It's not the size i'm worried about. Each year the O-line is supposed to be amazing. Last year it was believed that they'd be the best in the nation, or ever at BYU and I was disappointed. I think Weber is a good coach, so I'm hoping that things will get better this year and we'll see less mistakes, of course it'll help if Max gets rid of the ball a bit faster too!

That is a good question! I'm glad we have somthing to talk about more than the BYWHo crap. We have always ultilized a larger than normal O-line for the purpose of pass protection and Draw running plays. That was the MO of Chow and it worked. Now that we are using a different array of run plays most still based on a draw form bigger is still better but as we found out in the UCLA Bowl game with a pulling takle or gaurd we do need to speed up our O-line a little. Even so most our runs are still of the same type draw or stretch kind. We don't do a lot of dives or B gab traps or sweeps where faster lineman are essential. I do hope with maturity on the line we will speed up a little or UCLA exposed a problem teams this year will try to use.

WinnemuccaCougar wrote:

I do hope with maturity on the line we will speed up a little or UCLA exposed a problem teams this year will try to use.

You bring up and excellent point. UCLA had oodles of speed and really good Tackles. I think that we will not face a similar combination very often and so we won't change the OLine for it. I think you are very correct in pointing out that other teams will try to scheme to do something similar. Utah typically has decent DTs, but this year they are mostly off the team or injured, so no worries. TCU could be a challenge, but we have handled them two years running. Out of conference teams will be the biggest challenge for our OLine IMO.

Just so you all know, I'm only really posting here because I want to see my new image next to my name... hee hee!

Uh... Anyway, I don't know if this is still the case but the University of Minnesota used to be well known for recruiting high school tight ends to play offensive line for them. They were a bit smaller and lacked some strength but when running the ball -and especially from sideline to sideline, as UM did (does?) frequently to set up the play action passes- they were perfect and oftentimes posed a real match-up problem for defenses. Their quickness and agility was great on pitches, tosses, options, etc but also on trap plays and in general gave them the ability to have a very fluid, moving offensive line.

The only bad thing was the QB would get lit-up when they were down late in the game and he had to just drop back and throw downfield (which, lets face it, is 80% of the time for the golden gophers).

BYU almost guaranteedly benefits from having a much bigger, more set-in-place offensive line because their offense is much more based around 3-5 step drops and downfield passes. Even when we do run, frequently it's a draw-type play, in which case it's also beneficial to have a bigger, less-fluid offensive line.