Will the OL be better in 2014?

[Eric]

What say you?

 

[xenoabe]

Same. We have better talent but less experience.

 

[Tech First]

Same. We have better talent but less experience.

It has to be better. No where else to go.

 

[Cam]

Tough to say. We lost a lot of experience, but the line is getting an arguable boost in raw talent. It's hard to imagine that the line could be worse than last year. I'm going to go with better, especially if we bring on another OL coach.

 

[danny daniel]

Same. We have better talent but less experience.

If Roberts is not available we have a depth problem that will not be solved until 2015. "My" lineup to make us better would be Burden/O'Reilly at C, Devine and Mason at G with Brigham at backup, Griffin and Braun at T with Chamberlain and Joe at backup. Would need best freshman guard available as backup as well. This is based on Devine getting in better shape to play a lot of time. What would change my mind would be a freshman tackle able to step in as starter....not likely, or of course if Roberts is 100%. If we cannot improve RT play we will not be better in 2014 .

 

[Squint]

I'm going to say worse. I'm a pessimist. But every year we seem to suffer from loads of injuries on the OL. and since even the apparent starters are a bit unproven, playing with the backups will look like playing with high-schoolers on the OL.

 

[Boomergump]

My honest opinion is that the raw material we are starting with is decidedly better. However, I am not quite sure how that will translate to on-field success. We are losing experience and that matters. Right Tackle remains a concern for me, but I feel that there will be options come fall. Either Chamberlain continues to improve or one of the others like Braun or Burden will slide over. I am going to go with better because I think we will protect the passer better and be stronger in the middle, both of those are very important to our success. We have some beef, that counts.

 

[GT Tennessee]

Boomer do see Devine starting at guard opposite of Mason? I feel with the GCG combo of Devine, O'Reily, Mason could give us huge push especially at the point of attack. Kick Burden out to tackle and let him use his athleticism. What do you think?

 

[danny daniel]

Boomer do see Devine starting at guard opposite of Mason? I feel with the GCG combo of Devine, O'Reily, Mason could give us huge push especially at the point of attack. Kick Burden out to tackle and let him use his athleticism. What do you think?

I could see Braun at RT, Burden at C, Devine at LG, and O'Reilly backing up both LG and C with Chamberlain, Brigham, and Joe being the other backups. This would give O'Reilly much more playing time (Devine will need playing time help) than currently planned as just a back-up at C. This seems to put more of the best players on the field most of the time and upgrades our RT performance. O'Reilly was a G before he became a C.

 

[Techster]

2012 was the best I've seen the OL perform in CPJ's tenure. That resulted from a veteran line that played together for mutliple years. The Beno-Jackson-Finch-Mason...and Bailey when healthy were kinda "groomed" to all be GT's "rock" on offense (though Mason is younger). Unfortunately, injuries and younger guys not ready to step up kinda blew it up in 2013.

I think we're going to struggle early on. It took that unit years to be a cohesive unit, and outside of Mason, there's not that many quality starts together with the guys we have. I forget who it was, it may have been Will Jackson, but in a recent AJC article he spoke about how much it helped playing with the same guys for years because they knew each other's tendencies on calls. They know when to step in and help, and when to maintain position without speaking because they've been through it all. That's what we're losing.

2013 was a pretty bad year IMO for the OL, so it's going to be hard to be any worse. Like some posters have mentioned, the raw talent on the OL is better, but experience as a cohesive unit is lacking. I think we'll see a lot of chop block penalties because of guys "helping" when they don't need to (we saw a lot of those early in CPJ's tenure), and a lot of guys running free into the backfield because missed assignments. The hope is that all the wrinkles will smooth itself out the first three games before we hit the meat of the schedule.

Bottomline for the OL, IMO, is that we'll see a slight improvement, but I don't think it'll be pretty in the early going. We may see more improvement toward the latter half of the schedule but we need to settle on where guys will be playing sooner than later.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I think we will probably be better since we will probably have fewer injuries. That will give the OL time to gel (as long as they aren't suspended).

 

[augustabuzz]

My honest opinion is that the raw material we are starting with is decidedly better. However, I am not quite sure how that will translate to on-field success. We are losing experience and that matters. Right Tackle remains a concern for me, but I feel that there will be options come fall. Either Chamberlain continues to improve or one of the others like Braun or Burden will slide over. I am going to go with better because I think we will protect the passer better and be stronger in the middle, both of those are very important to our success. We have some beef, that counts.

