Who does Texas play that can get down and dirty in the trenches and protect the passer? The Horns will boast a deep and talented front six or seven, so teams that can't hold up in the trenches or conjure an amazing game plan are in trouble.
Who does Texas play that can get down and dirty in the trenches and protect the passer? The Horns will boast a deep and talented front six or seven, so teams that can’t hold up in the trenches or conjure an amazing game plan are in trouble.
- Texas A&M
- Florida
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Kentucky
The Aggies return all of their useful players and their best key reserves from last year. No SEC OL has better continuity. They are all upperclassmen, three with extended eligibility, including preseason first team ALL SEC guard Armaj Reed-Adams. Texas A&M may lack a 1st round draft pick, but this is a unit with multiple future NFL players, four starting seniors, and enough depth to weather injuries. They should form the infrastructure of the SEC’s best running game.
Crucially, it’s not easy to identify a weak link to attack and everyone is now playing their natural position after years of playing guys too early and where they didn’t belong. A solid, deep unit.
I like the Florida Gators OL equally to A&M, but WordPress hates ties.
Florida returns four starters and arguably the best center in college football in Jake Slaughter. Austin Barber is a strong pass protector at tackle and massive guard Damieon George was one of my favorite unheralded players last year. Yes, a healthy DJ Lagway is the necessary catalyst for their offense to work, but the reason to think the Gators can hang with the big boys starts in the trenches. If Billy Napier’s zone running system featuring 235 pound fleet-footed RB Jaden Baugh gets going with Swagway throwing down the field guaranteeing honest boxes, look out.
Ohio State breaks in a pair of new offensive tackles and they have a lot riding on Rice transfer Ethan Onianwa, who logged 34 starts for the Owls. The long-armed 6-6, 350 pounder projects as a NFL draft pick but he may not be ready for Texas’ edge room quite yet. Ohio State has precedent with this sort of upgrade. OT Josh Simmons came to Columbus via San Diego State and he was just drafted in the 1st round. The right tackle will likely be Austin Siereveld, who played 495 snaps for them last year at guard, where he performed adequately. I have questions. We’ll see on August 30th.
Their interior line from left to right: Luke Montgomery-Carson Hinzman-Tegra Tshabola. That was the interior OL for their playoff run and they performed capably against elite defensive tackle personnel from Tennessee, Oregon & Texas. Notre Dame was no slouch either. No interior OL faced a tougher series of foes last year in succession. They also added former WVU starter Justin Terry for depth.
Georgia is here out of respect for their development and talent accumulation, because they lost their entire interior OL to the NFL Draft and four starters overall. Redshirt junior Earnest Greene had some uncharacteristic struggles at times last year at tackle, but he should be good shifting to RT in 2025. The rest of the OL has a sprinkling of career spot starts and plenty of recruiting stars, but very few have been truly blooded. How good is 6-7, 315 pound left tackle Monroe Freeling? We’re about to find out. Guard Micah Morris is a mauler. As for their backups, it wouldn’t be Georgia without a couple of offseason arrests and one triggered a transfer and the other a suspension. I think they’re a year out from being pretty good up front, but they’ll have some growing pains. Hopefully, Texas can provide some of that pain.
Finally, Kentucky? Yes, Kentucky.
Rarely does an OL unit lose all of their production and improve, but that’s what is going to happen in Lexington. The Wildcats quietly rebuilt their front in the offseason with some smart additions to a historically moribund OL room. Their sole returning starter at guard, Jalen Farmer, was their meanest OL and best run blocker. The Cats brought in 1st Team All-MAC right tackle Alex Wollschlaeger, a 6’7” Bowling Green transfer and a 6th year senior. Wollschlaeger comes to Lexington with three years of starting experience under his belt.
On the other side, they nabbed left guard Joshua Braun from Arkansas, who was their nastiest offensive lineman and a 6th year senior with 32 career starts. Braun moves bodies. He will be flanked by left tackle Shiyazh Pete. The 6’8” 325 pound New Mexico State transfer is another 6th year senior (noticing a pattern?) and a three year starter in Las Cruces.
The final product is a workmanlike unit with massive, long tackles, tons of experience, and a nasty interior. 6-6, 325 across the board with 5.4 years of college football under their belt on average.
Unfortunately for the Cats, their skill positions are largely pedestrian. Classic Mark Stoops. Solve the historical Kentucky OL problem and commit to RTDB from 12 personnel, but bring in an Air Raid QB despite losing their two best starting WRs to the portal. The larger UK offense may not flourish, but OL won’t be the culprit.
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It’s Back To School time. Get properly schooled on the Horns, their opponents, the current roster building landscape, recruiting, and the SEC before kickoff. Over 61,000 words of college football goodness.
Category: General Sports
