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The state of the OL

BoxingRobes said:
I think the signing of Justice Oluwaseun should tell you everything you need to know about the state of the offensive line.

Just a bunch of guys. Now, they are a bunch of guys that have started a lot of football games...A LOT. And that always counts for something positive, but I am sure they are still a bit concerned in the room with how good this unit will be.

I think Oluwaseun will eventually start for us in 2021. He's probably one of our five best right now and his versatility at worst makes him the first guy off the bench at multiple spots.
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Oluwaseun is also the strongest OL on our team the day he joins in.
 
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BoxingRobes said:
I think the signing of Justice Oluwaseun should tell you everything you need to know about the state of the offensive line.

Just a bunch of guys. Now, they are a bunch of guys that have started a lot of football games...A LOT. And that always counts for something positive, but I am sure they are still a bit concerned in the room with how good this unit will be.

I think Oluwaseun will eventually start for us in 2021. He's probably one of our five best right now and his versatility at worst makes him the first guy off the bench at multiple spots.
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As a unit, this is correct. I think Donaldson can be more than "a guy". Have high hopes for him. Nelson looks to be getting there. Add in the starts, and we could look decent. But this set of starters won't be as good as the early Golden/Kehoe starters or even the Shannon/Stoutland starters. We should be ecstatic if we end up appearing in the Top 25 OLs nationally.

I'm (very) optimistic about the 2020 and 2021 classes. But they're not ready.
 
rok said:
Can he play center? An upgrade there could be key.
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Gaynor is flawed but there’s a reason his job has been so safe. He will look better with improved guard play.

If things break right, I could see him having a Shane McDermott/Tyler Horn type season. Those guys made All-Conference next to legit guards. We need Donaldson and Rivers to perform because they have true size and physical tools.

As for Oluwaseun, I could see him filling Clark’s spot as a utility man. He has college experience at C, G and T.
 
Cribby said:
We had to play babies on the ol manny’s first two years, this is the first season we’ll have grown men across the board in a long time. Show me a good ol and I’ll show you a bunch of starts as a unit. If you don’t have a bunch of 20-22 year olds on your ol you will have issues. I’m not saying this is the second coming of the 01 line , but I’m going into the season more positive than recent years.
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The starting OL just two (2) years ago featured a true freshman at LT who weighed about 250 pounds after a trip to the tootsie’s buffet, and a redshirt freshman RT who had never taken a snap in his career.

2 seasons ago. ZERO combined snaps from your two tackles. Yeah, you’re gonna suck doing that.
 
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DMoney said:
Gaynor is flawed but there’s a reason his job has been so safe. He will look better with improved guard play.

If things break right, I could see Gaynor having a Shane McDermott/Tyler Horn type season. Those guys made All-Conference next to legit guards. We need Donaldson and Rivers to perform because they have true size and physical tools.

As for Oluwaseun, I could see him filling Clark’s role where he is a utility man. He has college experience at C, G and T.
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Agreed D$. Think Donaldson and Rivers are going to play HUGE for this OL. Add in steady to excellent play by Zion and either Scaife or Williams we’re staring at one of the top OL’s in the ACC. Finally truly believe we’ll get some serious push from the G’s and getting into the 2nd level efficiently and effectively. First up is a massive test. We manage to hold our own in that game then that’s going to seriously life the confidence of the OL heading into the rest of the 2021 season.
 
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tsimonitis said:
LT- Nelson
LG- Rivers
C-Gaynor
RG- Donaldson
RT- Williams

OT- Scaife
OG- Campbell
Swing- Oluwaseun

Or some combo of the above is Enough to win the coastal
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Agree. And it may be enough to win a nice bowl game too. I would t mind playing the Domers or Auburn or someone like that.
 
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DMoney said:
A couple weeks ago, I posted this number:




Now, with the addition of Justice Oluwaseun, that number bumps up to 186 career starts on the OL. That's a staggering number. Consider this: if we go with our starting lineup from spring, we'll have 78 career starts on our bench alone. For comparison, the 2019 OL began the season with 30 career starts (almost all of them from Donaldson).

While experience is huge on the OL, it's not the only thing. Alabama and Georgia don't dominate the LOS just because they have experience. They do it with high-end talent. Big athletic dudes who move people.

We aren't there yet, but we've made some progress. If we go with our spring starters, we'll have three HS All-Americans and a fourth guy (Zion) who is one of the more gifted linemen in the conference. Donaldson and Rivers in particular should make a huge difference at guard. Going forward, we need to sign a couple legit behemoths (6'4+, 320+) to complement highly talented smaller guys like Laurence Seymore, Ryan Rodriguez and Issiah Walker.

The Oluwaseun transfer accomplishes several things. It gives us a very smart (two-time All-Academic) and experienced player with weight room strength. He provides crucial depth if Jakai Clark is not ready for the start of the season. And he brings two years of eligibility if we need a bridge to the 2021 interior OL class. It's hard to miss bringing in high-character transfers on the OL. You're only as good up front as your weakest link, and these guys bring insurance.

The OL improved a lot in 2020, but it still wasn't good or even solid. This is the year to expect a true leap.
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Very interesting post , from a glaring weakness to possibly a surprising strength.
If we can get that sync that by just seeing DL line up or OL instinctively adjust there line call by just a look or knowing the work is in and we’re on same page , this would be huge .

