I appreciate what RockM Nation does, but it's foolish to try and value each position when we have no idea who is starting. And we're dealing with almost an entirely new staff.

Regarding last year, the line suffered due to a multitude of reasons:
1. Recruiting. Pinkel and staff simply whiffed their last several years. They only brought in two or three OL in those classes. That's simply not enough. Many who they did recruit left (injury, whatever) or simply weren't talented enough...

As an aside, I'm very happy to see Odom's philosophy on OL is much different than Gary's. Gary preferred lean, highly athletic kids. He then counted on our strength staff to bulk them up. Well... That didn't always work. Odom is bringing in heavy bodies, which I love. IMO, it's easier to strip bad weight and build up good. But at least you have a big athlete used to playing at a large weight... and he has the build to lean on people. That's the way of the SEC. Big bodies. No more power forwards playing OL.

2. Schematically, Mizzou's OL looked to be a disaster. It's hard to point exactly what it was because I don't have the time to breakdown game film, but you simply could tell the execution was poor when plays would breakdown. Let's not forget, as soon as Ricker came back, we immediately had issues with snaps, too. Just so many issues when he arrived, which is shame because he was a good player. But it goes to show that not everyone who plays can coach.

3. Henson should get a bulk of the blame on this, too. His play calling was awful. Odom hinted at it in his SEC Media Day presser -- he said we need to get more creative offensively. That's the damn truth. Henson was so boring, so predictable. When you have a deficiency at a position (like OL), you MUST scheme around it. Focus on getting rid of the ball quickly. Vary up the formations constantly. Lots of motion. Keep the defense from reacting immediately. None of that happened under Josh... It's telling how poor of an OC he was, that now he's simply an offensive assistant at OK St, which is his home school. His star has plummeted.

........Now, I'm hopeful for this new staff. I was very much impressed by what Embree did with this Arkansas State OL when we played them last year. They were technically sound. They played us pretty damn well, given how much less athletic they were than our impressive front... If you remember, we didn't put a bunch of pressure on them. Sooo, I'm hoping he can teach up our better athletes to perform. One thing I AM confident about is Josh Heupel will be a better play calleer... He has to be. He was a QB and did very well at OU. I suspect he'll be able to scheme around our weaknesses better.

At least... I hope. We'll see in a few more months.