Offensive line: An oasis or an ogre?
posted by Scott Hood on Thursday, August 16, 2007
Well, not really.
OK, Spurrier backtracked a bit after Thursday afternoon’s workout, saying the O-Line wasn’t as poor as he first thought, but the bottom line stayed the same – the offensive line is still a work in progress.
The question is whether it will be ready to perform at an optimum level on Sept. 8 when South Carolina invades Sanford Stadium.
Not Sept. 1, when USC starts the season against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Spurrier knows USC has plenty of talent on hand to beat the Ragin’ Cajuns handily at home. The key is getting past that game without any major injuries and then starting preparations for the Bulldogs.
Spurrier’s scathing criticism Wednesday night almost guarantees that thousand of eyeballs will be watching the offensive line on opening night. The wide receivers, with those five freshmen, should be a close second.
Why? People don’t forget the original story. But they do ignore the retraction.
And what a spicy original story we had.
Once the media were allowed into Williams-Brice Stadium at the conclusion of the scrimmage, Spurrier promptly marched over to where we were assembled and launched into blistering attack of the apparently overwhelmed offensive line.
The core of his message was that the line was atrocious. And those were the positive things he said.
Hpwever, guard Garrett Anderson, one of the straightest shooters on the team, didn’t disagree with his head coach when he was questioned. He said simply the offensive line wasn’t ready to compete in the SEC.
Based on some of the posts I’ve seen on TIF, some people have tried to explain away the offensive line’s mediocre performance by theorizing the second-team offensive line faced the first-team defensive line, and vice versa.
If you’re one of those people, you’re not thinking the way Steve Spurrier thinks.
And you need to stop making excuses for the players.
Players are recruited by the coaches to perform well on the gridiron, both in practice and in games. It’s part of the deal when they sign their letter of intent. In return for their services on the football team, they receive a free college education.
So when they don’t perform, the head coach has the right to get upset.
I can assure you Spurrier doesn’t care one bit whether it was the first-team, second-team of third-team offensive line that committed the majority of the mistakes. They’re all the same in his mind.
He doesn’t tolerate any mistakes at any time, no matter who’s on the field.
It’s called paying attention to details.
To their credit, quarterbacks Blake Mitchell and Tommy Beecher refused to throw their teammates under the bus despite the apparent lack of protection from the defensive onslaught.
Based on the receiving numbers, its clear they had little time to throw deep. Instead, they relied on short, conservative passes to the running backs and tight ends.
Both said they expected the O-Line to improve dramatically over the remaining 2-/12 weeks before the first game.
Maybe it will.
Frankly, I would be surprised if it didn’t. First, the defensive line it faces everyday in practice might be one of the best it will see all year.
Second, I agree with Spurrier’s comment today that the talent is here to have a productive SEC offensive line. There are now 2 or 3 players at each O-Line position that can perform in a game if called upon.
Of course, they might not play well all the time but the ability is certainly there to do so.
Guys like redshirt freshman Kevin Young – a player Spurrier has mentioned often - are like a flower that hasn’t blossomed yet. Before they do, they’re not much to look that.
When they do, though, it’s magic.
- Permalink, Discuss, Blog Home
It looks like you can forget all the bad things Steve Spurrier said about the offensive line following Wednesday night’s closed scrimmage.
Well, not really.
OK, Spurrier backtracked a bit after Thursday afternoon’s workout, saying the O-Line wasn’t as poor as he first thought, but the bottom line stayed the same – the offensive line is still a work in progress.
The question is whether it will be ready to perform at an optimum level on Sept. 8 when South Carolina invades Sanford Stadium.
Not Sept. 1, when USC starts the season against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Spurrier knows USC has plenty of talent on hand to beat the Ragin’ Cajuns handily at home. The key is getting past that game without any major injuries and then starting preparations for the Bulldogs.
Spurrier’s scathing criticism Wednesday night almost guarantees that thousand of eyeballs will be watching the offensive line on opening night. The wide receivers, with those five freshmen, should be a close second.
Why? People don’t forget the original story. But they do ignore the retraction.
And what a spicy original story we had.
Once the media were allowed into Williams-Brice Stadium at the conclusion of the scrimmage, Spurrier promptly marched over to where we were assembled and launched into blistering attack of the apparently overwhelmed offensive line.
The core of his message was that the line was atrocious. And those were the positive things he said.
Hpwever, guard Garrett Anderson, one of the straightest shooters on the team, didn’t disagree with his head coach when he was questioned. He said simply the offensive line wasn’t ready to compete in the SEC.
Based on some of the posts I’ve seen on TIF, some people have tried to explain away the offensive line’s mediocre performance by theorizing the second-team offensive line faced the first-team defensive line, and vice versa.
If you’re one of those people, you’re not thinking the way Steve Spurrier thinks.
And you need to stop making excuses for the players.
Players are recruited by the coaches to perform well on the gridiron, both in practice and in games. It’s part of the deal when they sign their letter of intent. In return for their services on the football team, they receive a free college education.
So when they don’t perform, the head coach has the right to get upset.
I can assure you Spurrier doesn’t care one bit whether it was the first-team, second-team of third-team offensive line that committed the majority of the mistakes. They’re all the same in his mind.
He doesn’t tolerate any mistakes at any time, no matter who’s on the field.
It’s called paying attention to details.
To their credit, quarterbacks Blake Mitchell and Tommy Beecher refused to throw their teammates under the bus despite the apparent lack of protection from the defensive onslaught.
Based on the receiving numbers, its clear they had little time to throw deep. Instead, they relied on short, conservative passes to the running backs and tight ends.
Both said they expected the O-Line to improve dramatically over the remaining 2-/12 weeks before the first game.
Maybe it will.
Frankly, I would be surprised if it didn’t. First, the defensive line it faces everyday in practice might be one of the best it will see all year.
Second, I agree with Spurrier’s comment today that the talent is here to have a productive SEC offensive line. There are now 2 or 3 players at each O-Line position that can perform in a game if called upon.
Of course, they might not play well all the time but the ability is certainly there to do so.
Guys like redshirt freshman Kevin Young – a player Spurrier has mentioned often - are like a flower that hasn’t blossomed yet. Before they do, they’re not much to look that.
When they do, though, it’s magic.
- Permalink, Discuss, Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.