ESPN Blog's SEC pre-spring position rankings: OL

[jbcarol]

ESPN SEC @ESPN_SEC  ·  53 minutes ago

SEC pre-spring position rankings: OL http://es.pn/1JQBvib

1. Georgia...

2. Arkansas: This unit was the Hogs' strength in 2014, and the Razorbacks also return four starters, losing only right tackle Brey Cook. With starters Dan Skipper, Sebastian Tretola, Mitch Smothers, and Denver Kirkland back from a unit that allowed the fewest sacks (14) and was in the top 25 nationally in rushing, the future is bright.

...

12. Florida...

Bama is ranked 4th in the SEC-W.

[PaintballHog]

It's odd, the whole offseason up to this blog and the rb one, it was Georgia and LSU getting they hype with their star freshman from last year. Glad to see we're recognized in the top 2 of these positions now. WPS :razorback:

We could have the best Oline, RB, and TE squads in the SEC next year.

[hoggusamoungus]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sec

[JackJohnson]

"6. Texas A&M: Two full-time starters who were mainstays on the left side (Cedric Ogbuehi and Jarvis Harrison) are gone; but the rest of the line is back -- center Mike Matthews, right guard Joseph Cheek, and right tackle Germain Ifedi. Junior college transfers Avery Gennesy and Jermaine Eluemunor, who redshirted last season, likely factor into the lineup. The question is who will play left tackle. "

Wonder if "The Hulk" regrets his decision right now to flip from us to A&M??

[Hawgzinbowlz]

CSP at work. Improving every year.    " GO HOGS "

[HappyHog]

#1 Backfield + #2 OL + 5th year senior QB = potential record-breaking offensive year.

[3kgthog]

Gotta disagree with that ranking. The supposed #2 OL in the SEC had trouble all season getting a push in short yardage situations. By their own coach's admission they also aren't athletic enough to make screens a part of our offense. I'd rank them no better than 4th based on (1) The short game being pretty important to a run-first team and (2) Not even having the option to run a simple screen is just ridiculous in this era of football.

They need to lose weight across the board as the extra 10 baskets of fries are obviously not helping at the point of contact or with their stamina in the 2nd half.

[Hogwild]

We could have the best Oline, RB, and TE squads in the SEC next year.

ESPN groups the TE position in with Wrs, ranked 10th in the SEC.

1. Texas A&M
2. Tennessee
3. Ole Miss
4. Mississippi State
5. LSU
6. Auburn
7. Georgia
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Arkansas
11. Florida
12. Kentucky
13. Missouri
14. Vanderbilt

[nonoffensiveposter]

Gotta disagree with that ranking. The supposed #2 OL in the SEC had trouble all season getting a push in short yardage situations. By their own coach's admission they also aren't athletic enough to make screens a part of our offense. I'd rank them no better than 4th based on (1) The short game being pretty important to a run-first team and (2) Not even having the option to run a simple screen is just ridiculous in this era of football.

They need to lose weight across the board as the extra 10 baskets of fries are obviously not helping at the point of contact or with their stamina in the 2nd half.

Yep. It was brutal watching the biggest OL in all of football get stuffed in 3rd or 4th and 1 type situations. Hopefully Pittman gets that corrected, or in the alternative, we install a bootleg into the game plan in those situations to keep teams honest.

[MissippHog]

Gotta disagree with that ranking. The supposed #2 OL in the SEC had trouble all season getting a push in short yardage situations. By their own coach's admission they also aren't athletic enough to make screens a part of our offense. I'd rank them no better than 4th based on (1) The short game being pretty important to a run-first team and (2) Not even having the option to run a simple screen is just ridiculous in this era of football.

They need to lose weight across the board as the extra 10 baskets of fries are obviously not helping at the point of contact or with their stamina in the 2nd half.

I agree / disagree with you.  I believe that depth was the biggest issues with our OL last year.  Our guys just simply were gassed late in the games.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

Gotta disagree with that ranking. The supposed #2 OL in the SEC had trouble all season getting a push in short yardage situations. By their own coach's admission they also aren't athletic enough to make screens a part of our offense. I'd rank them no better than 4th based on (1) The short game being pretty important to a run-first team and (2) Not even having the option to run a simple screen is just ridiculous in this era of football.

They need to lose weight across the board as the extra 10 baskets of fries are obviously not helping at the point of contact or with their stamina in the 2nd half.

We are doing OK after year 2 and I think that we will do better in the future.


