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Therealjank1 said... (original post) O line might be bad but we won't know that until week 2 or 3. Anyone who has played or coached football knows the d line beats up the O line i... show more I've got to affirm this opinion as well Jank as it is one of the best posts I have seen coming from your keyboard and it should be common sense based upon our collective experience at this point. It doesn't mean that our O-line is necessarily going to be much better this year (I still think it will), but it is way too early to constantly panic with every practice report knowing that context you provided. Here's why I believe our o-line will take a jump forward this year: Coaching adjustments- the coaches are aware that there may have been too much on the plates of the offense and will focus on eliminating the "too much thinking" that is going on at all the offensive positions. Schematic changes- maybe a little inconsistent with my first point, but I do believe they are incorporating or focusing on different blocking schemes to match our O-line strengths. Natural player development (biggest factor)- I think when you look across the line, we should definitely be better as a whole: LT- A lot better- 26 Roy should be a couple jumps better than 25 Roy. He showed out well (way better in pass pro than run block) for a redshirt freshmen and has a high ceiling as a lineman. You would typically expect a nice jump now that he has that experience and will physically be in a better spot with another offseason. LG- Worst case, same, but likely better- Johnson will likely be our best lineman and worst case scenario is he plays the same as last year but likely has one more level in him with his extensive experience. C- Likely better- I think it is clear that Beers was battling through an injury. He also should take an experience jump after starting all year at C. The continuity having these 3 back is big. RG- Worst case the same as end of year and likely better- There is a 3-way battle for this position and the worst case result is Nelson grabs the job and improves a bit from end of last year's results (which were better than most of the year's results). Best case scenario is Nelson is beaten out demonstrating that our ceiling at RG is even higher. RT- Same or slightly better- I have difficulty theorizing why the right side of our line struggled so much despite some level of decent experience by the two starters. It shouldn't have been that bad. Regardless, Warren or Shipp should be able to match the level of play overall with more skill and athleticism even with less experience. Worst case is Shipp is starting as a redshirt Freshmen who comes in similarly hyped as Roy was at LT last year. If he could match Roy's first year of play, our LT position will be solidly better than last year. If Warren wins the job, it tells me he will likely be above the level of play that we saw from Roy last year which we would take at that spot. The one thing that will change my optimism is an injury to either Roy or Johnson. I think we have depth enough at the other spots to not see a huge drop-off with an injury or two, but not with those two.