OL Depth | Who the Sooners Have Up Front for 2017

Starters:

  1. Left Tackle       Orlando Brown    6’8″ 340 Junior.
  2. Left Guard       Ben Powers          6’4″ 315 Junior or            2A. Cody Ford 6’4″ 343  Sophomore
  3. Center               Erick Wren           6’1″ 306 Senior
  4. Right Guard    Dru Samia            6’5″  302 Junior
  5. Right Tackle    Bobby Evans        6’4″  312 Sophomore

Averages 6’5″ 315

Key Reserves:

Either Ben or Cody start at LG.  I expect both to play a lot this year.  This speaks volumes to how BNB feels about Samia, because rotating in at RG isn’t even a conversation right now.

7. Jonathan Alvarez C, LG, RG     6’3″ 306 Senior     8. Creed Humphrey C, LG, RG 6’4″ 310 Freshman     9. Erik Swenson 6’5″ 315 RS-FR  10. Marquis Hayes 6’5″ 345 11.  Adrian Ealy 6’6″ 297

 

To start the season this could be the best offensive line the Sooners have had in years in terms of quality of starters as well as immediate depth.  The versatility here is off the charts.

Scenario #1

If your LT goes down (I won’t mention his name because it’s bad juju):

Then you go bump Evans to LT, Ben or Cody at LG, Wren at C, Ben or Cody at RG and Dru Samia at RT where he has played before.

Scenario # 2

Either guard gets hurt.  Plug in Ben or Cody

Scenario #3

Center gets hurt.  Plug in Alvarez or Creed

I could go on and on here but the reality of it here is that barring injury, your top 7 pieces are all guys if you’re Bill Bedenbaugh whom you trust and have all started in big time games for you and who have all performed at a high level.  Your ability to keep guys sharp, and keep them hungry is enhanced.  Let’s say you get pulled in the 2nd or 3rd quarter, your family and your mind are questioning why you got pulled.  My family would be kickin my butt and they did if I got pulled.  A few of these guys come from similar families.  My OL coach always used to say:

“Don’t make me not need you.”  “Make it to where I can’t live without you.”

In the past if a starter went down you may have had someone get forced in there who wasn’t ready.  They even tried Brody Eldridge at center in 2009.  The good news is that while you’re extremely talented up front here, you’re also very deep.   Little to no drop off occurs in case of rotation or if you just want to pull a guy over and talk to them for a possession and get their attention.  There’s also a guy like Dwayne Orso over there who’s supremely talented and athletic at 6’5″ 328  who they’re waiting for the light to get turned on.

Finally while these young bucks like  Swenson, Ealy, Humphrey, Hayes & Robinson, they’re competing for playing time not only this year, but trying to earn Coach B’s trust for next year.  In 2018 you still have: (Just me Speculating)

LT:  Bobby Evans

LG: Cody Ford

C:  Creed Humphrey

RG: Ben Powers

RT: Dru Samia

So if you’re a young buck coming in like these guys or even a Tramonda Moore who wants to come in and win a spot anywhere across the front, you still have a load of really good guys in 2018 as well.  You also can’t count out a guy like Brey Walker or Darrell Simpson coming in and competing right away in 2018 either.  Don’t think for a minute that Coach B isn’t using the depth and commitments as motivation for getting everywhere on time.  That’s how you earn trust.  Weights, Meetings, Film, Class etc.  You earn the trust every day.  Every play, every day.  Sooners are stocked with talent on the OL for a while to come.