PFF just ranked the Fighting Irish OL as the best in college football.
Link to the list.
1. Notre Dame
Despite the losses of Ronnie Stanley and Nick Martin to the NFL draft, I believe the Irish will have the premier college offensive line in 2016. Led by Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson, Notre Dame has the talent to be a dominant group.
I recently took a trip to South Bend to watch practice and workouts and was amazed by offensive line coach Harry Hiestand’s efforts to use the “KISS” formula. Keeping it short and simple is what the Irish o-line looks to do, and they do it well. Using an old-school style of running off the ball blended with a modern style zone blocking allows the Notre Dame line to utilize their talent up front to create seams for their talented ball carriers.
Their favorite play — the “outside zone” — is a prime example. The offensive line looks to reach the defenders and if unable, they use the defense’s momentum against them and continue to run the defender creating those seams for the backs. Notre Dame had +61.6 run block rating and +18.1 pass block rating in 2015 and I have no doubt they will be among the top in both categories this season.
2. Stanford
3. Appalachian State
4. USC
5. LSU
6. Washington State
7. Indiana
8. Auburn
9. West Virginia
Led by PFF’s highest-graded returning center in Tyler Orlosky, West Virginia returns a veteran group of linemen who had positive grades in PFF data. The offensive line helped West Virginia’s offense put up some great numbers in Dana Holgorsen System. Holgorsen runs an offense similar to Mike Leech at Washington State as he is an “Air Raid” disciple, but he does protect his offensive line with more slide protections while also running the ball more. West Virginia will even line up in power formations and run the ball. The Mountaineers favor zone blocking and they are effective at taking advantage of the defense playing pass first.
10. Florida State
Link to the list.
1. Notre Dame
Despite the losses of Ronnie Stanley and Nick Martin to the NFL draft, I believe the Irish will have the premier college offensive line in 2016. Led by Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson, Notre Dame has the talent to be a dominant group.
I recently took a trip to South Bend to watch practice and workouts and was amazed by offensive line coach Harry Hiestand’s efforts to use the “KISS” formula. Keeping it short and simple is what the Irish o-line looks to do, and they do it well. Using an old-school style of running off the ball blended with a modern style zone blocking allows the Notre Dame line to utilize their talent up front to create seams for their talented ball carriers.
Their favorite play — the “outside zone” — is a prime example. The offensive line looks to reach the defenders and if unable, they use the defense’s momentum against them and continue to run the defender creating those seams for the backs. Notre Dame had +61.6 run block rating and +18.1 pass block rating in 2015 and I have no doubt they will be among the top in both categories this season.
2. Stanford
3. Appalachian State
4. USC
5. LSU
6. Washington State
7. Indiana
8. Auburn
9. West Virginia
Led by PFF’s highest-graded returning center in Tyler Orlosky, West Virginia returns a veteran group of linemen who had positive grades in PFF data. The offensive line helped West Virginia’s offense put up some great numbers in Dana Holgorsen System. Holgorsen runs an offense similar to Mike Leech at Washington State as he is an “Air Raid” disciple, but he does protect his offensive line with more slide protections while also running the ball more. West Virginia will even line up in power formations and run the ball. The Mountaineers favor zone blocking and they are effective at taking advantage of the defense playing pass first.
10. Florida State
