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Texas O-line talk


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  • 3 weeks later...

Thx for this post @Elmer_Fudd.

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Saw this posted from a 247 mod

- Texas signee Neto Umeozulu is one of eight offensive linemen from the Lone Star State at the Under Armour All-America Game. While he might not be ranked as high as others, one of the UA coaches, who has a dozen or so NFL clients, revealed Thursday that Umeozulu might have the highest ceiling of the bunch. He pointed to the fact that Umeozulu, who has worked at both guard and tackle the past few days, is still growing into his body and should only get more physical in the coming years. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 5 star olineman fuck yes! 
Is Campbell a day 1 starter? 

I don’t think so. Maybe on the two deep. Kind of like Hayden Connor last year.

Starting true freshman OL, even five stars, is not a recipe for winning a lot of games. I think Banks may crack the starting lineup because the LT spot really is in that bad of shape. There should be enough at guard to have Campbell develop for a year though, barring big injury issues.
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Thx for this goes to @satyanash

IT:  Inside the gameplan: The 2022 O-line

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With the addition of Devon Campbell, Texas has put the finishing touches on what is probably the greatest O-line class in program history. Seven additions averaging 92.735 by On3’s rankings is a massive talent haul, even in today’s era of national recruiting. The Longhorns haven’t had a dominant line in league play in a long time, which is an easy point of differentiation between them and their rivals in Norman, who have dominated the league for most of its history.

Around 2002 with the hire of Kevin Wilson, Oklahoma transitioned from the pure Air Raid of Mike Leach and Mark Mangino to more of a spread run system. Since then, the Sooners have pretty regularly won the Big 12 while developing athletic linemen who went on to be drafted by the NFL. Meanwhile, since 2010 Texas has had just two linemen drafted: Connor Williams in 2018 and Sam Cosmi in 2021.

There’s more than one way to win football games, but superiority in the trenches is an obvious point of potential advantage for a blue blood program like Texas. Yet it’s not an advantage they’ve held in many seasons within the league. Their best units were probably the 2013 and 2018 units which combined effective run blocking with good tackles and pass protection. Those units were ironically made by adding lower ranked transfers Donald Hawkins and Calvin Anderson. This class marks a different approach for Texas.

Obviously the hope for the future is in having superiority due to the addition of all these recruits, but it generally takes a good while for freshman to find major roles on the offensive line. How is the line likely to shape up in 2022?

Strengths in 2022

By the end of the year the starting offensive line group went:

  • Christian Jones
  • Junior Angilau
  • Jake Majors
  • Tope Imade
  • Derek Kerstetter

This group proved pretty capable in the inside zone game preferred by Kyle Flood along with his predecessors under Tom Herman. Inside zone blocking is about controlling opponents and driving them off the line of scrimmage. With 6-foot-6, 340-pound Tope Imade and 6-foot-6, 319-pound Junior Angilau at guard and Majors setting them up with his combo blocks, the Longhorns were able to move people off the ball. They were also still effective at outside zone thanks to the unit’s mobility at tackle and center.

The other three main characters in the story of the 2021 line were Denzel Okafor, Andrej Karic, and Hayden Conner, two of which return and will likely become starters or have major roles.

The interior for 2022 is a little cleaner to project than the exterior. Angilau and Majors were good players in 2021 and should help establish an identity for the Texas offense in 2022. Hayden Conner was both one of the more talented linemen in 2021 as well as the Vitruvian man for Kyle Flood at 6-foot-5, 330 pounds. With his size and mobility it’s not hard for Conner to fix defensive linemen in his sights and then establish control and even drive them out of the picture. He was pretty effective in 2021 despite plainly being inexperienced on finding defenders and anticipating angles. He could make a leap in year two.

So the inside trio is likely to go:

  • Left guard: Junior Angilau, 6-foot-6, 320 pounds. Redshirt senior with 34 starts.
  • Center: Jake Majors, 6-foot-3, 310 pounds. Redshirt sophomore with 14 starts.
  • Right guard: Hayden Conner, 6-foot-5, 332 pounds. Sophomore with eight appearances as a freshman.

