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The State of our Offensive Line
Posted on 10/3/17 at 7:17 am
Posted on 10/3/17 at 7:17 am
Year one of Eric Wolford has been a nightmare. With that being said I still feel that it is too early to judge him because half of his issues are depth related.
After watching game film I’ve discovered a few things that we are struggling with:
1. Our pulling lineman don’t know who to block (usually this would be the first open man they see)
2. The communication is poor at times. Knott mentioned that they struggled picking up A&M’s twists by their defensive line.
3. No depth, when you have injuries like we’ve been having your back ups are vital. Christian Pellage didn’t even make the trip to A&M leaving us with two backs after Young went down.
4. When injuries occur guys need to be given a shot. Douglas and Carly are two guys that may not be ready but need to have an opportunity to burn their red shirt if the emergency should arise.
After watching game film I’ve discovered a few things that we are struggling with:
1. Our pulling lineman don’t know who to block (usually this would be the first open man they see)
2. The communication is poor at times. Knott mentioned that they struggled picking up A&M’s twists by their defensive line.
3. No depth, when you have injuries like we’ve been having your back ups are vital. Christian Pellage didn’t even make the trip to A&M leaving us with two backs after Young went down.
4. When injuries occur guys need to be given a shot. Douglas and Carly are two guys that may not be ready but need to have an opportunity to burn their red shirt if the emergency should arise.
5
Posted on 10/3/17 at 7:25 am to big6ben9
It really boils down to depth and experience to me. When Wolford was hired, he personally said that he only had 3-4 guys who he thought were serviceable in the SEC. Bailey and Helms were two of those, and neither played last week. I think the young guys have some promise, but they just aren't there yet.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 8:09 am to big6ben9
Injuries and lack of depth. I’ll also give A&M it seemed loud as frick at the stadium watching on tv.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 8:12 am to UpstateCock2007
quote:
It really boils down to depth and experience to me. When Wolford was hired, he personally said that he only had 3-4 guys who he thought were serviceable in the SEC. Bailey and Helms were two of those, and neither played last week. I think the young guys have some promise, but they just aren't there yet.
Agree completely, which begs the question of why are we still running inside and not outside or off tackle using Hurst or the other TE's as lead blockers. Hell put Hurst as a FB lead blocker behind 2 TE sets and give Ty'son the ball on a off tackle... ya'know on those special 3rd or 4th and 1 situations. Maintaining a drive for our offense is more crucial than telegraphing what we want to do, especially if we don't wont to gas our defense.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 8:13 am to big6ben9
Last year we were complaining about pass blocking.
This year we are complaining about run blocking.
This year we are complaining about run blocking.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 9:22 am to Lonnie Utah
true. I still believe the run/pass option of some of our plays handcuff our linemen from firing off on a block. They have to sort of maintain an area in case of a pass. Which begs to question why dont we have certain run only plays that have the same formation as the pass plays. Do they believe Bentley ins't ready for that type of audible? Does it not fit into our scheme? Does Roper not have any creativity in play designing within the scheme he has learned?
I understand there is a lot we average fans are not privy to, but damn our offense looks more vanilla than last year and that's saying something.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 10:00 am to Mr.Sinister
No creativity whatsoever. When you have a suspect OL, you have to be creative, and we just aren't right now. Blows my mind. Also, if we ever run the zone read, and Jake kept the ball, he would probably walk into the end zone. Teams know that 100% of the time, we are going to hand the ball to the RB, so they no longer account for Jake.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 10:07 am to UpstateCock2007
Would love to see what a highpowered big 12 OC and offense could do with a Trob and Muschamp defense backing them up. Especially with Bentley and our WR Corps.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 11:10 am to big6ben9
There is no miracle fix for a bad offensive line. Wolford was a good hire and in a couple years he'll have the line fixed, but it'll take some time to get quality athletes in the unit. The struggles have been exacerbated by the rash of injuries already this year. We basically had three starters out last game. That doesn't give them a pass for 7 sacks, but it's a fact. The formations and plays we use need to be adjusted to provide more help for the line at the present time. Jake also has to do a better job of just getting rid of the ball occasionally rather than taking big losses.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 12:41 pm to KingSlayer
You are spot on Kingslayer. I agree that Wolford will recruit top talent like he did his first time he was here. Guys like AJ Cann, Ronald Patrick, and TJ Johnson are rare to find but Wolford is a guy who can get them here. The difference between a good team and a great team can be traced to the Oline. More scholarships need to be allocated to the line (both offensive and defensive) for us to be competitive in the future. Quick passing routes may be the answer this year even though that’s not Jake’s strength.
Posted on 10/3/17 at 8:40 pm to big6ben9
If they changed the style from zone to man or the other way around it takes at least a year for them to show progress.
Posted on 10/8/17 at 10:33 am to Porter Osborne Jr
What a turnaround from last week. We didn’t get anybody back from injury but the guys that were in there played really well. The only minus was DJ Park getting pulled for Blake Camper due to a lack of effort.
Posted on 10/8/17 at 10:58 am to big6ben9
If I heard correctly, aren't some of them expected back for the Vol game this week?
Posted on 10/8/17 at 1:01 pm to theGarnetWay
quote:
If I heard correctly, aren't some of them expected back for the Vol game this week?
Bailey, Helms, and Young were all stated as day-to-day per Muschamp in his weekly news presser last Tuesday. Bailey was the one that was ahead of the rest, and was thought to possibly be available for yesterday's game.
He ultimately didn't play, but we didn't need him. So the odds are good that Bailey definitely, and all 3 starters possibly could return for Tennessee, which would be great...
Posted on 10/8/17 at 2:31 pm to ConwayGamecock
Bailey will more than likely be ready unless he has a set back this week. Helms and Bailey worked out today and looked good according to Muschamp. Young will work out tomorrow. I hope all three come back next week but Bailey is the big one that we need back more than the others.
This post was edited on 10/8/17 at 6:22 pm
Posted on 10/13/17 at 11:06 am to big6ben9
Bailey and Helms will make the trip to Knoxville this weekend. Young is not going to make the trip so with the bye week next week he will definitely be a go for Vandy. Both offensive linemen making the trip will be a game time decision, regardless this is huge for us. I look for a heavy dose of Dowdle tomorrow with Williams and Turner mixed in.
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