He's out there because no one else is better yet. I agree that he hasn't looked very good though. He's alright at run blocking, but just can't match up against a decent pass rusher. He wasn't very good at guard either. I expect he'll continue to rotate in for sirles next year, but it would be nice to see sterup or price step up. Both seem to have a lot of potential.
Rodriguez is a good example of why OL is the hardest position to forecast in recruiting and why it's so important to keep a lot of players in the pipeline to account for the inevitable misses. It's also the hardest position to fix quickly as it typically takes a few years for players to be ready physically and mentally to contribute.
Last year's undersized class aside, we've done a good job of restocking the roster with OL. We need to finish out this class with a few more to continue our progress there.
Well, lost his job at guard and isn't a starter at tackle so I'm pretty sure there are people who are better. We rotate our line more than about anyone in the country which I'm generally in favor of but if he can't get it done either give someone else a chance or stick with your starters.
I think it's pretty obvious that I meant he was better than the alternatives to play backup tackle, not that he was our best lineman.
Also,I think we do a pretty good job with our line rotation. We basically played a seven man rotation on the line this year, with pensick and Rodriguez spelling the starters. Not sure why you think that would lead the nation. We typically had about the same numbers rotating in the glory years. It helps to keep your guys fresh and wear down the opponent, particularly when running an up tempo offense like ours.
I think a good point was made above that arod plays better as a sub, where his conditioning doesn't come into play as much. Hopefully he can get in better shape to play the third tackle again next year, or perhaps one of the well regarded youngsters will be ready by then (sterup or price).