Tom Herman was never able to field an interior as big and effective as this one is likely to be in the inside zone game, nor did he have a running back like Bijan Robinson working behind it, although he recruited essentially all of the component parts.

In addition to being effective in the zone run game, as well as on “duo” and outside zone, this group is also a good fit for gap schemes. Junior Angilau is an effective puller and Conner looked comfortable on the move as well. Beyond the value of being able to run power and counter and attaching RPOs, this is important because of Steve Sarkisian’s love for running play-action with a pulling guard.

Texas didn’t have great tackle play in 2021, although Kerstetter was very solid in protection, and in the season’s definitive Red River Shootout game actually played an interior of Kerstetter-Majors-Angilau with Jones and Karic at tackle. They pulled Kerstetter on play-action to take a lot of their shots. Here’s how their 11 personnel protections look when they pull a guard:

image.png

One edge gets protected by a combination of the offensive tackle and the tight end, the other is addressed by the pulling guard. The linebacker blitz is handled by the double team (they don’t climb to the linebacker but they will combo to him if he blitzes) and the running back. The running back will look at the linebacker to the side he’s pretending to run toward and block him if he blitzes.

Between the run fake and the help on the edges, it’s a good scheme for setting up a longer throw without exposing the line to getting whipped by a top pass rushing end. When they aren’t in this protection and have to protect the quarterback more honestly, Texas’ edges will likely be more athletic than in 2021. But as of the end of 2021, Texas didn’t have anyone on campus or signed with the skill of Kerstetter.

Kerstetter was a stalwart right tackle who often drew some of the tougher assignments in protection. Christian Jones was improved at left tackle over his performance in 2020 as the right tackle but still had to be shielded from 1-on-1s against top edge rushers in 2021.

Andrej Karic is unquestionably one of the biggest question marks in spring practice. At times in 2021 he was pushing Jones at left tackle and he started at right tackle against Oklahoma in the RRS with mixed results. He’s one of the quicker players on the line as well as one of the scrappiest. With a strong offseason in the weight room and some added technique in pass protection it’s easy to imagine him as one of the team’s five best linemen. If he’s in the starting lineup, it’s probably at tackle.

Majors, Jones, and Angilau are all highly experienced veterans (22 starts for Jones) while Conner and Karic got regular action in 2021, so one of the biggest strengths for the overall unit is continuity in the system. Texas has a prospective starting five here who have played a lot of football and could be counted on to know how to execute a winning plan in the fall.

Question marks for 2022

The starting five listed above, which would probably go…

  • Left tackle: Christian Jones
  • Left guard: Junior Angilau
  • Center: Jake Majors
  • Right guard: Hayden Conner
  • Right tackle: Andrej Karic

…certainly has some question marks despite the high experience level. The biggest one is pass protections which don’t pull a guard to handle an edge, such as the sort you call on 3rd-and-6 when it’s obvious you’re not running the football.

What will a healthier and now highly experienced Jones be capable of in his fifth year in the program? How much of a leap can Karic make and is it of a great enough distance to make up for his lack of length? Is a healthier Jaylen Garth capable of disrupting the status quo and taking a job at right or left tackle? Don’t forget, Garth was one of the most promising tackle prospects Tom Herman ever signed before a knee injury derailed him.

This group should run the ball effectively and likely better than they did in 2021 in their first year within the expansive new system. Can they protect better? When you factor in the loss of Kerstetter they have to improve at tackle just to tread water on the edge.

The next big question concerns the wave of recruits coming to remake this position room in dramatic fashion. How quickly can the incoming players find the field? Let’s take it player by player. Kelvin Banks is a different sort of athlete and prospect than anyone currently on campus at the position. Jones might have similar length and size, perhaps even athleticism, but he didn’t even learn to kick step until he reached Austin and Banks is coming in with some high level reps. Unfortunately for Texas, he’s not on campus until for spring.

