The Football Brainiacs

Image via Sooner Sports

With spring football starting on Saturday, we figured now was as good a time as any to preview where things stand with this Oklahoma football program. Coming off a disappointing loss in last year’s CFB playoff and returning 14 total starters, there will be no shortage of expectations for this 2016 squad. The plan is to preview things by position group, both as to where things stand in the spring and project how things might play out later this fall. So let’s get started.

The Sooners offensive line will be a young unit in 2016, this much we know. Orlando Brown and Dru Samia both return at tackle after starting thirteen and nine games respectively last year. However the interior of OU’s offensive line, which struggled times in 2015 keeping guys out of gaps, is pretty much up for grabs with the expected move of Jonathan Alvarez from guard to center. The hope being that between Alvarez and two new starters at guard, OU is able to upgrade in terms of lateral quickness and overall athleticism.

It goes without saying there will be opportunities for guys to fight for spots throughout the spring and likely into the fall as well. But going into the spring, we are told the lineup is as follows:

LT: Orlando Brown, with Bobby Evans working behind him.

LG: Cody Ford. We haven’t heard who is in the rotation behind him but it could likely be Ashton Julious.

C: Jonathan Alvarez, with walk-on Erick Wren behind him followed by freshman Logan Roberson.

RG: Jamal Danley, followed by January enrollee JUCO OL, Ben Powers.

RT: Dru Samia, followed by Christian Daimler and Dwayne Orso.

– I should note that Samia has been taking some reps at left guard, however we’ve been told this has only been within the 3-deep and may simply be a situation where they are ensuring ample depth at the position. Similar to the way they gave Nila Kasitati some reps at tackle last year, but he never actually played there in a game.