Boomer, I believe you and danny daniel are on target, but there is another wild card to be played. If Joe can get into "fighting weight", I think he could help solve some depth issues at a couple of spots. He appears to have good quickness. He needs to train his body to compete against other well trained big'uns.

 

[Boomergump]

Boomer do see Devine starting at guard opposite of Mason? I feel with the GCG combo of Devine, O'Reily, Mason could give us huge push especially at the point of attack. Kick Burden out to tackle and let him use his athleticism. What do you think?

Well, there is no doubt I am high on Devine. His future depends on his own willingness to condition his body. If he can take in enough air to fuel his muscles, he is going to move some people this year. From what I have seen, he has more potential at the point of attack than any guy we have put on the field in my memory (which goes back a ways). I like Burden's athleticism. I really do. I don't know if he is better suited for RT than C, though. I'll let the coaches decide that. O'Reilly can indeed play OG as well as C. Devine won't play every snap. O'Reilly, Devine, and Mason is a pretty good rotation at Guard. Brigham is coming along too. Maybe Braun is the guy to move out there to RT and give Chamberlain some competition. The one thing about Burden though, is that he has more foot speed than either Braun or Chamberlain. That has to translate well at RT, doesn't it?

 

[Boomergump]

Boomer, I believe you and danny daniel are on target, but there is another wild card to be played. If Joe can get into "fighting weight", I think he could help solve some depth issues at a couple of spots. He appears to have good quickness. He needs to train his body to compete against other well trained big'uns.

I watched Joe a good bit during the spring game and I came away feeling a little BLAH. He was OK, but I didn't get the impression he was ready to challenge any of the front runners. I hope you are right about him. One scrimmage is a pretty small sample size.

 

[JazzyD95]

We need to slide Braun or burden out to tackle. I'm not comfortable with chamberlain stepping on the field. I believe we have good players, but I think we will continue to struggle untill we get a new offensive line coach. But I'm not going to beat that dead horse again. My line up would be: LT griffin, LG Braun, C O'rielley, RG Mason, RT burden. With shamire playing the gaurd at the point of attack on third and short plays and Braun sliding over to take burden's spot.
#firesewakdamnit

 

[GT Tennessee]

Well, there is no doubt I am high on Devine. His future depends on his own willingness to condition his body. If he can take in enough air to fuel his muscles, he is going to move some people this year. From what I have seen, he has more potential at the point of attack than any guy we have put on the field in my memory (which goes back a ways). I like Burden's athleticism. I really do. I don't know if he is better suited for RT than C, though. I'll let the coaches decide that. O'Reilly can indeed play OG as well as C. Devine won't play every snap. O'Reilly, Devine, and Mason is a pretty good rotation at Guard. Brigham is coming along too. Maybe Braun is the guy to move out there to RT and give Chamberlain some competition. The one thing about Burden though, is that he has more foot speed than either Braun or Chamberlain. That has to translate well at RT, doesn't it?

Braun would definitely work at RT and have Burden at C I agree with that. Not having Morgan Bailey I feel really hurt us, but he just couldn't get over the injury bug. I really think we found a good one in the Freshman Gary Brown that we have coming in. Not saying he's going to play, but he could give us some solid backup and if he's not needed(cross your fingers) he'll redshirt. In his film you can definitely see the nastiness.

 

[augustabuzz]

I watched Joe a good bit during the spring game and I came away feeling a little BLAH. He was OK, but I didn't get the impression he was ready to challenge any of the front runners. I hope you are right about him. One scrimmage is a pretty small sample size.

My understanding is that in Spring, he had just recovered from his injury and had gained about 20lbs of bad weight. I have seen him before his injury and he has quick feet for a man with his frame. If he can shed the weight and regain and exceed his pre-injury upper body strength, then he can be a player at this level.

 

[Eric]

My personal opinion is that I don't expect Joe to be more than a backup...hope he proves me wrong.

 

[alaguy]

I'm going to say worse. I'm a pessimist. But every year we seem to suffer from loads of injuries on the OL. and since even the apparent starters are a bit unproven, playing with the backups will look like playing with high-schoolers on the OL.

This pretty much sums it up.Add in these thoughts--"possibly" better talent but almost no exp at Ctr,THE key spot

 

[70Jacket]

If Sewak is the coach, same trending to worse.