My biggest hope is somewhat confirmed by Coach Lanning during the post practice Q&A:

Q: How has the offensive lines pre-snap recognition improved over the past two seasons?

Lanning: "I mean, we had a really strong group a year ago, and I have a really, really strong group now."

I feel like Pancho is the key to this O-line due to Pickard being his backup. One injury to him and we get considerably softer up the middle.

I would say this group is stronger than last years.

I think they did a fantastic job applying bandaids to last year's group. But the reality is that last year's group had some fundamental weaknesses that were exposed against elite defensive lines that could reliably get pressure on Gabriel.

4 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

I would say this group is stronger than last years.

I think they did a fantastic job applying bandaids to last year's group. But the reality is that last year's group had some fundamental weaknesses that were exposed against elite defensive lines that could reliably get pressure on Gabriel.

Didn’t need elite matchups to get exposed, struggled mightily against Idaho and probably should have lost to Boise. OBD patched it together, to go 13-0…but what does this say about the average B1G team last year?

Personally I have little doubt this oline will be better.

Lanning obviously thinks this Oline is twice as good.

2 really's for this year, just one really for last year. Seriously though in listening to each of the coaches interviewed the past few days, I have really (just 1) gotten the impression that they love the entire team, offense and defense. I did not always get that impression last year.

Then again I always get excited about the team every year at this point in preseason practice.

1 hour ago, JabbaNoBargain said:

Didn’t need elite matchups to get exposed, struggled mightily against Idaho and probably should have lost to Boise. OBD patched it together, to go 13-0…but what does this say about the average B1G team last year?

Well Idaho was pre-band aid where they flipped some players around.

BSU they figured out the line rotation in the second half... But there were SOOOO many unforced errors that put that game in jeopardy.

The Herbert fumble followed by the Gabriel fumble (on the recovery of a bad handoff) was 14 points right there that kept the game close. Neither were offensive line problems.

7 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

Well Idaho was pre-band aid where they flipped some players around.

BSU they figured out the line rotation in the second half... But there were SOOOO many unforced errors that put that game in jeopardy.

The Herbert fumble followed by the Gabriel fumble (on the recovery of a bad handoff) was 14 points right there that kept the game close. Neither were offensive line problems.

We had 350 yards of total offense, averaged 3.0 ypc, had 9 penalties, and were 33% on 3rd down against BSU. That does not scream out good offensive line play imo. Just sayin.

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by JabbaNoBargain

1 hour ago, JabbaNoBargain said:

We had 350 yards of total offense, averaged 3.0 ypc, had 9 penalties, and were 33% on 3rd down against BSU. That does not scream out good offensive line play imo. Just sayin.

Didn't mean for it to sound like it was suddenly fixed vs BSU. But the effectiveness of the offensive line vs BSU in the second half was much improved over the first half.... Improved not good.

They figured out who should be in the lineup. It took another week for that line to start to truly gel as they looked decent to good against OSU and then two weeks later against UCLA it looked good.

It's a credit to the coaching staff that they could apply a bandaid like they did in the early season (and then later in the season with injuries) to make the line as effective as it was.

13-0 is super difficult and they managed to do it without having the strongest pieces of their offensive line available.

It's not how you start, but an entire body of work. A body of work where OBD went 13-0, the only P4 team to do so, and captured a B1G title.

Both OTs were drafted, Conerly in the 1st round and Cornelius in the 6th. The O-line was a finalist for the Joe Moore, best college O-line, award. The QB the line blocked for was a Heisman Trophy finalist. Give me this, please, season after season.

The Rose Bowl loss stings, but that was a perfect storm team effort from Dan Lanning down to the student managers, coupled with a since-eradicated horse bleep PO format.