plan and it is going to work! GBO

 

[sjt18]

I would like to believe... but I just don't see the improvement over time to suggest that it will get appreciably better in 2015. And for all of the success this staff has had recruiting other positions... they do not appear to be finding and signing great OL's... and in particular LT's.

 

[Nocleats]

I would like to believe... but I just don't see the improvement over time to suggest that it will get appreciably better in 2015. And for all of the success this staff has had recruiting other positions... they do not appear to be finding and signing great OL's... and in particular LT's.

Only had one true full year recruiting class, year one was a six week barrage, so those guys are freshmen, who should not be playing this year..JMO

 

[FLVOL_79]

Tennessee over the past 7 years never seems to have depth at any position. WR is about it.

 

[sjt18]

Only had one true full year recruiting class, year one was a six week barrage, so those guys are freshmen, who should not be playing this year..JMO

Several DL contributors were signed in that six week period.

They were left in a hole no doubt. It doesn't adequatley explain how bad the current OL is or why they were unable to sign better OL prospects in '14.

 

[Biopsyman]

I hope our OL remembers this beating they have taken and turns it into motivation toward next year and serve notice

 

[ItsAllVols]

I think some of the Vol Nation issues are; after seeing the D-Line flip from 2013 to 2014 worst to a lot better some think the same should have happen on the O-Line. I agree with you the injury to Jacob Gilliam was the plug that held this O-Line together, time will tell but that's what happens in the SEC. Injuries and Depth makes you a contender or a pretender.

 

[ACvol3]

I hope our OL remembers this beating they have taken and turns it into motivation toward next year and serve notice

Oh they'll remember...

 

[volroadwarrior]

I would like to believe... but I just don't see the improvement over time to suggest that it will get appreciably better in 2015. And for all of the success this staff has had recruiting other positions... they do not appear to be finding and signing great OL's... and in particular LT's.

The fact that everyone except Gilliam is eligible to return and be stronger and more experienced DOES suggest it will get better. How much is anyone's guess. Also, it is 3 months to NSD and who knows what happens then to improve the OL for 2016 and beyond.

 

[volKano]

I hope our OL remembers this beating they have taken and turns it into motivation toward next year and serve notice

I worry they will remember the verbal beating some fans have directed toward them. It is ridiculous to think the team and prospects never look at these type sites. Getting beat on the field shows them what they need to do to compete in the SEC but being attacked by the fans will make them wonder why they are working so hard to build a team for people that only care about them if they win.

 

[JonGrudensAgent]

Time for my second post on the O-line and probably the 8,217th post on the issue in this forum.

We have the worst offensive line in the SEC this year, and it’s not even close. While I won’t say that our O-line issues were inevitable, they were at least probable before the season even started. That’s primarily because we lack experience and depth and all it took was one injury to derail the whole unit. Unfortunately, that injury happened during the first game, and at the worst possible position (i.e. Left Tackle). I’m not going to make the case that we’ll have a top O-line in 2015, but I will make the case that the odds of being “average” are much higher. To understand why, let’s compare the 2014 roster with the potential 2015 roster.

The first thing to note is that most top-tier SEC programs have at least 15 scholarship O-Linemen. Whereas, we only have 14 OLs on the entire roster! The numbers get worse once you dig deeper. Presumably, Butch Jones made a decision to redshirt two Freshmen who weren’t ready: Benson Napier and Ray Raulerson. Subtract two more who are walk-ons and who aren’t likely to be contributors: Marquis Pair and Thomas Edwards. After those subtractions, we’re down to 10 serviceable OLs.

Finally, once Jacob Gilliam beat out Dontavius Blair for the starting LT position, I think Butch Jones made an executive decision to redshirt Blair. This might seem like an ill-advised decision on the face of it given our lack of depth, but consider the other side: we also lack depth at LT in 2015 and probably in 2016. Therefore, Butch might have reasoned if Blair was still a year away from starting, he might as well save him for 2015 and 2016, when we have a better chance at competing. However, this left us with 9 serviceable offensive linemen on the entire roster in 2014.

Here was our starting line at the beginning of the season:

LT: Jacob Gilliam (R-Sr)
LG: Marcus Jackson (R-Jr)
C: Mack Crowder (R-Jr)
RG: Jashon Robertson (Fr)
RT: Kyler Kerbyson (R-Jr)

Here are our four serviceable backups:

Coleman Thomas (Fr)
Brett Kendrick (R-Fr)
Dylan Weisman (So)
Austin Sanders (R-Fr)

Of the 9 serviceable OLs on the roster in 2014, 2 were true freshman (one was shifted to the OL not long before the season started), and another 3 were second-year players with no experience. While our guys are getting blamed a lot for the struggles, a lot of the issues have to do with lack of depth, forcing guys to play out of position, or without enough experience. Once Gilliam got injured, there was basically no one behind him (without burning through Blair’s redshirt year). So Kerbyson was shifted to LT and Coleman Thomas (a true Freshman, originally recruited as a Center) was inserted at Right Tackle. This is far from ideal.

Will 2015 be any better? At least on paper, it seems more probable that our O-line will be average. We still lack depth at Left Tackle, but we should have more experience and more options. Out of our “serviceable OLs” this year, we only lose Jacob Gilliam from that group. We should add the following to the group next year:

Dontavius Blair (R-Jr, Tackle)
Charles Mosley (R-FR, likely a Guard)
Ray Raulerson (R-FR, likely a Tackle)
Jack Jones (FR, Tackle) --- possible redshirt
Zach Stewart (FR, Guard) --- possible redshirt

There are a few other possibilities as well. Chance Hall will join the program as a Tackle, but he recently had surgery, and I think most people expect him to redshirt. Venzell Bouleware is projected to be a Guard, and since we have less depth issues at Guard, it’s likely he’ll redshirt too. It’s also possible that one of the walk-ons will develop and become serviceable. But even if not, we still look like we have better odds next year.

We have 9 serviceable OLs this year. We should theoretically have about 12 - 14 next year. That’s a big improvement. We’ll still be behind many of our SEC rivals (Georgia, Bama, etc), but it doesn’t seem quite as disastrous if one guy gets injured.

Of course, we’ll still have one big issue and that’s the Tackle positions. By 2015, it seems like we should have a lot more depth and a lot of quality-options at the Center and Guard positions. Tackle is still very thin. While we'll still be vulnerable there, we’ll at least have more options next year and more people with experience there.

I won’t completely rule out coaching as a factor in our poor O-line play. However, Mahoney has a history of developing very good Offensive Linemen. There have also been some threads suggesting that Worley’s mechanics are a part of the problem and I’d tend to agree. That said,I don’t think even Gus Malzahn or Kevin Sumlin would be doing well with this line. It’s a leaky ship that we’re trying to plug with a few parts that don’t exactly fit the holes. I think we’ll get a better sense of how the offense really functions under Coach Jake in 2015 and 2016.

Overall, we’ll still have a pretty young line in 2015, and I’d be surprised if we were amongst the best in the SEC next year, but the odds of having an average O-line will be greatly improved. An average line may not sound exciting, but frankly, if we merely had an average line this year, we’d be 5-2 instead of 3-4. We might have even made the Oklahoma game a competitive one.

Great write up.

The part in bold is by far my biggest concern in finalizing recruiting at this point though.

Need to somehow bring in a natural LT that will have a leg up on development instead of having to learn a new position IMO.

 

[terrypedigo]

Thanks for the very good post.I wonder if Richardson would have came back would
have made a diffence.

The Big IF word, if Tiny and 6-10 Dan Skipper had come here, I would say 5 and 2 at least right now and competing for the EAST, That big IF word.:thud: