A settled and productive offensive line!
This is the third in what I intend to be a series leading up to the new football season. So, with that intention stated, let’s get to my hopes for the Cougs this fall. Part 2 can be found here!
Dream 3: A settled and productive offensive line.
The Mike Leach teams put multiple offensive lineman into the first round of the NFL draft.
They just did. For whatever reason, Leach was able to recruit big, talented pass blockers who’s skills were absolutely elite, and who’s product allowed the likes of Luke Falk and Gardner Minshew to get comfortable and throw strikes all over the field.
The post-Leach years have not been so prolific up front. I think there is a pretty clear reason for this, beyond just ‘Leach recruited lineman better’. Mike Leach simplified the offensive line, and recruited unusual offensive lineman because of it.
While he called the occasional zone run play, the man didn’t care about a lineman’s ability to run block. Leach needed men the size of continents who could go backwards with intentionality and power. Behemoths who could move side to side, fight with their hands, and block up defenders who knew what everyone else in the stadium knew: we were about to throw the football.
This required size more than anything else. Physics says that the bigger you are, the more force it takes to move you. So when a 350 pound man puts himself between a defender and the quarterback it takes a truly special athlete to generate enough force to knock him out of the way. As a coach, I often worry about pass blockers becoming catchers’ mitts, because frankly, most people in the world are not built to absorb force like that.
Mike Leach found the people who could.
What is as surprising as these young men’s talent is the fact that they were willing to come to WSU. You would think that athletes of such unique talents would be in demand across the country. The fact that they typically weren’t is one of the underrated strategies of Leach’s system. The thing about men the size of continents is that while they can typically be taught to move backwards a few yards, or side to side a few yards, moving forwards (or genuinely running) is not something they excel at.
Unfortunately, running and forward movement are absolute necessities in most running schemes. If you want to run all but a select few running plays (Leach’s favored inside zone being a bit of an exception) you need lineman who can move forward with speed and athleticism. Who can pull and run five to fifteen yards at a time. Who can accelerate up through a hole, or win a race with a linebacker (given that they have a five yard head start). Mobility is a vital skill in the run game.
Most college football offensives, especially those run at the traditional powerhouses, demand lineman who can pass block and run block. But Mike Leach needed only one of those- therefore, he had his pick of the lineman big enough and talented enough to pass block without worrying overly much about their ability to run block.
Everyone thought that Leach’s scheme gave him an advantage in recruiting wide receivers and quarterbacks. Maybe it did. But the real recruiting advantage Leach’s tactics gave him was in recruiting lineman.
This has been evident on the field in the intervening years, but is an advantage WSU has given up. Whether it be to the Run n Shoot or the Lincon Riley-esque Air Raid, ever since Leach left town WSU has welcomed back the running game.
This isn’t a bad thing overall. There is a reason the Riley-style Air Raid is the most popular offense in college football. Throwing the ball like Leach, and running the ball simultaneously, is a potent attack. However, it does mean we need the kind of athletes up front that everyone else needs. There is no longer room in this house for athletes with the size and mobility of boulders.
So what is it going to take to achieve my third hope for the 2024 WSU football season, a productive offensive line?
Well, to be frank, the opponents are going to help. We will no longer consistently face the human anomalies that play defensive line at places like USC and Oregon. Last year the offensive line play was befuddled by these talents, with UCLA’s Laiatu Latu coming first to my mind. More than once I saw an offensive line given a schematic advantage lose anyway because they couldn’t execute their down blocks against talented opponents.
There are other, less pessimistic reasons to be hopeful for a productive season from boys up front though.
The first being consistency.
With Esa Pole, Christian Hilborn, Brock Dieu and Fa’alini Fa’amoe all returning this year, the Cougs will have four starters with significant experience coming back. In a position that requires such a diverse set of skills and techniques as well as an extensive understanding of rules, experience is vital and a great reason to be hopeful.
Furthermore- offensive line is a position where nothing is right unless all five guys are right. Offensive line athletes must know, trust, and be able to predict each other as much as anything else. The amount of continuity the 2024 Cougs expect is a great beginning.
Beyond that the 2024 Cougs have a new offensive line coach in Jared Kaster. Kaster replaces Clay McGuire, who you might recognize as a longtime Mike Leach assistant. Dickert brought McGuire back to Pullman after he got the permanent head coach job, but after two seasons McGuire chose to return to Texas Tech. Dickert has filled the spot with Kaster who, it’s not at all surprising to learn, played offensive line at Texas Tech. The Lubbock/Pullman connection seems to have well outlived its architect.
Jack Ellis/CougCenter
Kaster played offensive line quite productively under Kliff Kingsbury and stuck around after his eligibility was up as an assistant to learn his trade as an offensive line coach. Kingsbury’s offense isn’t quite as run heavy as Riley’s is, but it had more run plays than Leach did. So we’re shifting from a offensive line coach with a background in our old style of offensive line play, to one with a bit more history with what we’re running these days. Add in the fact that Kaster’s last offensive line helped Austin Peay average 152.7 rushing yards a game (as noted by our own Kevin Dudley) – a renewed emphasis on run blocking seems to be on the menu in 2024.
This is reflected in Dickert’s and Kaster’s comments to the Spokesman-Review this past spring. Dickert noted that “We feel great about the personnel right now. Technique wise, we’re a little murky…. there’s going to be some new things that we need to do. And I think some changes that I think are going to be really positive, especially in the run game.”
Kaster echoed Dickert’s emphasis on the run game saying, “We spend a lot more time in the run game fits than we do sometimes in pass, because you’re trying to correlate, and you’re trying to develop that sense of urgency and that culture of being physical.”
Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
This is a total shift in focus up front from where we were in our peak Mike Leach days, when we were pumping out NFL talent up front. A fact that in some ways seems concerning. Especially when you realize that much of that talent was in fact brought along by the offensive line coach who just left, and who’s practices Dickert and Kaster are talking about changing; the aforementioned Clay McGuire.
In his first go around in Pullman, McGuire coached NFLers like Joe Dahl, Cole Madison, and Andre Dillard. Not to mention two-time All-American Cody O’Connell. Thinking about it though, O’Connell’s career might be the best way to understand why the changes Kaster brings with him are necessary for the 2024 Cougs.
Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images
Despite being first team All-Pac-12 and a two time All-American, the six foot nine, 352-pound lineman (literally nicknamed ‘The Continent”) never had any kind of run at the NFL level. Despite being exceptionally talented and productive in Mike Leach’s system, he had little more than a cup of coffee with the Kansas City Chiefs post WSU. A fact that says nothing about him, and everything about what NFL offenses ask of their offensive lineman.
At WSU, we’re now asking for those same things from our guys up front. Which might explain why McGuire’s second stint in Pullman was not as successful as his first. However with the hiring of Kaster, the veteran status of so many of our projected starters, and a new slate of opponents, there are a lot of reasons to be hopeful that 2024 is the year the Cougar offensive line settles in to the new(ish) demands and is the foundation of a highly productive offense.