Line of scimmage question

[WPDawg]

Taking away the Coaching Staff question, do we currently have the horses on both sides of the line to control a game in the SEC? Is the talent there or do we need to recruit better in this area?

Last year with a stronger DL, we were able to compete at a high level. On offense, it seems we have 1 or 2 guys every year who rise to a high level and a few others who are young and upcoming. Do we recruit lineman from outside MS or the South? Just seems like there would be a lot of big ole boys who have size, strength, good footwork that end up in FCS or smaller conference schools who would want to play in SEC (look at rosters of NFL of where some of these guys come from).

I am a Saints fan and after they won SB, they lost several of their OL to Free Agency in the following couple of years. As good as Brees and Payton are, it took a few years to recover from losing solid offensive lineman. Look at Atlanta game 2 weeks ago. Lineman go down and all of sudden, Brees goes down 6 times and they can not score at will like normal.

So if Tommy Stevens had a little more protection and not having to side step from the snap of the ball, would we be better offensively?

If you dropped Saban's coaching staff in on what we have now, would the current group of lineman allow us to be competing closely with Bama next year or 2?

[dawgday166]

I actually saw some promise out of DL against Bama. They're young but coming along. I do think Baker would make a difference and our Oline is terrible relative to what it was in 2017, and has been the last 2 years.

[Randolph Dupree]

The OL should be good but are soft and poorly coached. With the right coaching and SC coach they could be very good. The DL lacks experience.

[KOdawg1]

Our OL is projecting to be a damn good one over the next few years. This is one area that I somewhat feel optimistic about. We will have some mean dudes and plenty of depth. I think the DL will be alright, but they lack a huge difference maker like a Simmons or a Sweat.

[trojandawg]

yes. We had a veteran offensive line coming back this year. Our Defensive side in the trenches was really slim, but we had some pieces back at defensive end that have been really disappointing this season. We also had two veteran linebackers that have been very disappointing. the only weak spot coming in to the season would be depth at defensive tackle and youth. however, i don't think it was as bad as it has turned out to be at DT. we had youth at DT but promising veterans coming back at DE that should have given some relief to the young DT's. This is isn't the first year we have had young DT's on the DL. i've been very dissapointed in the S&C, discipline, and the fundamentals of both of our lines. They both have regressed this year in my opinion. the dline coach has not gotten hardly any thing out of two pretty good DE's and coach Johnson has done nothing with a solid experienced oline.

[JoseBrown]

The OL should be good but are soft and poorly coached. With the right coaching and SC coach they could be very good. The DL lacks experience.

Except that better coaching and SC coach won't magically make their foot speed much better. You notice we moved the left side of the line to the right side this year? It's helped some, but we need the young guys to catch up real fast. We've been bringing in some better talent I think, I hope. Two years in a row we've moved our best oline to center. We need not have to do that.

[Johnson85]

Taking away the Coaching Staff question, do we currently have the horses on both sides of the line to control a game in the SEC? Is the talent there or do we need to recruit better in this area?

Last year with a stronger DL, we were able to compete at a high level. On offense, it seems we have 1 or 2 guys every year who rise to a high level and a few others who are young and upcoming. Do we recruit lineman from outside MS or the South? Just seems like there would be a lot of big ole boys who have size, strength, good footwork that end up in FCS or smaller conference schools who would want to play in SEC (look at rosters of NFL of where some of these guys come from).

I am a Saints fan and after they won SB, they lost several of their OL to Free Agency in the following couple of years. As good as Brees and Payton are, it took a few years to recover from losing solid offensive lineman. Look at Atlanta game 2 weeks ago. Lineman go down and all of sudden, Brees goes down 6 times and they can not score at will like normal.

So if Tommy Stevens had a little more protection and not having to side step from the snap of the ball, would we be better offensively?

If you dropped Saban's coaching staff in on what we have now, would the current group of lineman allow us to be competing closely with Bama next year or 2?

We have the OL talent to be pretty solid in the SEC, they're just undeveloped. We do not have the DL talent to be good in the SEC. We are set up ok for the future on the DL, they're just too young to do it this year.

The reality is Mullen left some challenges to say the least with the roster. Bereft of SEC receivers and some significant gaps on the defense once the 2018 guys left. Not just a lack of interior DL, but a lack of playmakers in general. Basically Gay and Dantzler were the only guys ready to be playmakers on day 1 this year, and Gay was unavailable.

But it doesn't take a lot of talent to get plays off on time, follow assignments, play hard, etc. While Joe was left some challenges, it's not the challenges that are killing him. It's the basics.

[WPDawg]

We have the OL talent to be pretty solid in the SEC, they're just undeveloped. We do not have the DL talent to be good in the SEC. We are set up ok for the future on the DL, they're just too young to do it this year.

The reality is Mullen left some challenges to say the least with the roster. Bereft of SEC receivers and some significant gaps on the defense once the 2018 guys left. Not just a lack of interior DL, but a lack of playmakers in general. Basically Gay and Dantzler were the only guys ready to be playmakers on day 1 this year, and Gay was unavailable.

