OU Football 2015 Position Breakdown: Offensive Line
By Chip Rouse
We continue our by-position preseason look at OU football 2015 with a breakdown of the unsung position of the guys who operate in the trenches: the offensive line.
Outstanding college football offenses are not made from the guys throwing, running or catching the ball. They get all the headlines and most of the credit when things go well, but it’s the “big uglies in the trenches,” as former NFL broadcast analyst John Madden likes to call them – the guys up front who provide protection for the quarterback and open up holes for the ball carriers – who have the most to say about whether things are going well.
Nov 8, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners center Ty Darlington (56) during the game against the Baylor Bears at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Oklahoma led the Big 12 in rushing last season – music to the ears of head coach Bob Stoops, whose Job 1 notion on offense is too establish the run – and the prime reason for that was because the Sooners had the league’s, and one of the country’s, top offensive lines.
But the Sooners only return one of the five starters from last season’s offensive line in 2015. Another way to look at it is that the Sooner OL unit losses 144 career starts and returns just 28 career starts.
Gone from last year’s starting offensive line at Oklahoma are offensive tackles Tyrus Thompson and Daryl Williams, both First Team All-Big 12 selections a year ago, as well as guards Adam Shead and Dionte Savage. In 2014, the OU offensive line led the nation, yielding just nine quarterback sacks all season.
Williams was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the 4th round of the 2015 NFL Draft, and Thompson was a 6th-round pick by the Minnesota Vikings.
The Sooners have a recent history of assembling premier offensive lines. Since Bob Stoops assumed the coaching reins for the Sooners, five OU offensive lineman have gone in the first round of the NFL draft.
Senior center Ty Darlington will anchor the OU offensive line this season.
There will be open competition for the other four starting positions when fall practice starts up, although two of the four appear fairly set. Senior Nila Kasitati at right tackle and fellow senior Josiah St. John, from Toronto, Canada, is the likely starter at the all-important left tackle position.
The other likely starters on the offensive line for the Sooners in 2015 are junior-college transfer Jamal Danley at left guard and massive Derek Farniok, a 6-9, 329-pound senior, who is currently slotted at starting right tackle on the depth chart.
Those five probable Sooner OL starters average 6-5 and right at 300 pounds. So size might not be an issue for OU across the offensive front line, but depth and experience will be a big concern when you move beyond the five starters.
Oklahoma will go from having the best offensive line in the Big 12 in the 2014 season to midway back in the pack or further this coming season as a direct result of all of the departures from last season.
Phil Steele, in his annual college football preview, one of the bibles of college football, ranks the OU offensive line as the 5th best in the Big 12 for 2015. Athlon Sports dropped the Sooners all the way to 7th in its Big 12 unit rankings.
Bill Bedenbaugh is in his third season as the offensive line coach of the Sooners. OU has had its two best rushing seasons under Bob Stoops since Bedenbaugh joined the Sooner coaching staff in the 2013 season.