Joel Erickson at al.com is apparently doing a position breakdown on Malzahn's offense. Posted one on the WR's last week and today, he has one up on the offensive linemen. Nothing earth shattering. Just good to see an emphasis on getting these guys physically ready to kick ass in this league. The line class AU signed last season was rated second only to Stanford's. The unique thing to me was that all of the signees were in that 6'5" to 6'7" range. Tall and long with the potential to add a lot of size. How nice would it be to have most everyone across the O-line coming in at around 6'6" and 310+?
copper-pasties al.com
AUBURN, Alabama -- Auburn has plenty of depth and youth on the offensive line, an asset a lot of teams would like to have, although the Tigers still haven't seen most of those linemen reach the potential that made them highly-rated coming out of high school.
For much of the 2012 season, Auburn's offensive line struggled, particularly against the talented linemen of the SEC. From a schematic standpoint, the offensive line likely will not have to shift that much, although the technique could change. New offensive line coach J.B. Grimes faces the task of building an offensive line nasty enough to lead the physical, downhill running game that Gus Malzahn and Rhett Lashlee want. "We want big, physical offensive linemen," Grimes said. "What we're looking for are those good, big, fast offensive linemen, and we feel like we can recruit those guys at Auburn."
The shift from Scot Loeffler's pro-style attack to the hurry-up, no-huddle offense is going to require Auburn's offensive line to block many of the same plays; the power, the counter, the inside zone and wide zone are all staple running plays in most offenses, and Auburn's line tinkered with the zone read last season, although the Tigers didn't run it much.
Playing in the hurry-up, no-huddle, though, requires a better-conditioned offensive line. At the pace Malzahn and Lashlee want to play, Auburn's offensive line can't be the kind of player who has a lot of size but not a lot of athleticism.
Part of that comes from new strength and conditioning coach Ryan Russell, who tailors his workout program to improve a player's size and strength while also forcing them to get better at endurance and rapid recovery from play to play. "You've got to be a physical guy, but you also need to be athletic and fast, because of the speed of how fast you play," Grimes said.
Grimes may hold the key to Auburn's offensive line. The Tigers return starters in left tackle Greg Robinson, guard Chad Slade, center Reese Dismukes and right tackles Patrick Miller and Avery Young, as well as junior college guard Devonte Danzey. The key is to take that talent -- more than 50 starts return to the group as a whole -- and mold it into a line that can pave the way for Malzahn and Lashlee's attack.
"He's as good as anyone I've ever seen or been around at just the fundamentals of his position," Lashlee said. "We're going to have guys that technique-wise know what they're doing. They're going to be physical, they're going to have great pad level, all those things that make a guy with the right talent a great player, he can give it to them."
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