Cameron Williams is another sort of prospect altogether, with even more size and length than Banks and a similar bank of game reps in protecting quarterbacks. He’ll need to work on conditioning though and is also a summer enrollee. Neto Umeozulu is the other obvious tackle prospect of the incoming group with length and athleticism of the sort Texas previously struggled to recruit along the line. Umeozulu looks a bit less comfortable going backwards than Banks or Williams and is also a summer guy.

Malik Agbo, Devon Campbell, and Cole Hutson could all potentially play tackle because of their size (Agbo) or athleticism (Campbell) but are all likely to end up inside because of the three names in the above paragraph. Of these three, only Campbell has any great experience at tackle (Agbo played tackle and guard) and he’s also arriving in the summer. Connor Robertson is an interior guy all the way, he slid inside at Westlake this season to accommodate T.J. Shanahan playing right tackle and could be at his best sliding inside one more spot to center. We’ll find out when he arrives… after spring practice.

Of this massive and considerably talented class, only Cole Hutson is an early enrollee and his combination of upside inside and lack of experience in protection means he won’t be replacing Derek Kerstetter in 2022.

The hype around this O-line class will have many fans and commentators speculating on which of these guys will start in 2021 but it’s very difficult to start as a true freshman on the line. The 2021 Texas A&M Aggies ended up working true freshmen Reuben Fatheree (tackle) and Bryce Foster (center) into their starting lineup without the benefit of spring practice and both were subsequently named freshman All-Americans. The Aggies also struggled to protect their quarterbacks or move the ball consistently on offense.

It’s particularly hard to crack a starting lineup when the returning offensive line is experienced. The two names most commonly assumed to be in the running for starting jobs are Kelvin Banks and Devon Campbell, who are the best incoming athletes. But both of them have some mountains to climb. Campbell’s mountains are adjusting to playing guard in a new system and then Hayden Conner. Banks’ mountains are protecting the quarterback against top Edge rushers, of which the Big 12 has a fair few, and Andrej Karic.

For Banks the challenge is also not just that he needs to be ready to play at a competitive level, but that he needs to be a plus pass protector to justify a spot on the field. Texas doesn’t need an athletic tackle who may make assignment mistakes at times and has to be protected from tough pass-rushers. They already have tackles who are liable to be average or above average in run blocking and assignment soundness while potentially needing help against the likes of Will McDonald IV or Felix Anudike-Uzomah.

At the very least, Texas’ two-deep is guaranteed to be loaded with freshmen, which means we’ll certainly see freshmen on the field either in rotation or due to injuries. If one of these blue chip additions does see the field, it’ll be due to realized upside (probably at tackle) as the prospective spring starting five looks capable of playing winning football. There aren’t quick fixes on the offensive line, but Texas is on a steady trajectory to play well in 2022 and field a playoff-caliber unit in the years to come.

 

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Another Thx goes to @satyanash 

Sam Spiegelman: 5-star offensive lineman Devon Campbell is 'program-changer' for Texas

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Soft-spoken offensive lineman Devon Campbell has one of the meanest games of any player in the country. He now represents the future of Texas football. Campbell, a five-star offensive lineman, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average, signed with the Longhorns on Wednesday. Oklahoma was the other finalist for the mauler from the Dallas Metroplex.

Campbell, the No. 33 overall player in the country, caps a star-studded Longhorns haul along the offensive line this cycle that also features On3 five-star tackle Kelvin Banks as well as in-state four-stars Neto Umeozulu, Cameron Williams, Cole Hutson and Connor Robertson. The nation’s top-ranked interior offensive lineman, Campbell represents an immediate upgrade for Kyle Flood’s unit upfront as soon as he arrives on campus.

Flood spearheaded Texas’ efforts with one of the nation’s best maulers.