2014 SEC Offense 3rd & 4th Down Conversion %
         
   3rd Dwn             4th Dwn
   Conv %              Conv %
AUB   52.5           MIZ   81.3
ALA   51.5           GEO   80.0
GEO   49.7           ALA   76.9
ARK   47.1           ARK   63.2
MSU   46.4           TEN   58.3
USC   43.4           TAM   57.9
MIZ   42.9            LSU   56.3
TAM   40.8           USC   54.5
LSU   39.9            FLA   53.3
MIS   39.3            VAN   50.0
TEN   38.9            MIS   45.0
FLA   36.5            KTY   43.5
KTY   33.9            AUB   42.9
VAN   30.3            MSU   42.9

[Hog in MO]

"6. Texas A&M: Two full-time starters who were mainstays on the left side (Cedric Ogbuehi and Jarvis Harrison) are gone; but the rest of the line is back -- center Mike Matthews, right guard Joseph Cheek, and right tackle Germain Ifedi. Junior college transfers Avery Gennesy and Jermaine Eluemunor, who redshirted last season, likely factor into the lineup. The question is who will play left tackle. "

Wonder if "The Hulk" regrets his decision right now to flip from us to A&M??

Looks like he's about to get his opportunity to step into the starting lineup.

[Hawgzinbowlz]

We are doing OK after year 2 and I think that we will do better in the future.


2014 SEC Offense 3rd & 4th Down Conversion %
         
   3rd Dwn             4th Dwn
   Conv %              Conv %
AUB   52.5           MIZ   81.3
ALA   51.5           GEO   80.0
GEO   49.7           ALA   76.9
ARK   47.1           ARK   63.2
MSU   46.4           TEN   58.3
USC   43.4           TAM   57.9
MIZ   42.9            LSU   56.3
TAM   40.8           USC   54.5
LSU   39.9            FLA   53.3
MIS   39.3            VAN   50.0
TEN   38.9            MIS   45.0
FLA   36.5            KTY   43.5
KTY   33.9            AUB   42.9
VAN   30.3            MSU   42.9

A more creative offensive flow (CDE) may allow us to attack a box that is slightly less stacked. We should keep improving as our OL line recruits seem to be improving, and Coach Pittman is both excellent and will keep us headed in the right direction.
Thanks for the above.

" GO HOGS "

[DeltaBoy]

Things are shaping up for a solid year.

[Smokehouse]

Gotta disagree with that ranking. The supposed #2 OL in the SEC had trouble all season getting a push in short yardage situations. By their own coach's admission they also aren't athletic enough to make screens a part of our offense. I'd rank them no better than 4th based on (1) The short game being pretty important to a run-first team and (2) Not even having the option to run a simple screen is just ridiculous in this era of football.

They need to lose weight across the board as the extra 10 baskets of fries are obviously not helping at the point of contact or with their stamina in the 2nd half.

These rankings are projecting for next season. Given departures from other schools and expected development from the Hogs second is reasonable.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

A more creative offensive flow (CDE) may allow us to attack a box that is slightly less stacked. We should keep improving as our OL line recruits seem to be improving, and Coach Pittman is both excellent and will keep us headed in the right direction.
Thanks for the above.

" GO HOGS "

I agree that there is a need for perhaps a little different type of offensive creativity that maximizes the productivity of our strong suit and brings some of our less utilized concepts/positions into greater and more productive utilization.

Some thought that the arrival of Chaney meant that we would see a revitalization of our passing game and will I admit that I was one of those. Even though I questioned his ability to coach/tutor/develop QB's, I was given pause because of the QB's who had played and found success while playing for him. After two years we saw BA improve drastically in 2014 from 2013 but what none of us really know is, how much of this was derived from Chaney, and how much was derived from BA having been tutored in the off season in Florida, and then playing less hurt most of the time in 2014 as opposed to 2013? I guess we will never know.

Back to topic, our O-Line will be very good again this year. As far as pass protection goes, I think it is often overlooked (as folks allege that our OL didn't protect BA last year) is that our OL again ranked near the top in Sacks Allowed in the SEC. They were #2 in the SEC with 1 sack allowed in every 25.6 passing attempts, second only to Alabama who had 1:28.3.

They were also 3rd in the SEC in TFL Allowed averaging 1 in every 8.9 rushing attempts. LSU led the conference with 1:10.4 and Alabama was 2nd with 1:9.0.

These are all good stats supporting the fact that we had, and should have again, a very good OL.

The area where we can and need to improve is in creating more successful RZ opportunities. We had an average on RZ drives to Total Drives (44 scores to 156 total drives-78.6%) which was only good enough to be ranked #12 in the SEC, yet we were #1 in the SEC (and #4 in the nation) in TOP with an average of 34:02.

The problem was those 156 total offensive drives tied us with Auburn for the 2nd fewest offensive drives in the SEC last season (while Auburn had a RZ scoring % of 87.9%), which of course resulted in fewer chances for us for RZ opportunities. So if we are going to have fewer drives, we need to make sure that we are either pounding or passing that rock into the EZ more often.

Is this the fault of the OL, or a lack of a better offensive game plan? I think we will find out when Enos takes the reins.