Today’s blog starts my in-depth look at my NCAA Experience Chart. For 9 years I had listed an experience chart, which broke down the number of seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen each team, had in the two deep and rated the teams experience level with a formula I devised. In 2009, I made the experience chart FIVE TIMES better by adding new categories like Career Starts on Offensive line, % of Offensive Yards returning, % of Defensive Yards returning and % of lettermen returning.
Today I will look at the number of career starts returning for offensive lineman. When most judge a team for the upcoming season they look at the QB, RB and WR’s that are returning. A few may take the time to look at star defensive players that are back (those with a lot of sacks or interceptions). However, very few look at the offensive line and yet the team that controls the line of scrimmage wins the game more often than not.
This year Oregon is the top team in the country with 153 career starts returning on the offensive line. ULM came in at #2 with 132 starts. In at #3 is Louisiana who has 131 career OL starts returning. Texas Tech is #4 at 115. If you purchase my magazine you will get my complete ratings on each offensive line as I look at last years production, size, talent and cohesiveness on top of the career starts.
Last year the #1 most experienced Offensive Line belonged to Wisconsin. Their ypg rush went up from 223 ypg rush and just 5.0 ypc in ’17 to 273 ypg rush and 6.2 ypc last year. Their pass production went down from 192 ypg to 158 ypg but the sacks allowed raised a few from from 21 to 24.
At the bottom of the list is Utah St with just 15 career starts returning. Navy has just 23 career starts back and Florida and Oklahoma are tied with 24. This is usually a good indicator that the Oline will struggle some especially early in the year.
Here are the rankings for all 130 teams with regards to Career OL Starts Returning. The number in the ( )’s after the team name is where they rank in their conference.
Thursday we will look at 2019 % of Yards Returning.
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