SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic ranks the conference's top offensive lines for 2020
It’s tough for most analysts to accurately grade or evaluate the offensive line position. While that’s true, Cole Cubelic is not your average college football analyst.
The former Auburn offensive lineman has been working for the SEC Network for a number of years and in addition to his duties serving as a sideline analyst in the fall and as a radio host throughout the entire year in Alabama, Cubelic will often share video clips and highlights featuring the players on the field that typically get the least amount of respect.
While offensive linemen may not receive much love from the casual fan, true football fans know the offensive line is the most important position when it comes to consistent success on the football field.
With that in mind, Cubelic shared his thoughts on the SEC’s best offensive lines heading into the 2020 season.
In addition to his top five rankings, we’ve listed out the returning starters for each group as well as notable offseason additions for the coming season.
#1 Alabama
Returning starters: LT Alex Leatherwood (Sr.), C Landon Dickerson (Sr.), RG Deonte Brown (Sr.), RT Evan Neal (Soph.)
#2 Tennessee
Returning starters: LT Wanya Morris (Soph.), LG Trey Smith (Sr.), C Brandon Kennedy (Sr.), RG Jerome Carvin (Jr.), RT Darnell Wright (Soph.)
Transfer addition: Cade Mays from Georgia *Mays’ eligibility status for 2020 remains unknown.
#3 Kentucky
Returning starters: LT Landon Young (Sr.), C Drake Jackson (Sr.), Luke Fortner (Sr.), RT Darian Kinnard (Jr.)
#4 Georgia
Returning starters: C Trey Hill (Jr.), RG Ben Cleveland (Sr.)
#5 Florida
Returning starters: LT Stone Forsythe (Sr.), C Brett Heggie (Sr.), RT Jean Delance (Sr.)
Transfer addition: Stewart Reese graduate transfer from Mississippi State.
I think Kentucky should be #1. I’m not biased at all.
I agree… At worse UK should be #2.
Crazy to possibly think that UK is undersold here. That O-line will be special, and is special, we already know what they can do.
Agree with the cats here, Trey Smith only plays one position at a time
i honestly don’t know much about the cats O line but we are loaded and if Mays is cleared will be the best in the sec in my opinion but guess we need to play the games and see.
If you’re loaded then you have development problems. I was about to say UT’s OL was middle of the pack last year until I actually googled it.
2019 OL ranked 113 by PFF.
So… returning starters isn’t really a “pro” in your case.
For reference:
“Without Smith, the Volunteers’ overall grades plummet and look just downright awful on the offensive line. Collectively, they ranked 124th in pass-blocking grade and 76th in run-blocking grade, all but undoing a great season by Smith, who finished as the 14th highest-graded guard in the country.“
Guess that depends on what you think of morris and Wright. They had hits and missed but they were true freshmen thrown into the fray out of necessity. I guess it’s possible they could have the same hits and misses but I doubt it. They will both likely be much better and will benefit from depth we didn’t have much of last season.
Part of the poor pass rush grade was the Quarterback holding the ball too long.
Interesting that, other than the ever present Bama, these are all East teams. Dunno that much about everyone’s o line but 5 seems high for a UF squad that couldn’t run block last year
5 is very high for a poor line from last year. Too high. Just because weak players become SRs doesn’t mean they’re going to be great. I think a line that replaces below average upper classmen with very talented Fr and Sophs have more upside than a tm that returns a lot of SRs who have been very weak.
If Mays is eligible then Tennessee will start 4 former 5 star players and a fifth year senior who was a former 4 star, all with starting experience. That doesn’t guarantee success, but it is a good place to start.
If Cade Mays gets eligibility then Tenn has the number 1 line. Not just based on 4 of them being former 5 star players, but on actual production. Also deep proven backups. Every single starter wouldl have a legit chance to be 1st or 2nd team All-SEC. Trey Smith is flat out pound for pound the best linemen in the league. And he doest even practice. So bring on the trolls. It’s hard to argue this one. At least my Vols will have an offensive line that can go with any D-line in the SEC. Now we just need a steady QB
You can put infinitely more faith in Cole Cubelic’s assessment than anything by Pro Football Focus. Many PFF analysts are British and Irish statisticians who have never played a down of American football… and often didn’t even start watching American football until they started working for PFF.
The biggest flaw with PFF scores is the failure to adequately account for quality of competition. PFF considers an 80% player grade against, say, the Citadel, identical to an 80% grade against, say, Alabama.
The second flaw, which is a lot more significant than it might seem, is that PFF graders cannot easily infer intent or assignments on the plays they grade. This is particularly problematic on pass plays, when an interception thrown by a quarterback could be due to the receiver breaking the wrong way. Or when a receiver slows down imperceptibly on a deep ball, or extends his arms too soon, making it look like the ball was overthrown. When a defensive line stunts the blocking assignments change, but a grader doesn’t necessarily know how they change.
No less than Bill Belichik has criticized PFF, saying that when he and his staff watch film of their own team, they often don’t who screwed up on a play until they talk to the players.
The third flaw is that in forecasts, PFF fails to account for year over year improvement based upon experience. This is probably not as significant in the NFL after the rookie year, but experience is a very big deal in college. Other factors being equal, a Group of 5 team populated with lots of 3-star seniors can be very competitive against a Power 5 team with a starting lineup full of elite 4-star sophomores.
Experience is particularly important with offensive lines, where blocking schemes and line of scrimmage assignment changes can be quite complex. In pass blocking, being familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the guy next to you can be a big deal too.
In looking back at 2019 LSU, a lot is made of all the players they had drafted. Counting undrafted free agents, 19 LSU players from the 2019 team signed NFL contracts in 2020. But when you look past the total, it turns out that 10 of those guys — including Joe Burrow — were 4th and 5th year seniors. No wonder they were so good.
UF has had very weak lines the past few years. Now we’re supposed to believe their line will be elite simply because weak O-Linemen becomes SRs?? Gators would be lucky to have a top 10 SEC line. Sure they could improve but so will lines with more talented players.
Agreed. An often overlooked factor (in any context, not just UF) is the the defensive linemen they got beat by last year are also gaining a year of experience.
I would argue that offensive linemen gain more from experience than defensive linemen do.
And Cubelic has the Gators at number five. Which SEC line that is not rated ahead of them by Cubelic will clearly be better?
If I had your offensive linemen I would certainly echo that argument Nash, lol.
I’d go with WarbuzzardU and aTm, gators probably 7th
Well Leghumper, I guess that’s why they make chocolate and vanilla.
G52…bingo