If we can temper down the hype and focus, ooh my we just might have a legitimate shot of doing something special that know one in CFB would ever think was possible.

Put the work in , buckle chin straps and get it on

GOCANES
 
DMoney said:
A couple weeks ago, I posted this number:




Now, with the addition of Justice Oluwaseun, that number bumps up to 186 career starts on the OL. That's a staggering number. Consider this: if we go with our starting lineup from spring, we'll have 78 career starts on our bench alone. For comparison, the 2019 OL began the season with 30 career starts (almost all of them from Donaldson).

While experience is huge on the OL, it's not the only thing. Alabama and Georgia don't dominate the LOS just because they have experience. They do it with high-end talent. Big athletic dudes who move people.

We aren't there yet, but we've made some progress. If we go with our spring starters, we'll have three HS All-Americans and a fourth guy (Zion) who is one of the more gifted linemen in the conference. Donaldson and Rivers in particular should make a huge difference at guard. Going forward, we need to sign a couple legit behemoths (6'4+, 320+) to complement highly talented smaller guys like Laurence Seymore, Ryan Rodriguez and Issiah Walker.

The Oluwaseun transfer accomplishes several things. It gives us a very smart (two-time All-Academic) and experienced player with weight room strength. He provides crucial depth if Jakai Clark is not ready for the start of the season. And he brings two years of eligibility if we need a bridge to the 2021 interior OL class. It's hard to miss bringing in high-character transfers on the OL. You're only as good up front as your weakest link, and these guys bring insurance.

The OL improved a lot in 2020, but it still wasn't good or even solid. This is the year to expect a true leap.
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****-polish.jpg
 
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Offensive line, more than any other position in football, requires the most team work to be effective. You can have an the best tackle in football but if you don’t have four other capable players next to him, your line will suck. Look at Joe Thomas’ career in Cleveland. Experience and cohesive-ness matter on the line. You look at a team like Wisconsin that almost always has a top offensive line despite not really signing a ton of highly ranked recruits. It’s because they have a system. They’re not relying on first and second year players. They redshirt a bunch of guys. These guys practice and train together for years before they’re ever getting significant game time. By the time they’re asked to play, they’ve got not only the benefit of three years college strength training (grown man strength) but they’ve already got experience working with the guys next to them in practice for years. What they may lack in natural ability, they make up for in knowledge, cohesion and power.
 
DMoney said:
Gaynor is flawed but there’s a reason his job has been so safe. He will look better with improved guard play.

If things break right, I could see him having a Shane McDermott/Tyler Horn type season. Those guys made All-Conference next to legit guards. We need Donaldson and Rivers to perform because they have true size and physical tools.

As for Oluwaseun, I could see him filling Clark’s spot as a utility man. He has college experience at C, G and T.
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He plays because he has character. I’m not sure he’d ever perform on their level
 
clg003 said:
Yeah not buying the hype... Our rushing attack was absolutely pitiful last year. To me all this stat does is point out how long our OL recruiting, evaluation and development has sucked. You guys want to tell me we have a 1st round pick on this line... umm ok. Its like how long can you keep drinking the OL is good juice before you sit back and evaluate them on how they have performed. Like ever performed.
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We tied with Auburn for 67th in the nation in rushing offense. Not incredible but not “absolutely pitiful”. In fact, we rushed for more yards per game than Clemson did.

Considering we ranked 120th in rushing in 2019 (now that’s what I call pitiful) a 53 spot jump in rushing offense is a significant improvement. If they can improve by even half that much this year, we’re talking about having one of the top offenses in college football.
 
DTP said:
We tied with Auburn for 67th in the nation in rushing offense. Not incredible but not “absolutely pitiful”. In fact, we rushed for more yards per game than Clemson did.

Considering we ranked 120th in rushing in 2019 (now that’s what I call pitiful) a 53 spot jump in rushing offense is a significant improvement. If they can improve by even half that much this year, we’re talking about having one of the top offenses in college football.
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i LOL'd at that comment too, and just scrolled by.

You don't run for 337 yards in a game against a pretty good G5 defense with an "absolutely pitiful" run game. But even if you want to completely discredit UAB, we ran for over 150 yards 6 times last year in 11 games.

2019 -- 4 times in 12 games
2018 -- 7 times in 12 games
2017 -- 5 times in 12 games
2016 -- 5 times in 12 games
2015 -- 1 time in 12 games
2014 -- 5 times in 12 games

Sure, the run game needs to be better. We all know that. We struggled at times, specifically against Clemson and in big spots when we needed to lean on it, most notably vs UNC. But it was much better than 2019 and certainly not absolutely pitiful.

And all of this with a new OC, new OL coach, late transfer in Jarrid Williams, injury to Donaldson, and no spring ball.

The next step, to me, is eliminating the massive amounts of TFLs we give up. We were 115th in the country last year, allowing almost 8 TFLs per game. Sacks are in that number as well, so that's not all on the run game, but still, FAR too many for a successful offense. That shows a lack of cohesion in your unit (allowing free rushers) and being beaten quickly at the point of attack.

29 teams averaged 5.0 YPC or better last year. I think if we can approach that number this season, we should be really good and I don't think it's an unattainable goal with the quality of backs and depth we have on the OL now.
 
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