twballgame9 {l Wrote}:innocentbystander {l Wrote}:... the 2014 BC team had the best "drive/run blocking" offensive line I have ever seen at Boston College. Perhaps not any one of them (on the 2014 line) were as individually as good as Chris Snee, Trueblood, Pete Kendall, Damien Woody, or a certain lineman from Foxboro High School who completely dominated me at football camp all summer long (someone who I was stuck going head-to-head against all week because I was the top nose tackle at camp) who later went to play for the Denver Broncos, but the whole of that 2014 line was far-far greater than the sum of its parts.
Oh, and I don't want this one to slip through the cracks. Looking at the season rushing stats and concluding that this was one of the best offensive lines in BC history, as if they were pounding it between the tackles to great success, as they had done the year before with Andre Williams, is nonsense. BC ran a spread option with TEs at WR blocking on the perimeter, and had the bulk of their rushing success with speed on the perimeter - the QB (the leading rusher 1184, 6.5 per carry) outside, the back up RB Willis (459 yards at 5.2 per carry) who was used almost exclusively in the spread and the slot receiver Alston (352 on 10.4 yards per carry). Those three guys went for 1995 yards (60% of the yards) at a 6.5 yard per carry clip, primarily by getting to the perimeter quickly in the speed option or jet sweeps.
On the other hand, when BC pounded it between the tackles the remaining <40% (1103 yards), with Hilliman and Outlow running behind the greatest drive/run blocking team in BC history, they ground out 4.1 yards per carry.
BC was successful running the ball in 2014 because of speed, not the offensive line. That line was decent.
Good work though, the box score shows 3000+ rushing yards, line must have been great, right?
The line was great. Outstanding. In 2014, they had all that rushing production with true frosh tailbacks and WITHOUT Andre Williams. In 2015, they had zilch for rushing production with the exact same tailbacks they had in 2014 (and all their speed, they STILL have some of them.) The main difference, all 5 offensive linemen from 2014 graduated.