Offensive Line in 2017

[Hurracanes]

Honestly I'm disappointed that Richt didn't fire Searles after this year. Kehoe was awful enough but Searles was even worse.

Not many OL coaches could have done a much better job with that group.

 

[Hurracanes]

Honestly I'm disappointed that Richt didn't fire Searles after this year. Kehoe was awful enough but Searles was even worse.

Not many OL coaches could have done a much better job with that group.

Would love to get [MENTION=2]DMoney[/MENTION] or [MENTION=3]LuCane[/MENTION] thoughts on the OL next season.

 

[LuCane]

Honestly I'm disappointed that Richt didn't fire Searles after this year. Kehoe was awful enough but Searles was even worse.

Not many OL coaches could have done a much better job with that group.

Would love to get @DMoney or @LuCane thoughts on the OL next season.

From the outside looking in, it looks as fluid as ever to me. I think anyone who gives you an answer is basically guessing. I think the coaches just have a bunch of decisions to make. If I'm given the opportunity to watch spring or fall practices, I'll get a better idea.

There are seemingly endless potential OL combinations next year. Here are just some questions.

- Are they going to rely on Mcdermott at LT or kick him inside to G?
- Will Darling finally settle at Guard? Right or left?
- Will Gauthier play Center?
- Will they try St. Louis at LT?
- Will Odogwu come back and be reliable?
- Will Brown be suitable as a LT?
- Will Donaldson start inside (i think so) and be able to contribute?
- Was Linder broken by injury and will he be able to do what they ask of a C?

And, so on. I think it's going to be fun to watch. If I could wish for anything about the Canes overall, it's that Brown or St. Louis would grab the LT based on growth instead of default. If that happens, it would probably send a ripple effect to settle out the entire line.

 

[grover]

Great post, Lu. Question for you. How much did injury affect performance. I'm thinking specifically about McDermott, Linder and Odogwu. But maybe others we don't know about. And if it was a major issue, do these kids recover, or are we dealing with a D Owens situation?

 

[ChosenOne]

OL by numbers... vs Coastal (and FSU)

Rushing by yards per carry.. (note: 4.0 or higher is pretty good - anything lower then 3.7-8ish is bad)

Comparison

Duke 2015: 3.1, 2016: 5.7
GT 2015: 3.1, 2016: 4.2
VT 2015: 2.5, 2016: 1.5
FSU 2015: 1.1, 2016: 2.2
UVA 2015: 4.3, 2016: 5.3
Pitt 2015: 2.9, 2016: 4.9
UNC 2015: 3.1, 2016: 3.9

We didn't play ND, App State, FAU, and FAMU last year..

 

[LuCane]

OL by numbers... vs Coastal (and FSU)

Rushing by yards per carry.. (note: 4.0 or higher is pretty good - anything lower then 3.7-8ish is bad)

Comparison

Duke 2015: 3.1, 2016: 5.7
GT 2015: 3.1, 2016: 4.2
VT 2015: 2.5, 2016: 1.5
FSU 2015: 1.1, 2016: 2.2
UVA 2015: 4.3, 2016: 5.3
Pitt 2015: 2.9, 2016: 4.9
UNC 2015: 3.1, 2016: 3.9

We didn't play ND, App State, FAU, and FAMU last year..

Thank you. Would be curious to see how we did vs. our opponents' averages. For example, we ran the ball well against Pitt, but what did they allow for the year? Etc.

 

[LuCane]

Great post, Lu. Question for you. How much did injury affect performance. I'm thinking specifically about McDermott, Linder and Odogwu. But maybe others we don't know about. And if it was a major issue, do these kids recover, or are we dealing with a D Owens situation?

Logical question. Unfortunately, I'm not the guy with a decent answer. Perhaps Pete or D$ would know more.

 

[Astcloud11]

OL by numbers... vs Coastal (and FSU)

Rushing by yards per carry.. (note: 4.0 or higher is pretty good - anything lower then 3.7-8ish is bad)

Comparison

Duke 2015: 3.1, 2016: 5.7
GT 2015: 3.1, 2016: 4.2
VT 2015: 2.5, 2016: 1.5
FSU 2015: 1.1, 2016: 2.2
UVA 2015: 4.3, 2016: 5.3
Pitt 2015: 2.9, 2016: 4.9
UNC 2015: 3.1, 2016: 3.9

We didn't play ND, App State, FAU, and FAMU last year..

I will add more to this...but first, we DID play FAU last year.

vs FAU 2015: 5.1 YPC, 2016: 7.1 YPC (Walton had 9.1 YPC and 4 TD's on his own)

Offensive Line looks to have improved, but still looks crappy and below average...The footballoutsiders.com rankings reflect this.