“Unlike a lot of people, Devon keeps to himself. He’s a soft-spoken kid. He keeps his circle small because he only likes people he trusts around, and I think that’s a great quality,” Arlington (Texas) Bowie head coach Joseph Sam told On3. “That’s how he handled his recruitment and the reason he chose Texas is because, throughout his recruitment that’s the school that truly tried to learn about him as a person and not just a football player.”

Flood lands ‘program-changer’

Sam was tabbed as Bowie’s coach before Campbell’s senior season. In true form, the On3 consensus five-star did not immediately embrace the new figure in his life. Sam worked at forging a relationship with him and even accompanied him on a few unofficial visits. Flood followed a similar blueprint and eventually cracked Campbell’s hard outer shell. The entire Longhorns staff followed suit, which resulted in a colossal win over rival Oklahoma on the recruiting trail.

“Coach Flood did an awesome job building a relationship with him outside of football and that goes for a lot of other coaches on the Texas staff, too,” Sam added. “He’s big on trusting you. They tried to learn about him outside of being a football player. Lots of coaches miss that on kids and they focus on the football side. They want to show how they can help you as a football player, but these guys talked about helping him as a person. Those guys took the time out to get to know him more as a person.”

“In the world of college football today where coaches are leaving left and right, whether they’re fired or pursuing better opportunities, the thing that gets lost is the relationship piece,” he continued. “Kids don’t go to a school because of a name. Devon went to Texas because of the people at the school.” In Campbell, Texas landed a top priority in what is a star-studded haul in the trenches. Flood’s stamp on the 2022 class is transparent and highlighted by Wednesday’s final addition.

“The No. 1 thing with Coach Flood is that he recruited him at Alabama and he wasn’t jumping in late. It wasn’t foreign to Devon when he took the job at Texas,” Sam said. “Flood loves how Devon plays the game, how explosive he is, the athlete he is. For Texas, he was priority No. 1. From a Texas standpoint, he’s a program-changer. They already signed a good offensive line class, but Devon is the alpha dog. They’re going to do a good job of holding each other accountable.”

Longhorns add OL with attitude

The 6-foot-4, 325-pound Campbell is the No. 1 interior lineman and No. 33 overall in the country. A dual-sport athlete and excellent basketball player capable of running the floor and finishing on the other end, Campbell possesses rare athleticism for the position paired with overwhelming power and agility. He’s a finisher that’s dominant in space and plays with a massive chip on his shoulder.

During the offseason, Campbell was excellent in 1-on-1s and can pass protect with the same tenacity he displays in the run game. He’s been used on both sides of the line, multiple spots from tackle inside to guard, and is equally impressive firing off the line and out-physicaling the opposition. He’s an immediate-impact blocker for most programs and certainly should be for Texas

 

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On 2/9/2022 at 10:59 AM, LTtxfan said:

Hayden Conner post: BrunchWithBigs - a bunch of Olineman & Bijan

10904995.jpeg?width=600&fit=bounds

 

Maybe Sawyer Goram-Welch moving to O-line ??

 

Talk on IT that Sawyer Goram-Welch may be moved to play on interior o-line this spring.   Probably have to do that during spring practices to help with depth issues on o-line.

Wonder if he changes from #91 to a new number ??

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12 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

 

Baylor goes from garbage to the best in the conference by grabbing a couple of linemen from the portal. We refuse to bring in o-linemen from the portal and are doing crap like this. This is why we will have a 6-win regular season in 2022. So much talent at the skill positions will be wasted. Sark will have no one to blame but himself when he gets fired. 

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3 hours ago, JFKFC said:

Baylor goes from garbage to the best in the conference by grabbing a couple of linemen from the portal. We refuse to bring in o-linemen from the portal and are doing crap like this. This is why we will have a 6-win regular season in 2022. So much talent at the skill positions will be wasted. Sark will have no one to blame but himself when he gets fired. 

Which lineman in the portal are obvious, walk-in starter day 1 upgrades? Names please. I've seen about 2 and neither had interest in Texas. Interest has to work both ways.

