OLine Work in Progress
- Thread starter Mavric
- Start date
Red_Payne
Four-Star Recruit
Opinions on O-line progress after watching Spring Game?
Personally; I still see the O-line as the biggest area that lacks behind in comparison to our conference foes; followed slowly by our DBs.
The gap became VERY wide under Riley. The gap has been significantly narrowed; but I think the damage needs one more year to be reversed, via coaching and weight training, if we want to see a top-5 O-line unit. Hopefully the offensive scheme and our play-makers can compensate...
of course, it be great if I was completely wrong and our O-Line mauled Defenses.
Personally; I still see the O-line as the biggest area that lacks behind in comparison to our conference foes; followed slowly by our DBs.
The gap became VERY wide under Riley. The gap has been significantly narrowed; but I think the damage needs one more year to be reversed, via coaching and weight training, if we want to see a top-5 O-line unit. Hopefully the offensive scheme and our play-makers can compensate...
of course, it be great if I was completely wrong and our O-Line mauled Defenses.
Mierin
Assistant Coach
Our offense was really good last year, so even with moderate improvement on the OL, things should be looking good.
I don’t think the gap has narrowed at all. It will, but right now we are paying the price for not being able to recruit more offensive lineman in that transition class. That’s no fault of the staff, we had numbers issues in a lot of places. What we need are some of these carryovers to produce and we just aren’t seeing enough of that.
The future of the offensive line is very, very bright, but this group is young and that’s going to show. Luckily, the schedule ramps up nicely and we have a QB that has some escapability. The best thing for this offensive line will be for the perimeter to block well, allowing us to get the ball out on screens quick, spread the field and use numbers to offset blocking. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more multiple TE sets to help out, too.
Mary Pats BOB
Five-Star Recruit
We have a lot of production to replace on offense. No guarantees just yet imo. Better line play will certainly be requisite.
BIG ERN
All-American
I agree it's just going to take time for the o-line as bodies need to mature to play there at a high level. Austin showed that this group got better down the stretch but overall our talent on the line isn't good right now. This will drastically change over the next 2-3 years.
MichiganDad3
All-American
I agree with this. It was disturbing to see repeated failures on 3rd and very short last year. IMO, we could have increased our scoring by 20% if we had converted every 3rd and 2 or less. And by keeping those drives alive, we probably reduce opposition scoring by 10%. The failures on 4th down were even more heartbreaking. Until we can line up with confidence on 3rd and 1, we will struggle to win the West.
I’m a big believer that you have to look at the tape and the stats, because one doesn’t replace the other. The tape shows the detail, the stats paint the picture.
This is one of those examples. We were not as bad on third and short as our memories will have us believe. On third down as a whole, absolutely. 37% conversion rate. But 3rd and 3 or less?
Passing 7 of 11 completions, 5 first downs. Conversion rate of 45%.
Rushing 35 attempts, 27 first downs. Conversion rate of 77%.
Total 70%
We were actually in good company, especially in regards to rushing success on plays requiring 3 yards or less.
The problem was both the percentage of downs longer than 3 yards and the conversion rate of those longer downs. On 3rd down passes requiring 7 yards or more, we converted only 7 of 43.
MichiganDad3
All-American
I think we were worse at the beginning of last year. I would have to look it up, but my memory is telling me that we failed to convert several times on 3rd and 1, and the same for 4th and 1. Weren't we close to last in the nation for a while with our conversion rate on 4th down?
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Yes. Finished 103rd after greatly improving down the stretch. We began running Martinez out of empty.
It was hinted in the spring we may practice some under center if only for the purpose of sneaks.
Frostberg
Special Teams Player
^ OMG!!
I hate the thought that we would only go under center for sneaks. It makes it pretty obvious and our O line isn't good enough for the defense to know the play.