Phil Steele's List of Returning OL Starts: Michigan #8
As the title states, yesterday Phil Steele released his list of returning OL starts for the 2016 football season.
Michigan comes in at #8 overall and #1 in the conference with 105 returning starts. We knew we had a veteran OL returning, but it's nice to see that we're tops in the conference and top 10 nationally in that regard.
We all know that the OL's success really boils down to if a 5th OL (Newsome/Kugler/someone) can step in an produce, but generally a experience at OL leads to success there. With the talent on the roster, the experience at the other 4 OL spots, the improvements made last year with the OL, and Harbaugh and Drevno coaching them up, I like to think this will be Michigan's best OL in a few years.
Some other rankings of note:
#1: Bowling Green - 140 starts (Ohio State's week 1 opponent)
#17: Penn State (2nd in B1G) - 91 starts
#51: Alabama (4th in SEC) - 64 starts
#60: Wisconsin (7th in B1G) - 62 starts
#71: Ohio State (9th in B1G) - 57 starts
#81: Iowa (10th in B1G) - 52 starts
#95: Clemson (13th in ACC) - 46 starts
#102: Michigan State (12th in B1G) - 42 starts
#113: Oklahoma (7th in Big 12) - 32 starts
#117: Notre Dame - 27 starts
A Harbaugh-run ship definitely assuages fears of negative mental performance. That, plus the talent we have, and we should be good.
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Lmao "mental weasals' is shooting to the top of my lexicon. Great way to describe a few dudes on that team.
Rich Rod did in '08. He was actually pretty effective when he would just pound Minor into the line. I don't know if Hoke ever did.
He highest was in 2011 with around 70 starts. That was ranked #56 in the nation.
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Plus did you see Wisconsin's rating? They started 4 RS Freshmen last season. I think they'll have the best line in the conference this season if not ours. Don't sleep on the Badgers people bc of their schedule. They'll come into the Big House with 1 loss at the most.
Saw that too...should make their early season matchup with State a bit more interesting.
especially since Sparty will be breaking in a new QB also. Inexperienced O-line + new QB = potential disaster
Mainly because we haven't played them since the 70's, so I'm not sure what to expect. Also Wisconsin linemen are usually pretty damn good.
/I worry about Indiana too
Indiana will be a test.
Other than the obligatory worry about every game, I think Harbaugh will have Michigan ready for Indiana at the Big House after last years game. Plus Doc Brown.
I'm putting all of my hopes for this season on Doc Brown. I don't ever want to see another defensive performance like last year's Game.
Indiana worries me because that game gave OSU the blueprint on how to beat us. Hopefully this year all the Indy game will do is show JT Barrett how many times he's going to be sacked.
That's an interesting list. Yeah, we knew that four of the linemen were returning with plenty of experience, but that number of starts is ridiculus for a line only one year removed from 'egads' territory! And it only has one real question - LT. That's a big question, but its manageable because of Mason Cole's versatility. Without Cole, that lone hole is a killer. With him, it's a manageable weak link because he can play wherever the 5th best OL cannot play - which makes for a true 'best five' on the field.
When Harbaugh was hired, my immediate thought about which position group would see the biggest improvement out of the blocks was OL. Don't think I was far off... The second year in this system, with top flight NFL coaching, should see even more improvement. Which may be incremental, considering the leaps and bounds made last season. They won't be Stanford-like earth movers this year, but that isn't far off...
I imagine we'll see the more blocky than catchy TEs help on that side quite a bit. Will Jocz as a 5th year see the field more? We know TWJ will see the field a lot and is a beast physically, but he's young and inexperienced (like Newsome). Butts and the backfield blockers will be key.
Still, OL will be a relative plus in most every game, I predict.
The OL looked extremely effective and organized in the Citrus bowl when they had an extra month of rest and practice.
If they can pick up where they left off . . .
We're somewhere between the ass beating we took vs osu and the one we handed to the gators.
But I think by the time osu rolls around we could be legitimately as good as the Gators made us look.
Finally. An experienced OL.
We have not had one of those in like a decade.
Last year's OL was also experienced, but this one is both experienced and doesn't have to deal with a coaching change. I'm not sure we've had a line with this much experience and a year of coaching continuity since that insane 2000 OL (not that the current group is anywhere near that group, production-wise).
Last year's was a lot like 2011 in the number of starts under their belt and a coaching change...and a young true soph beast at LT.
Yep, based largely on last season's results. And I'll bet last season's results were based largely on veteran OL's that they really don't have anymore. It'll be interesting to revisit this list in December and see how things shake out.
as others have mentioned you need to look at other positions too. Yeah, oline is key, but Clemson returns a heisman trophy contender at QB, a 2015 1st team ACC wr in Artavius Scott, and a 2nd team ACC running back and TE. While they don't have a ton of starts on the oline, they have 3 returning starters and one of them was 2nd All ACC last year.
Oklahoma might not have a lot of Oline starts coming back but they return 8 starters from offense and 3 of them are on the oline.
poor Navy. They lose Reynolds and only have 8 starts returning. With that kind of offense it has to be pretty tough to be inexperienced.
Most of the guys who are taking over will be upperclassmen with multiple years in the program. They also usually have starting experience in the same offensive system through the prepschool and JV teams. You're also looking at them recruiting the same dudes over and over again, so the offense will have some small variances in performance, but on the whole I wouldn't expect too much of a dropoff from the loss of starters, the loss of Reynolds is a bigger deal as the guy was a straight up playmaker.
Typically with the academies the difference between their decent teams and their great teams is a playmaker on offense and then defensive talent. If there's a drought in effective defenders the academy teams are just not going to be very good, but the offense will always have a minimum baseline of production.
Let's see if they can keep the improvement train moving next year. This'll be the first time in a while that they are going into another year with the same scheme to learn.
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Having to replace the center won't. And while they have alot of experience, most of that experience is just experience at being average. I hope we see the O line that played in the bowl for most of the season, but I wouldn't be shocked if they started out behind that.
I certainly hope you're right. I'm still taking a "see it to believe it" approach given the fact that the OL play, generally speaking, has not lived up to expectations in recent years. Its been a long time since we've seen a truly dominant Michigan offensive line. Been close to 10 years at least.
But if the line can pick up where it left off in the Citrus Bowl and continue to build off of that, then they'll be just fine.
Purdue ranked 28th with 82 starts, third in conference. Sadly, I don't think that will translate to anything for them. I enjoyed watching them during the Tiller years. It would be nice for them and good for the conference for Purdue to get back to some level of decency.
...I think they give OSU a major scare. They could put up points in bunches last year. That could be a very tough game.
I'll steal from Dennis Miller:
"91 of shit is still shit."
preseason OL or position rankings are on par with April & May weekly "power rankings" in the MLB... filler for sportswriters and analysts
F Notre Dame and F Penn ST