Baylor didn't win the conference because of the two OL they brought from the either. Neither of those guys even sniffed an All-Big 12 team. Their best OL was actually their LT who has been there for like 5 years. They won the conference because they had the best defense in the Big 12 led by NFL draft picks at all 3 levels.

OL is the hardest position to find in the portal. They aren't like WR's where the good ones at smaller schools have to move up for better QB play or exposure or whatever. The NFL finds those guys regardless of the conference they play in. 

Edited by Hookem2147
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15 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Which lineman in the portal are obvious, walk-in starter day 1 upgrades? Names please. I've seen about 2 and neither had interest in Texas. Interest has to work both ways.

Baylor didn't win the conference because of the two OL they brought from the either. Neither of those guys even sniffed an All-Big 12 team. Their best OL was actually their LT who has been there for like 5 years. They won the conference because they had the best defense in the Big 12 led by NFL draft picks at all 3 levels.

OL is the hardest position to find in the portal. They aren't like WR's where the good ones at smaller schools have to move up for better QB play or exposure or whatever. The NFL finds those guys regardless of the conference they play in. 

You’re wrong on just about everything you wrote here. They took a center from Buffalo who was honorable mention all-conference and he’s returning this year and will likely be all conference guy this year.
 

just off the top of my head, There have been multiple transfers from UVA, I believe 2 guys from WKU, and a guy who’s from Texas who transferred from Cal to OU. I’m sure there are others I’m not thinking of. 
 

We’re looking at starting Majors, who was fucking terrible last year at Center. The Baylor guy would’ve been a massive upgrade both years. We’re also planning to start Jones and a true freshman who isn’t an EE at OT. The bar for improving this OL is low. Anyone who says there wasn’t anyone in the portal who could help is full of shit or dumb enough to make our coaching staff look smart in comparison. 

Edited by Burt Macklin
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2 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

hey took a center form Buffalo who was honorable mention all-conference

If you have a pulse you make honorable mention all-conference

3 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

just off the top of my head, There have been multiple transfers from UVA, I believe 2 guys from WKU, and a guy who’s from Texas who transferred from to OU. I’m sure there are others I’m not thinking of. 

The guy who transferred to OU was a backup tackle at TCU who got moved to H-back this year. 

 

6 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

We’re looking at starting Majors, who was fucking terrible last year at Center. The Baylor guy would’ve been a massive upgrade both years. We’re also planning to start Jones and a true freshman who isn’t an EE at OT. The bar for improving this OL is low. Anyone who says there wasn’t anyone in the portal who could help is full of shit or dumb enough to make our coaching staff look smart in comparison. 

We were going to take portal guys until we started making headway on guys like Banks, Williams and Neto, who seemed like pipe dreams in late November. We took the long term play. Whether you agree or disagree is up to you. The OL played good enough to win in at least 3 or 4 of the games we lost last year. The unit got better as the season went along. I know as Texas fans we just have it engrained in our mind to say every OL sucks and can't improve because it's the way it's been the last 10 years, but players and units are allowed to get better. That's allowed in college football. Majors, Angilau, Conner and whoever we start at the tackle spots is a good enough line to win 9 or 10 games in the Big 12. 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Which lineman in the portal are obvious, walk-in starter day 1 upgrades? Names please. I've seen about 2 and neither had interest in Texas. Interest has to work both ways.

 

I have no idea which linemen in the portal are obvious starters. I don't get paid millions of taxpayer dollars to know this. Sark does.

If Baylor can turn their team around in a season by getting linemen from the portal, we can do it as well. We've gone through 2 offseasons with Sark not getting o-line starters through the portal.  

In regards to interest working both ways.....THAT IS SARK'S F*&^ING JOB. He has to close on quality linemen through the portal. No excuses. If he rolls out there with the same shitshow as last season, he has failed at his job. 

Again, Baylor did this. It worked for them. Then again, Baylor is much better than us at the 2 major sports so they obviously have better people in leadership roles in their athletics department. My God, I can't believe what I am typing is true. 

