Alabama consistently has one of the best offensive lines in the Southeastern Conference and this year is no exception.

The national narrative surrounding the SEC’s geographic recruiting footprint simply states that the league has an advantage because of “all of the talent” in the region. But in digging into the Crimson Tide’s offensive line, and then looking at the inconsistent offensive line play around the league at other programs, shows you that that may be an incorrect narrative when it comes to the big uglies up front specifically.

There’s a theory in our line of work that it’s wise for programs located in the Southeast to recruit nationally or at least out-of-region on the offensive line. There’s no hard data that shows that offensive line prospects from the Southeast bust out at a high rate (the position is highly developmental and there are busts at the spot everywhere), but in looking at Bama specifically, the success they’ve had in Tuscaloosa does lend credence to the theory.

Indeed in a stroke of genius (as if they needed anymore great recruiting ideas in Tuscaloosa), Alabama has assembled the league’s best offensive front by going beyond the Southeast for top talent. The Tide’s current three-deep has 15 offensive linemen that hail from 10 different states (three from the state of Alabama), including the non-SEC states of California, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio and Virginia.

The starting five hails from five different states including Cam Robinson (Louisiana), Ross Pierschbacher (Iowa), Ryan Kelly (Ohio), Alphonse Taylor (Alabama) and Dominick Jackson (California).

In the 2016 cycle, the wide net has continued to be cast. The four offensive line prospects are from four different states, including California and Connecticut, in addition to SEC footprint states Alabama and Texas.

Crimson Tide offensive line coach Mario Cristobal has been the driving force behind this assembly of talent from across the country. His reputation as one of the country’s best on the recruiting trail is well-deserved when you consider the scope of what Alabama has accomplished at this position since he’s been in Tuscaloosa.

Perhaps no other offensive line coach in the country has accomplished what Cristobal has been able to do in terms of assembling this group and continuing to assemble this group and the on-field product speaks for itself.