| 09 June 2009
Anybody want to speculate on how the season would have gone with better offensive line play? I saw a national championship run before the season. I stand by the statement I made last year at this time that we should have the best offensive line of the Tressel era last year. That line underperformed. Why I think that happened is another conversation. Think about how veteran that line was. Alot of starts between Boone, Rehring, Cordle and Person. It was a line who had impressive offer lists coming out of high school. Between experience and projected talent there was every reason for the optimism that a number of pundits had in addition to myself. This year I am even more convinced that the line will be better.
I like the core. I like the core alot. I think Brewster with Boren on one side and either Browning or Cordle on the other is the strongest middle of the line we have seen since since Adrian Clarke, Alex Stephanovich and Bryce Bishop in 2002. I think it is arguably the best since the '96 team with Kurt Murphy, Rob Murphy and LeShun Daniels. Cordle was not a great center but he became a very good guard. I think Browning could be an even better guard than Cordle and likely will get the chance with the odds of Cordle starting at right tackle, at least for the first few games, being quite high. The question is at both tackle spots. I think we saw Mike Adams step up mentally. He has always had enormous physical potential. He is a rare physical specimen. He needed to get tougher. I think we saw that happen right in front of our eyes. He went from a player who halfway through spring practice looked like he was going to sit behind a throw-in former tight end, to pitching a shutout against some very good defensive linemen by the time the spring game came around. On the other side I am still not convinced about Cordle. You just don't see guards handling pass blocking well out there in space at tackle but I am confident he will be better than Browning. We saw how important tackles can be last year. So many things went wrong because Browning was such a liability. I think with solid play out of right tackle we will see a world of difference in line play this fall.
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