Positional Grading: Offensive Line

One in a series of posts evaluating each position's performance during the 2010 regular season and speculating about what lies ahead in 2011. I realize that these positions are obviously interconnected, but for the purposes of this series, my projections are based solely on the talent at the position, not those other positions which will impact it.

There should probably be a bronze statue of Toby Gerhart outside Stanford Stadium, and Andrew Luck is the best college quarterback I've ever seen, but they both had the tremendous fortune of playing behind one of the best offensive lines in football over the past two seasons.

From tackle to tackle, Jonathan Martin, Andrew Phillips, Chase Beeler, David DeCastro, and Derek Hall have been nearly flawless this season, and a key reason why the team won eleven games and sent its quarterback on a trip to New York City last weekend.  (Of course, perhaps the greatest individual accomplishment by any of these linemen has been job Phillips has done while dealing with the death of his father in a plane crash last August.  If you haven't read Austin Murphy's piece on the Phillips family in last week's Sports Illustrated, read it now.) 

There are a few things going on here, and the first is probably the most obvious.  Each man is a walking eclipse.  Center Chase Beeler is the baby of the bunch at 6'3" and 285 pounds, but he was good enough to be named consensus All-American.  His four linemates are all either 6'5" or 6'6" and tip the scales above 300 pounds.  Size matters.

But you know what else matters?  Experience.  Take a peek at this:

	2010 Starts	Career Starts
Martin	12	23
Phillips	12	35
Beeler	12	31
DeCastro	12	25
Hall	12	12

So when you start with size, throw in some coaching, get the good fortune of health, and add in dozens of games of experience, you get a dominant offensive line.  The statistics bear this out.  The line paved the way for more than 2,500 rushing yards in 2010, quickly quieting any whispers that the offense would take a step back after losing Gerhart to the NFL, and they did an excellent job protecting the quarterback.  They allowed only five sacks, tied for first in the nation with Air Force, a running team that threw the ball only 145 times in twelve games.  

Beyond that, they made only a handful of mistakes.  Offensive linemen are usually only noticed for two things, false starts and holding penalties, and the Cardinal linemen weren't noticed for those errors very often.  Proof:

	False Start	Holding
Sac State	2	0
UCLA	0	0
Wake	0	0
Notre Dame	1	1
Oregon	2	1
USC	2	0
Wash State	1	3
UW	0	0
Arizona	1	2
Arizona State	0	0
Cal	0	0
Oregon State	0	0

That's a total of 16 penalties in 12 games, which is phenomenal.

All of that is nice, but none of it is as fun as the James McGillicuddy story.  A senior offensive guard hopelessly trapped behind a line of Lou Gehrigs, McGillicuddy ditched his #74 jersey to squeeze into #40 and pose as a fullback when Harbaugh wanted more meat in the game.  Harbaugh loves to run power plays behind an unbalanced offensive line, sometimes stacking two blocking tight ends on one side.  With McGillicuddy shuffling out of the backfield and down the line, the running back is essentially running behind eight offensive lineman.  It's great that McGillicuddy has gotten to play, but nothing would make me happier than to see him catch a pass in the Orange Bowl.  Fingers crossed.

Sadly, though, all of this will have to come to an end soon.  The Orange Bowl will be the final game in the careers of Beeler, Phillips, and Hall, leaving only Martin and DeCastro returning next year.  (Along with Beeler, Martin and DeCastro were both named All-Pac-10, so it's not like the cupboard will be completely bare.)  There is also a fair amount of youth on the depth chart and a four-star recruit who should contribute in 2012 or '13.  Maybe the biggest thing going in Stanford's favor is the presence of offensive line coach Tim Drevno who molded the current group.  He's done it once, so I've got confidence that he can do it again.

• 2010 Performance: A+
• 2011 Outlook: B-

Comments

[Stanfan]

I would like to hear more about who will be replacing Beeler,Phillips and Hall. My sense is that we have some outstanding guys who will step in and step up...the cupboard is full. I believe it will be like "replacing" Toby...new guys, same result.

[Hank]

It would be difficult to project a depth chart for next season, or even a starting lineup, simply because offensive linemen tend to be shuffled from one spot to another. All-American center Chase Beeler, for instance, was playing guard two years ago. The line spots aren't all the same, obviously, so in some cases the coaching staff will choose the most talented lineman, in others it will be the one who has the specific skill set desired for a certain spot. I don't think we'll know what to expect from the offensive line until spring ball gets going. The good news, though, is that we have talented coaches and talented, intelligent players. That's always a good recipe.

[stanfan]

I agree there is no way to really project the starting lineup...but it's still fun to do it. So, how about LT Martin, LG Bentler, C DeCastro, RG Wilkes, RT Mabry? Also in the mix, Danser, Schwartzstein, Bonnell and Yankey. Seriously good talent, but obviously short of the current group's experience. I think our O line is going to be much better than B- next year. I say B+ to A-.

[cardfan]

If our young talent can come in and perform at the level that Martin and DeCastro did as redshirt freshmen - or, alternatively, if our replacement talent can step in and perform as well as Hall - I think our O line should be fine.

[steve]

I've posted this elsewhere before, but Matt Kopa, Chris Marinelli, Ben Muth, and Alex Fletcher were as talented or more so than Beeler, Hall, and Phillips. Each was replaced by a player who made all-conference that year. Beeler, Martin, and DeCastro are the only linemen who have spent their entire Stanford career in the Harbaugh system and all three of them made first-team all conference.

Stanford builds from the line out and the coaching is fantastic. They will be reloading the offensive line, not rebuilding.

The 2007 team was throwing Tyrone McGraw, Corey Gatewood, and Jason Evans out at running back and the offensive line was still a big difference between 1 win and 4.

In 2008, they allowed only 21 sacks with Tavita Pritchard under center (compare to 50 in '06 and 48 in '07) and given the talent on the rest of the offense might have already been the best line in the conference. We all know about '09 and '10.

There is no reason to believe that the offensive line, returning DeCastro and Martin and likely to average 6'5/300 again won't be the best in the conference. 2010 Outlook: A+

[John O]

We have been able to consistently replace offensive linemen the last couple seasons and not miss a beat. Granted, we have usually only needed to replace one, but lets also be real - Hall was the weakest of the O-Linemen, and DeCastro and Martin were the best. We have also recruited very well at the position, have redshirted basically all of our O-Line recruits and have tremendous line coaches. We will be solid next year.