I never played O-Line and admittedly do not know all of the ins and outs. But I have watched football at all levels for 30+ years pretty much every chance I get and I know one thing, the O-Line is one of the most difficult area's to "fix". I know that, at the college level, in general if you are telling me there is a team with no Jr. or Sr. O-lineman present, I am telling you that team will not be very good. If you are telling me there is an NFL team with a rooking O-Line, I am telling you that team will have a long year, even if those rookies are all first round picks.
Let's be honest here for a minute.. This team was bad. Bad bad. There were talent problems, there was work ethic problems, there was attitude problems throughout every area in the locker room. By all accounts most of those areas are much improved. We look better physically, we play harder mentally, we resemble a unified team for the first time in 10+ years. We are better in almost all areas of the team, the only possible exception being O-line. (I know the special teamers will jump on me here, but we are better in special teams, we just can't kick field goals this year.)
The O-line takes time, especially when so much strength needs to be developed in an 18 year old moving towards a 22 year old. I am not ready to say that Austin is the worse because he was given a deck stacked against him. I know everybody hates to hear it, but this line IS young and this line didn't have incredible upperclassmen to mentor them for 2-3 years before they got thrown into the fire. There is a lot of development and gelling that has to happen to created a good offensive line, and there are no magic "talent" hacks to speed that up.
That said, the silver lining here is that what you do have on that line is loads of potential still. As opposed to an O-line filled w/ juniors and seniors where I would tell you the bad line is what it is and there is not a lot of hope for improvement, with this line they should absolutely improve each week throughout the season as they take those lumps and look at film and move on to new lumps. This line isn't even near tip top shape yet, it will improve.. We just have to be patient and let the boys learn.
Let's be honest here for a minute.. This team was bad. Bad bad. There were talent problems, there was work ethic problems, there was attitude problems throughout every area in the locker room. By all accounts most of those areas are much improved. We look better physically, we play harder mentally, we resemble a unified team for the first time in 10+ years. We are better in almost all areas of the team, the only possible exception being O-line. (I know the special teamers will jump on me here, but we are better in special teams, we just can't kick field goals this year.)
The O-line takes time, especially when so much strength needs to be developed in an 18 year old moving towards a 22 year old. I am not ready to say that Austin is the worse because he was given a deck stacked against him. I know everybody hates to hear it, but this line IS young and this line didn't have incredible upperclassmen to mentor them for 2-3 years before they got thrown into the fire. There is a lot of development and gelling that has to happen to created a good offensive line, and there are no magic "talent" hacks to speed that up.
That said, the silver lining here is that what you do have on that line is loads of potential still. As opposed to an O-line filled w/ juniors and seniors where I would tell you the bad line is what it is and there is not a lot of hope for improvement, with this line they should absolutely improve each week throughout the season as they take those lumps and look at film and move on to new lumps. This line isn't even near tip top shape yet, it will improve.. We just have to be patient and let the boys learn.
