Re: If the OL sucks show me the numbers

Every year for the last 10 that I have been following TNet people have been complaining about OL play. I am convinced it is just an easy whipping boy for people who don't know football to pick on because there are so few stats around it. The two years we won a NC people were talking about how bad OL play was and how we need to fire OL coach blah blah blah. I know we have had bad OL play before, but can someone name a great OL in football right now? I don't know of any standouts, which means they are all about the same. I am sure there are some. Point being it is harder to pick out great OL play than it is to pick out a great skill position group. Talk to any fan of any team and the first thing they harp on is their OL. Spoke to a guy a few months ago who was a Clemson fan. The conversation turned to DJU and the first thing out of the guys mouth was how DJ didn't have time to throw and his bad numbers were because of OL play. I told him that a bad OL didn't keep him from missing a 5 yard screen pass in the dirt. We all know we didn't have a perfect OL but how did we run the ball as good as we did if the OL sucked? So if we suck on OL show me the numbers otherwise you might as well say "the moon is a big rectangle" and then not prove it.

TigersO

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Oct 6, 2023, 2:29 PM

This is a much more complicated assessment than most football fans would have you believe.

99% of OLs have weaknesses. The ones who don't have 4-5 upperclassmen who are future NFL OL, and there aren't many if any of those in college football.

With that said, how bad an OL looks depends on where those weaknesses are and whether or not the skills players (mostly the QB) has a skillset that can balance where the OL lacks.

Possible weaknesses for individuals:
slow, weak, poor communication, poor focus, don't see blitzes pre-snap, don't adjust to disguised blitzes in-play, play down to opponent

Possible weaknesses for OL groups:
don't fit blocking scheme(zone or man), out of sync with slides and when to double/help, poor run blocking, poor pass blocking, play down to opponent (can be a group thing as well)

Our 2020 OL was able to pass block fairly well, but struggled opening holes in the run game even with Etienne in the backfield.

FSU's OL was horrible with pass blocking in 2016 but because of their blocking scheme and being able to get in the way of the defense for a split second, Dalvin Cook ran all over people at times without hardly getting touched.

Clemson's OL in 21 and 22 had a problem that did not mesh well with the skills of it's QB. The line lacked consistency which is a terrible thing when you have a QB who has a tendency to see ghosts and struggles to keep his eyes downfield in the face of the rush. DJ was constantly making choices that didn't match what fans were seeing on a particular play.

This year it seems our OL has carried over some of it's consistency issues but a major struggle seems to be that we are not incredibly quick off the snap. That's why you see CSU players have success in what appears to be a talent mismatch, because even if a player is less talented he can win a battle by getting to the attack point first.

I think this is why Clemson struggles so much in short yardage situations this season as well. In a 1 or 2 to-go situation, typically DL know they can try to jump the snap and must take chances to get a stop. That's crushing us right now because our OL aren't reacting quick enough to match the opponent.

I think that's also why Mafah looks to be the better runner at the moment because our OL works well with a patient back who lets them set up the blocks.

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If the OL sucks show me the numbers