Building the O line

[Piggfoot]

I'm certainly no recruiting stratagist maybe some here can help. But this I know. The offensive line is composed of 5 men. If we are to assume the O-line is the foundation of the offense then we should want it to be a stable self sustaining unit.
Here are the o-line commits for the last few years.
2015--1. Merrick, 6-5, 295. 2. Rogers, 6-2, 297. 3. Jackson, 6-6, 291. 4. Froholdt*,
6-4,282
2016--1. Henrick, 6-4,285.  2. Ramirez, 6-6, 300. 3. Malone, 6-4, 308.
2017--1. Wagner, 6-9, 312. 2. Adcock, 6-5, 285. 3. Clenin, 6-6, 285. 4. Clary**
2018  as of now we have 2 O-linemen commited.
* converted DT,  ** Blue shirt.
Unless we develop some walk-ons, or pick up some JUCO's we are very short in this area in my opinion. We lose Ragnow next year. Rogers, highly touted out of Dallas with little playing time. Merrick slow to develop.

[DoctorSusscrofa]

I'm certainly no recruiting stratagist maybe some here can help. But this I know. The offensive line is composed of 5 men. If we are to assume the O-line is the foundation of the offense then we should want it to be a stable self sustaining unit.
Here are the o-line commits for the last few years.
2015--1. Merrick, 6-5, 295. 2. Rogers, 6-2, 297. 3. Jackson, 6-6, 291. Froholdt*,
6-4,282
2016--1. Henrick, 6-4,285.  2. Ramirez, 6-6, 300. 3. Malone, 6-4, 308.
2017--1. Wagner, 6-9, 312. 2. Adcock, 6-5, 285. 3. Clenin, 6-6, 285. Clary**
2018  as of now we have 2 O-linemen commited.
* converted DT,  ** Blue shirt.
Unless we develop some walk-ons, or pick up some JUCO's we are very short in this area in my opinion. We lose Ragnow next year. Rogers, highly touted out of Dallas with little playing time. Merrick slow to develop.

I don't know how it is now, but years ago there were people that said great offensive linemen are usually upper classmen that developed over several years.  That suggests to me that freshmen and sophomores would have difficulty becoming great linemen until later, after years in the program.  Several of the players people want to play now are either freshmen, redshirt freshmen, sophomores or third-year sophomores that have redshirted one year.  It's entirely possible that the talent of some of these guys really won't bear fruit until next year or the following year.  They may be good, but need time to be great.  Even if very talented, they may not be any better than any juniors or seniors we have now.  Long and BB may simply be willing to take our lumps right now and hope that the talented guys grow in experience through practice and spot duty, believing that our quality level is rising slowly.