But it doesn't take a lot of talent to get plays off on time, follow assignments, play hard, etc. While Joe was left some challenges, it's not the challenges that are killing him. It's the basics.

So where do you think we are grading out this year across the line on average. I would think it needs to be mid-80s to be a consistent offensive attack against the better teams and provide some trust by QB that the line will do their job.

[1bigdawg]

Except that better coaching and SC coach won't magically make their foot speed much better.

You would be stunned at how much faster a player with confidence plays than a player who is thinking things through on the field.

[somebodyshotmypaw]

Crumedy and Lovett have drastically improved on the DL since the beginning of the year. I've enjoyed watching them progress.

[timotheus]

You would be stunned at how much faster a player with confidence plays than a player who is thinking things through on the field.

This isn't a Coach Johnson issue either. It is a JoMo issue.

[Cowbell]

This isn't a Coach Johnson issue either. It is a JoMo issue.

Please explain. Because this group is the most underachieving to me.

[timotheus]

They are allowed to simply play tough and attempt to beat the guy in front of them. Multiple reads pre snap and post snap. By this time their man is beyond them and this is when Tommy boy takes off and runs for his life and gains some yardage. Contrary to what Joe says, what I just described is not an RPO.

[Cowbell]

They are allowed to simply play tough and attempt to beat the guy in front of them. Multiple reads pre snap and post snap. By this time their man is beyond them and this is when Tommy boy takes off and runs for his life and gains some yardage. Contrary to what Joe says, what I just described is not an RPO.

He has outsmarted himself.... if it?s too good to be true, it probably is.

[Todd4State]

Our current o-line talent:

LT- Phillips ***
LG- Parker ***
C- Willliams ***
RG- Reese ***
RT- Eiland/Champion both ***

We lack talent on the o-line and that's because of pas recruiting.

The future: (2021)

LT- Cross *****
LG- Dolcine ***
C- Smith *** UA All-American
RG- James Jackson ***
RT- Dolla Bill **** who I believe was also an UA All-American.

DL the issue is more depth but the talent is there.

Spencer, Lovett, and Crumedy are all former 4 star recruits and we rotate another 4 star guy at DE in Kobe Jones along with Rivers and 4 star recruit Nathan Pickering has been rotating in more and more. This should be remedied next year with Davis **** JUCO recruit, Lawson *** JUCO recruit, and Key who is a three star. We're also redshirting DeMonte Russell and former 4 star DE as well.

[Johnson85]

Our current o-line talent:

LT- Phillips ***
LG- Parker ***
C- Willliams ***
RG- Reese ***
RT- Eiland/Champion both ***

We lack talent on the o-line and that's because of pas recruiting.


We lack talent to be dominant on the OL, but Eiland and Reese were both solid under Mullen as RS Freshman (I think? maybe RS Sophomores?). Our OL doesn't have the talent to hold its own against dominant DL, but they are not as untalented as they look and I'm not sure we've faced any DL other than maybe Auburn that is of the quality that would have given this OL problems if they were playing to their potential like they did under Mullen.

[dawgday166]

We lack talent to be dominant on the OL, but Eiland and Reese were both solid under Mullen as RS Freshman (I think? maybe RS Sophomores?). Our OL doesn't have the talent to hold its own against dominant DL, but they are not as untalented as they look and I'm not sure we've faced any DL other than maybe Auburn that is of the quality that would have given this OL problems if they were playing to their potential like they did under Mullen.

There's a reason for that and he's goes by the name of Hev. Poor recruiter but good, hard as nails coach.

[Really Clark?]

So where do you think we are grading out this year across the line on average. I would think it needs to be mid-80s to be a consistent offensive attack against the better teams and provide some trust by QB that the line will do their job.

Actually, our run blocking still grades out pretty well. It’s been the pass blocking that has killed the OL the last few years and is a huge drop off from 2016 and 2017. Which still baffles the mind when designing his offense, if you want to throw down the field you have to consider the blocking scheme and what the personnel do well.

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaaol/2019

[1bigdawg]

We have average to above-average SEC talent on both sides of the ball - enough talent to play (not necessarily beat) with anyone. It is not happening for other reasons than talent.

[Johnson85]

We have average to above-average SEC talent on both sides of the ball - enough talent to play (not necessarily beat) with anyone. It is not happening for other reasons than talent.

Who do you think is above average SEC talent on defense? Gay obviously. Then Dantzler. We have some young guys that are going to be there on the DL but are not there yet. It's hard for me to say anybody else is above average. Hard to tell though b/c the youth and lack of depth upfront negatively impacts everybody. And then we simply don't have big time playmakers, which also makes it hard on the defense. If you have a few guys that are making big plays, you are going to get off the field if everybody else is at least average. But when you are lacking those playmakers, you're average players have a lot more time to miss tackles or get beat.