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2 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

If you have a pulse you make honorable mention all-conference

The guy who transferred to OU was a backup tackle at TCU who got moved to H-back this year. 

 

We were going to take portal guys until we started making headway on guys like Banks, Williams and Neto, who seemed like pipe dreams in late November. We took the long term play. Whether you agree or disagree is up to you. The OL played good enough to win in at least 3 or 4 of the games we lost last year. The unit got better as the season went along. I know as Texas fans we just have it engrained in our mind to say every OL sucks and can't improve because it's the way it's been the last 10 years, but players and units are allowed to get better. That's allowed in college football. Majors, Angilau, Conner and whoever we start at the tackle spots is a good enough line to win 9 or 10 games in the Big 12. 

 

 

The Baylor Center was good for them. Way better than Majors, and it wasn’t close. You brought up the wrong OU guy. I wasn’t talking about the TCU transfer. 
 

Anyone who actually watched us play knows we weren’t the 12th best run blocking line in the country. We put up some gaudy numbers against bad teams, but we wilted against every decent defense we faced. A lot of that was due to personnel issues, and we still have personnel issues this year. 
 

If you can’t see that the OL is the clear weakness of the offense and the staff hasn’t done enough to address immediate concerns last year and this year, then you’re just burying your head in the sand. 

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22 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

If you can’t see that the OL is the clear weakness of the offense and the staff hasn’t done enough to address immediate concerns last year and this year, then you’re just burying your head in the sand. 

They went out and signed 7 offensive lineman, including the best tackle and best guard in the country. They chose to take guysNeto and Cam Williams and Agbo instead of some rando second team All-Missouri valley guard or whoever the hell was available. They were faced with two options, pass or turn off quality high school players to try to band-aid this things through the portal, or pass on some portal players for skilled high school guys who will fix the OL room long term. In my opinion, they chose the right path and will get short term benefits too because Banks and Campbell can and will play early. If you don't think the staff addressed the OL room and that the unit will be better with another year under Flood, 3 multi-year starters and improved skill position and QB play, then you are just burying your head in the sand. Not that the bar has been set super high the last decade, but last year's OL play probably was in the middle of the pack of what we've seen the last 10 years or so.

I'm not saying they are Bama or Georgia or whoever, but they played good enough to win in a lot of the games this team last year. QB play and the defense let this team down way more than the OL.

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I understand wanting to add portal OL, but I just wanted to add good players. Didn’t matter if they came via high school, juco, portal or the rugby league in Australia. This team and the OL need good players. Adding a portal OL just for the sake of saying you added one does nothing to improve the play in the room. There’s a good chance Campbell and Banks are just as good in year 1, if not better, than the majority of the portal options out there. And we will get at least 3 years of them and Neto and Cam Williams.

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31 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

The Baylor Center was good for them. Way better than Majors, and it wasn’t close. You brought up the wrong OU guy. I wasn’t talking about the TCU transfer. 
 

Anyone who actually watched us play knows we weren’t the 12th best run blocking line in the country. We put up some gaudy numbers against bad teams, but we wilted against every decent defense we faced. A lot of that was due to personnel issues, and we still have personnel issues this year. 
 

If you can’t see that the OL is the clear weakness of the offense and the staff hasn’t done enough to address immediate concerns last year and this year, then you’re just burying your head in the sand. 

I think this is incorrect. Ran the ball on OSU, until they said "Fuck off, we dont think you throw us out of the Box". Ran the ball at least effectively in every game outside of Ark and ISU. That is with many defenses laughing at the Texas pass game. Hell, even Sark laughed at the Texas passing game in the KSU game. Now if you said that you dont think Texas has an OT to consistently block in the passing game, I would 100% agree. I think the run blocking is solid, not #12, but decent enough run blocking group. Bama still going to kick the shit out of them, but that is a different beast than what Texas will see throughout most the season 

 

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