SEC Debate: Better for your line, a bookend tackle or intelligent center?

Offensive line play is often higher in the SEC than any other conference in the nation, thanks in large part to the conference’s strength at two positions in particular: left tackle and center.

The SEC has produced more than its fair share of NFL talent at those two positions in recent years, and those players have been the anchors of some of the SEC’s best offensive lines. A bookend left tackle will keep a quarterback’s blindside safe and secure, which goes a long way toward enhancing a team’s passing offense.

A savvy, intelligent center, however, can read an opposing defense’s formation, make line calls and shift protections pre-snap to ensure as much security as possible for an offense on a given play.

Both are vital pieces to any offensive line, but is one more important than the other? In honor of Offensive Line Week at SDS, we asked our staff members that very question.

Which would your rather have anchoring your offensive line: a bookend left tackle or an elite center?

Here’s how they responded:

Jon Cooper (@JonSDS): Center

This isn’t the NFL, and therefore, I’d take an intelligent center. Obviously, I’d take a bookend left tackle at the next level. However, a center recognizing blitzes and making protection calls at the line of scrimmage is invaluable in college. Give me Reese Dismukes or Dillon Day at center instead of an awesome left tackle any day.

Brad Crawford: (@BCrawfordSDS): Tackle

Give me the left tackle all day since he’s protecting my franchise player, often the quarterback. Not only can he keep a team’s pocket passer upright, but sealing the edge on a key third-and-short is another crucial element to his game. The most important position up front (at least in my opinion), a cornerstone left tackle is key to any high-powered offense.

Ethan Levine (@EthanLevineSDS): Center

The exodus of star quarterbacks like Johnny Manziel, A.J. McCarron, Zach Mettenberger, etc. — coupled with the rise of tailbacks like Georgia’s Nick Chubb or Arkansas’ tandem of Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins — has turned the SEC into as run-happy a conference as there is among the Power 5 leagues. As a result, I’d rather have a brilliant center organizing my entire line and maximizing my protections on every play. A left tackle is vital, but it’s a position more geared toward pass protection, not run blocking. A center can energize and organize an entire line when it comes to run blocking, and an organized line is always going to succeed more than a talented group of individuals lacking chemistry.

Christopher Smith (@CSmithSDS): Center

We’re talking SEC football here, right? The league now features quarterbacks like Nick Marshall, Blake Sims, Maty Mauk, Dak Prescott, Josh Dobbs… athletic, mobile players who are more than capable of tucking and running, or avoiding trouble. As much talent as the league sees on both sides of the line of scrimmage, I’d settle for adequate at left tackle if it means I get one of the best centers in the league. Look at what Georgia did last season with David Andrews, or Alabama’s terrific line with Barrett Jones a few years ago. I’d rather have my entire line executing the correct assignment, protect the integrity of the interior pocket and bulldoze defensive tackles off the line of scrimmage.

Brett Weisband (@WeisbandSDS): Tackle

With today’s increasingly pass-happy game, every team is looking for a dominant edge rusher, a la Jadeveon Clowney. If you don’t have a someone who can take those freaks one on one, it can bend your entire defense. Sending double- or even triple-teams at one pass rusher opens up all kinds of issues for the rest of the offense: single coverage against other defensive players, having to keep a running back in protection and so on. When you have someone like Laremy Tunsil or Cam Robinson, a player that can handle any type of pass rusher all by themselves, it makes life easier on the offensive coordinator and the rest of the line.

Ethan Levine

A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.