Mean Green Offensive Line Ranking

[greenit]

It seems like the general consensus on GMG is that our O-Line is one of our strongest units. I thought it was odd when I ran across a website that ranks O-Lines/D-Lines and it had our overall line ranked in the low 70's and our rushing effectiveness in the bottom 3rd of D1. Not sure how much stock to put in it, but I found it an interesting read.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaaoff

[greenminer]

Our OL is an all-timer; I'd put it somewhere between Saban's best and that 2001 Miami front.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Our OL is an all-timer; I'd put it somewhere between Saban's best and that 2001 Miami front.

So last year, we played Lemon at Tackle and moved McKinney to Guard for a few games when Antonio Johnson was out recovering from surgery. If we go with that lineup, we have the entire line back.

However, it appears Lemon is going to play Guard again this year according to this Vito article, and I don't think they're going to put McKinney at Tackle... So we will be breaking in a new O-lineman this year at Right Tackle (Rentfro?).

Still, overall, this is going to be a very, very good unit with the potential to put 3 players on the 1st team all-conference team.

[Mean Green 93-98]

However, it appears Lemon is going to play Guard again this year according to this Vito article, and I don't think they're going to put McKinney at Tackle... So we will be breaking in a new O-lineman this year at Right Tackle (Rentfro?).

Considering that the talk of moving Lemon back to guard became much more definite when we signed the tackle out of Snow College, I would say he's a very likely candidate.

[outoftown]

To counter those stats with stats that were partially from the same source:

http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2014/2/18/5421808/college-football-2013-offensive-line-rankings

what you get to see here, is that the line was absolutely great at pass protection, no matter whether the defense knew we were passing or not, for the second year in a row by the way. But the line was somewhat subpar at run blocking. It is the latter which is particularly valued in the stats greenit showed. And there we have the problem too: we depend more on the run working in a stable way, than the pass.There were a lot of 1-3 yard runs, but just precious few 5+ yard runs. Part of this may be on the RBs, but part of our problem with not getting enough 5-yard runs that would put us ahead of schedule is probably with the line.

Still pass blocking being as extraordinarily stable as it is, is very valuable and with at least 4 starters coming back, I think ift is fair to assume this line will only get better this season and indeed be one of the strong units on the team. At the very least it should allow the new QB -whomever it may be- that he doesn't always literally have to be on the run while learing how to be the starter.

Edited May 24, 2014 by outoftown

[GrayEagle]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Take the case of North Texas. The ususal statistic for pass blocking efficience is Sacks Allowed. Last year we tied for sixth but if you look at the success rate (total sacks/passing attempts) we were actually seventh. I believe that he had us 94th. The run blocking statistic is primarily how many yards per carry our backs are able to get. We were a mediocre 63rd there which pulled our overall average down to 28th. His table shows our run blocking to be at 88 which was supposedly better than our pass blocking. None of his figures come close to where we ranked in any category.