Today’s blog starts my in-depth look at my NCAA Experience Chart. For 8 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 San Jose St is the top team in the country with 125 career starts returning on the offensive line. Tennessee came in at #2 with 111 starts.  In at #3 is Auburn who has 103 career OL starts returning. Memphis is #4 at 103. 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 Bowling Green. Their ypg rush did slightly lower from 180 ypg rush and just 4.6 ypc to 181 ypg rush and 4.3 ypc. Also their pass production went down from 367 ypg to 226 ypg but the sacks allowed had a huge drop from 36 down to 25.

At the bottom of the list is Arkansas St with just 2 career starts returning. San Diego St has just 14 career starts back and Utah St has 16. This is usually a good indicator that a line 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.