What should we expect from the offensive line this year?

[chinngiskhaan]

They were great run blocking for most of last season, and did an adequate job pass blocking against bad teams last year. My expectation is that they massively improve in pass blocking.

 

If that doesn’t happen, I’m all in on firing Harding. We lost to USC and Oregon because our offensive line failed to do anything right in either of those games. No excuse this year concerning the youth of the offensive line. They are a veteran group and allegedly all very talented. If they can’t block Oregon’s defensive linemen, Harding needs to go.

 

What does everyone else expect?

[UtahMan17]

Very reasonable to expect improvement on last year, but Harding is the man. Regardless of how the line does this year we will be very fortunate if he remains here and doesn’t finally get plucked up by an NFL team.

[chinngiskhaan]

What about the performance of our offensive line unit through the years suggests that he is “the man”? Our pass blocking has been the root cause of our offensive woes for years. Wilson never had time to throw against quality teams either.

[Utah]

I don’t have time to look this up and get specific numbers, but Utah had a 2 year stretch of injuries/retirements that decimated the OL. Last year was the first year we’ve had as a legit “P5” OL and we were crazy young. 

It’s more bad luck than anything. We are in a much better spot depth wise/talent wise than ever before. 

[Central Coast Ute]

Once he came here the line improved dramatically. One thing he implemented was teaching everyone more than one position. Most of the guys on the line can play more than one spot. This was particularly nice the one year a few years back when we were down to our fourth or fifth center. Nowakowski I think his name was, a walk on. He played well, especially for a walk on. That year the Utes sent FIVE O linemen to the NFL. Can’t remember if all of them were drafted or just signed UFA contracts, but Bolles went in the first round that year and Sam Tevi is still starting for the Chargers.

[Author]

Posts