Looking Ahead - Offensive Line

[GTBillyJosh]

Prior to the incoming Freshman...

Tackle
Chase Roberts (RT)
Chris Griffin (LT)
Bryan Chamberlain

Guard
Shaq Mason (RG)
Trey Braun (LG)
Shamire DeVine
Nick Brigham
Errin Joe

Center
Thomas O'Reilly
Freddie Burden

As others have mentioned, we seem thin on the outside. Moving Braun to Tackle could make some sense. That is assuming Shamire can handle starting at LG. Either that or we might need some PT from some incoming Freshman. I wonder who is slated for Tackle? Not so worried about the inside.

 

[IronJacket7]

I would like to see this:

LT - GRIFFIN
LG - MASON
C - BURDEN
RG - DEVINE
RT - ROBERTS or JOE (move him)

 

[Eric]

Errin Joe does not have the ability to be a tackle.

 

[GTBillyJosh]

Errin Joe does not have the ability to be a tackle.

Who do you think has the best chance to move to Tackle, if they were going to move someone?

 

[stylee]

Tackle is definitely an area of concern, IMO. Roberts and BC are both athletic guys with the ability to execute the option plays fine. Roberts is probably more physical, BC probably has better reach. However, neither guy is great in pass pro, and neither is going to be a road grader on body on body blocking.

The real issue, though, is depth. With the issues we had last year, you've got to be concerned about going through 3 guys rather quickly.


Braun has a lot of upside at guard, he just misses too many assignments right now. If Shamire beats him out, maybe he becomes a flex guard/tackle guy? He appears to have the requisite athleticism

 

[Boomergump]

Chamberlain is really going to have to prove it and redeem himself. It can be done and I hope he does, but for right now, he only plays in emergency in my book. I thought Chase Roberts showed a lot of potential last season. With a normal amount of growth and improvement I would be comfortable with him at one tackle spot.

 

[Eric]

Who do you think has the best chance to move to Tackle, if they were going to move someone?

Like someone posted above I could see Braun having a role like Will Jackson.

I think a Freshman like Stickler could be second string.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

I was just reviewing my projected roster for 2014. Currently this is how I see things shaking out on the O Line:

Center - O'Reilly, Burden, Niko Anderson with Michael Muns and Andrew Marshall as further down the line type candidates. Burden got a lot of positive press but he is coming back from a serious knee injury and may not be full go until late in the year. Niko played some last year and Muns is a pretty good walk on as well. Marshall will probably redshirt.

Guard - Mason and Braun will start Devine and Joe will be backups. If Devine proves he can play it may free up Braun to move out to tackle. I still have concerns about Devine's conditioning. Joe just does not seem serious about playing so I am not counting on him. Gary Brown and Jake Stickler will probably be groomed for future roles here but will most likely redshirt. Brown may be a Shaq type player and really make a jump early. I hope so.

Tackle - Chase Roberts and Nick Brigham I think will start out. Chris Griffin and Bryan Chamberlain will be pushing these two for playing time and if Griffin is as good as touted he may beat out Brigham. We have several walk on back ups here including Tim Seager, Kyle Stallard and Zach Harness. I don't think they will be in the mix here. Incoming freshmen Jake Whitley and Michael Preddy will almost surely redshirt. I think both are recovering from injuries suffered during their senior high school seasons.

So we have a lot of bodies but not a lot of experience. We just have to hope guys like Devine, Griffin, Burden and Chamberlain come through and play up to the level of Mason and Braun who are best two linemen.

Go Jackets!

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Thanks Boomer.

Given that we graduated 3 of our 5 starters on the OL, there can be nothing but questions. We'll see who shows up.

Once again, we are fortunate with the schedule where we have the first three games to get experience. Wofford, Tulane and Ga Southern should give us time to get some experience and work on things. Plus with the injuries last year, we got to give the players who didn't start a lot of PT. After the first three games though, we had better be ready to play because the next nine games should all be much better teams.

Depth at tackle is probably the biggest concern since it seems that 50-70% of the OL gets hurt sometime during the season. Happens to everyone, it's just when you have SEC / Clemson / FSU depth it doesn't hurt nearly as much. It will probably hurt us again this year.