Run Blocking

-Parenthesis is the rank in all of FBS according to footballoutsiders.
-Added 2 coastal teams with for comparison purposes.
-UNC shared FSU/NCST games
-VT won the Coastal and shared ND game
-Green is improvement, Red is regression from previous year


Adjusted Line Yards (run block rating, adjusted based on how good the opp. front 7 is)
2015: 88.8 (113)
2016: 96.6 (97)
UNC: 107.4 (41)
VT: 101.8 (68)

Standard Down YPC
2015: 2.52 (115)
2016: 2.85 (90)
UNC: 3.02 (63)
VT: 2.79 (98)

Passing Down YPC
2015: 2.75 (104)
2016: 2.84 (101)
UNC: 3.14 (79)
VT: 3.16 (78)

Opportunity Rate (the percentage of carries -when five yards are available- that gain at least five yards)
2015: 34.2% (110)
2016: 37.1% (101)
UNC: 41.8% (39)
VT: 41.0% (50)


Power Success Rate (ability to get a first down in short yardage situations -3rd/4th and short, or Goal Line-)
2015: 55.3% (117)
2016: 61.3% (107)
UNC: 52.0% (127)
VT: 68.2% (63)

Stuff Rate (how many times the RB was stopped at or behind the LoS)
2015: 21.4% (91)
2016: 22.9% (117)
UNC: 22.0% (111)
VT: 21.0% (97)


Pass Blocking

Adjusted Sack Rate (Sacks allowed rating, adjusted based on how good the opp. pass rush is)
2015: 157.8 (20)
2016: 117.9 (39)
UNC: 158.6 (17)
VT: 101.7 (61)

Standard Down Sack Rate
2015: 2.6% (20)
2016: 5.1% (68)
UNC: 4.0% (43)
VT: 4.6% (60)

Passing Down Sack Rate
2015: 5.5% (25)
2016: 5.9% (37)
UNC: 5.5% (29)
VT: 9.8% (98)



As you can see...our pass protection was statistically worse, but we still did better than VT who won the Coastal. In raw numbers, we allowed 25 sacks in 2016, compared to 19 in 2015. However, a whopping 13 of those sacks this year came against just VT/ND. When it comes to run blocking, we still saw a lot of plays where our O-Line looked like they were playing against Vince Wilfork...but overall, our run blocking ratings are skewed by more break-away runs this year...so it can be said that we improved, or just had Walton make more plays with the same crappy blocking.

When comparing to VT(only since they won the Coastal)...It still appears as if our consistency in run blocking is the thing holding us back the most.

Edit: I will mention that VT/UNC numbers are affected by having a QB who scrambles more often than Kaaya.

 

[Canezum5]

Good discussion in this thread, but our secondary is a MUCH bigger question mark than our OL next year.

Bruh we had the #20 Defense.. gave 18 points a game and still lost 4 games.. UNC was 113th in run defense and we only managed 136 rushing yards against them on 3.7 yards per carry.. they gave up about 5 yards a carry. They gave up 230 rushing to duke.. DUKE

before we played ND.. they were one of the worst teams in football at getting tackles for loss and sacks.. and they had about 6 sacks (including the game winning sack) against us and like 10 TFL..

before we played FSU.. they had one of the worse secondary in the nation.. they barely had much TFL and to that point.. terrible at getting after the QB.. we got sacked about 5 times constant pressure (including a tooth being knocked out) on Kaaya gave us no chance to exploit their secondary.. what should of been a field day for Kaaya turned into 7 straight losses to FSU..

In Short, because of our offensive line we couldn't take advantages of anyone defensive weakness because we're trash up front.

thank you. I got negged to **** for saying this.

Im glad someone can get through to people.

Ask some of these dolts and its the "play calling" that did us in.

 

[Canezum5]

Honestly I'm disappointed that Richt didn't fire Searles after this year. Kehoe was awful enough but Searles was even worse.

Not many OL coaches could have done a much better job with that group.

I disagree. Clearly it was part talent evaluation as they got better results out of a different group.

Yet Searels left the team out to dry by taking forever to get his group together. He should definitely be on the hotseat.

 

[Kevin]

as the season progressed, the oline got alil better. you could start seeing the improvements.

took a min but Searles got his five and found continuity with it.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

BTW, Isidora looked very, very good today during one-on-one blocking at Senior Bowl practice. Drew some raves from scouts.

I still don't understand why he was so inconsistent here. I watched all the young offensive linemen in early 2014 and Isidora stood out as easily the most fluid, instinctive and combative. I expected big things and posted that. Then within a month or so he was being mocked on Canes boards.