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Topic: OU Offensive Line

Topic: OU Offensive Line

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L.C.
General User

Member Since: 8/31/2005
Location: United States
Post Count: 10,496

Status: Offline

OU Offensive Line

Posted: 10/7/2013 1:47:59 PM

To show why OU's offense has been a little off this year, let's take a look at the Offensive line. Last year 14 different Offensive linemen took snaps. Those players were:

LT - Prior, McQueen
LG - Carlotta, Lechner, Pritchard, Everhart
C - Allen, Bales, Powell
RG - Herman, Johnson, Lucas
RT - McGrath, Dietz

The players in gray were Seniors, and are gone. I also put Dietz in gray, though he left for a different reason, due to injury. Adding in Smith, an experienced player who redshirted last year, that gives us the following players with experience to start the year:

LT - Prior, McQueen
LG - Lechner, Everhart
C - Powell, Smith
RG -Johnson, Lucas
RT - McGrath

Not too bad, really, until you start taking out the players with injuries, who I have in orange. Then consider that the three of the "veteran" players didn't have a lot of snaps between them. McQueen probably had 120 snaps, Lucas maybe 20, and Everhart perhaps 10. Not really much left, is there? I guess it's good that the one real veteran that was left was the starter at LT, probably the most important position, since he protects TT's blindside, but there isn't a lot of veteran firepower to give you the push you need for an effective running game.

Sooooo, you end up with some young guys learning under fire (data on snaps is up through Peay):
Troy Watson - Redshirt Freshman, RT (7 snaps at Louisville, then started Marshall and Peay)
Nic Gibbons - Redshirt Freshman, RG (71 snaps so far)
Durrell Wood - True Freshman, RG (28 snaps versus Peay, started at Akron)
Mike Curtis - Redshirt Sophomore, RT? (3 snaps versus Peay)
Bubba Williams - Walkon Redshirt Junior, C (6 snaps versus Peay)
Jacob Welter - Redshirt Sophomor, LG? (3 snaps versus Peay)

Lightner waved his magic wand, and brought in fresh faces, and Ohio got by. It was very nice to have McGrath, Powell and Smith back against Akron, though. Now I think it looks like:

LT - Prior, McQueen
LG - Lechner, Lucas, Everhart, Welter
C - Powell, Smith, Williams
RG -Johnson, Wood, Gibbons
RT - McGrath, Watson, Curtis

Lechner and Johnson are very good players, and hopefully they will make it back at some point, but in the meantime, this group is getting the job done.

Last Edited: 10/7/2013 1:54:57 PM by L.C.

�We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.� ― Epictetus

colobobcat66
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Member Since: 9/1/2006
Location: Watching the bobcats run outside my window., CO
Post Count: 4,547

Status: Offline

RE: OU Offensive Line

Posted: 10/7/2013 1:59:01 PM

Great analysis as usual . It seems to me like our run game is significantly affected by our diminished experience at offensive line best illustrated by Beau's drop off in production. Anyway, maybe things will improve as the new guys get more experience and we get the injured healthy. Right now still a major concern for me when we get the better defensive teams on our schedule playing us.

TWT
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Member Since: 12/20/2004
Location: Alexandria, VA
Post Count: 5,169

Status: Offline

RE: OU Offensive Line

Posted: 10/7/2013 2:05:19 PM

Its week 7 and guys like D.Wood are freshman in name only at this point with 1/2 season of experience behind them. Frank and staff keep bringing in an over abundance of lineman each recruiting class and that helps. Running game should be fine next year with at least one marquee RB in the backfield (Patterson). Vick will be stepping into a situation where the tools are around him offensively. With the program not bringing in a JUCO QB for quite some time that speaks volumes to the comfort level next year with Vick and Sprague.

Most Memorable Bobcat Events Attended
2010 97-83 win over Georgetown in NCAA 1st round
2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
2015 34-3 drubbing of Miami @ Peden front of 25,086

Doc Bobcat
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Member Since: 12/20/2004
Post Count: 4,280

Status: Offline

RE: OU Offensive Line

Posted: 10/7/2013 2:17:56 PM

I think when Powell goes out that Lucas slides to center and Smith moves to left guard....which is fine since there is no loss of talent for that move. The guy in the mix that really helps our flexibility is McQueen...talked to him some at the spring game....he's huge and a nice guy who can play anywhere on the OL.

Wood starting is actually encouraging as you need a road grader at right guard. One who I thought would step up is Welter who came highly touted from Cally.

Casper71
General User

Member Since: 12/1/2006
Post Count: 3,090

Status: Offline

RE: OU Offensive Line

Posted: 10/7/2013 2:54:10 PM

Just shows you can NEVER have too many O (and D)-Linemen.

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