The SEC is a line of scrimmage league.

That’s good news and bad news for several conference teams.

While the conference boasts great talent among the skill players, the conference’s foundation is built on elite trench play. Great offensive and defensive linemen make or break championship hopes in virtually every conference in football. Being built from the inside out is what coaches preach in the SEC.

Phil Steele recently published the combined starts of offensive and defensive linemen in the conference. Auburn, which returns 113 career offensive line starts and 68 defensive line starts, has the most combined starts with 181. That’s 31 more starts the second most team, Mississippi State, which has 150.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alabama and Tennessee return the fewest, two teams in completely opposite situations. The Crimson Tide are expected to compete for a College Football Playoff spot, while Tennessee is in the midst of another rebuilding year. The Vols return just 14 combined starts. That’s been well documented.

Here’s a look at the combined starts of both offensive and defensive linemen for 2014, via Phil Steele:

Overall Rank Team OL Career Starts OL Rank DL Career Starts DL Rank Combined Starts
4 Auburn 113 9 68 14 181
10 Miss State 81 39 69 12 150
23 Ole Miss 61 67 74 9 135
25 S. Carolina 113 9 20 103 133
27 Texas A&M 89 29 43 47 132
46 Kentucky 74 46 40 53 114
50 Missouri 72 51 39 54 111
69 Vanderbilt 83 36 17 105 100
72 Florida 66 60 33 69 99
72 LSU 75 44 24 94 99
87 Arkansas 51 86 33 69 84
98 Georgia 54 81 24 94 78
123 Alabama 37 107 15 111 52
128 Tennessee 6 128 8 124 14