⚡ CFB Dashboard

Heading into this spring, the Utah offensive line was the biggest question mark. The team is replacing all five starters from last year's team while also installing a new offense. First-year OL coach Jordan Gross had his hands full, but as spring ball wrapped up, he was pleased with the progress he saw from his group. "It's an outstanding group to work with. I inherited a group that had a very high football IQ, and so that makes my job easy, but a lot of guys are enjoying the opportunity to compete for starting spots," Gross said. While only 10 guys will travel with the team, Gross said that a good majority of the room are still in the conversation for playing time as the team hits the pivotal month of May. Gross is hoping to see some added development from his guys over the next few months, but he also knows that this little break is also important for the team. "It's a really important month for them to catch their breath as well. With the new staff this year and a new head coach, the guys basically had about little over two weeks from the Vegas Bowl to when we started meeting and everything again. So it's been a very long crunch for them, and we've asked a lot out of them this entire semester, so it'll be nice for them to see us a little bit less," Gross said. "But the key for them is to continue to grow in their strength and their conditioning and doing the football work that we've established thus far, the individual work they can really take advantage of getting some of that fine-tuning, some of that technical stuff that they're going to have time to get to this month." Gross says he wants his group to be the biggest and strongest players on the field, so the hope is that his players spend the month in the weight room and continue to improve in that regard. He also hopes his players spend some additional time in the playbook. "Continuing to understand the offense and what we're asking everybody to do, be great on our assignments. There's definitely room for that. And then just technical development on actually how to do the job. We've made big-time improvements in the last couple of weeks of spring ball, but definitely got to be a technician if you want to be a Big 12 starter week in and week out," Gross said. Gross has also been impressed with the leadership from the seniors in his room. "Keith Olson leads by example. Definitely not a big talker, so he works incredibly hard every day, and he is one of our best players, excited for his season in his senior year. Zereoue Williams, somebody I would definitely want to highlight alongside Al Harrison, are the two guys who have really made a big effort to be more vocal, help with the energy in the room, and their energy in the huddle. They've done a great job. And Toa Moea'i is really, I think, finding his groove now, is a confident player and a consistent guy that we can count on. So very, very lucky to have the senior leadership I do in that O line room," Gross said. Watch the full press conference below, including Gross' thoughts on Isaiah Garcia and what he means to the room: