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Offensive line and the Move Down theory
Written by Duane Long   
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 11:57
[quote=dumbme]Big Man, I have asked this question before and did not get a response.  Tressel is not retarded, so what is the thought process from his perspective?[/quote]


So much of it is about keeping down the dead weight. At every other position on the field, even quarterback to a certain extent, there is the possibility of moving a player to another position. Football is such a physical game so we think of strength so much but it is a game built around speed and quickness. That is never more apparent than with recruiting. Some schools, especially those in the south, built recruiting around the "move down" theory. Most schools now subscribe to it to some degree or another. Corners move down to safety, safeties move down to linebacker, linebackers move down to defensive end, defensive ends move to defensive tackle and defensive tackles move to the offensive line. All of it built around speed and quickness. The slowest guys on any football team are offensive linemen. That is why offensive line is referred to as the "last stop." Often players are recruited with the expectation that they are going to move down right away. Others move down because they get bigger and/or slower. A good example of that is Darrion Scott. He came here as an LB. In a couple of years he was a defensive end. By the time he left Ohio State he was a defensive tackle. He just kept getting bigger. There was no anticipation that he would do that. It just happened. Other times it is a matter of a player not finding his place on the roster. He is not moving up the depth chart. Move him somewhere else and see if he can find his game. Most of the time that ends up being futile but there is a chance a player can find a position. Think about Tim Cheatwood, the all-time move down champion. He played about 5 positions here before finding himself being a contributor at defensive end. That can't happen with offensive linemen. There is nowhere to move them except the bench. No chance to get something out of that scholarship.We have at times had more safeties on the roster than offensive linemen. We currently have 11 scholarship linebackers on the roster to 13 scholarship offensive linemen. I understand the thinking. It has a sound basis but I think that is something you have to accept with offensive linemen. To get the depth you are going to have to accept some dead weight on your roster.

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Comments (8)Add Comment
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written by Oswald, July 07, 2009
Good observations, Duane. One similar thought that I had the other day regarding O-Linemen. If a safety or linebacker prospect does not turn out to be "starter" grade, he can still contribute on special teams. But if an O-lineman is a bust, how else does he contribute (other than practice/scout team fodder). Another reason to be a bit more conservative in your approach to recruiting O-linemen.
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written by edbuck51, July 07, 2009
Loved T.Cheatwood. Saw him in a high school championship game in Massilon and was always a fan. He did move around a lot, but always seemed to make plays when he was in the game. Would love to know what he's doing these days.
MOVING DOWN...
written by dbuckeye44, July 07, 2009
An excellent analysis however as it relates specifically to OL herein lies a challenge. At tOSU it seems we very seldom recruit a true OG (other than Linsley who might wind up at DL). Why is that? Do they think that OTs can move down to OGs? And getting this depth is a real challenge as prospects tend to look at those at their positions one and two years ahead of them. As an outstanding OT how would you like to look at Adams, Shugart, Mewhort, Hall, Longo and Norwell ahead of you. We would quite fortunate to recruit Brewster, an OT, who could play center and Mewhort was of course a center. If we were to get James, Donnal and/or the lad from Maryland next year would be very hard to recruit quality OTs. I know that it never works out perfectly but it would seem we should look to take two OTs and two other OL comprised of two OGs or one OG and one C every year. Your thoughts Duane?
re:
written by Jim, July 07, 2009
Good observations, Duane. One similar thought that I had the other day regarding O-Linemen. If a safety or linebacker prospect does not turn out to be "starter" grade, he can still contribute on special teams. But if an O-lineman is a bust, how else does he contribute (other than practice/scout team fodder). Another reason to be a bit more conservative in your approach to recruiting O-linemen.


Great post by Duane and an excellent point in this comment to add to it.
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written by a guest, July 07, 2009
Awesom post
a timely treatise
written by drjeff1010, July 07, 2009
I was just looking at the boards and noticed again that we were slim at OT. Enter your discussion of the Move Down theory...excellent explanation. I do agree with the above about OGs. We were blessed by the addition of Boren. We can not depend on this type of thing normally...so what gives?

One other item: isn't blocking an art form (almost). I read about some OLs being good pass blockers or run blockers. Doesn't it take a while to develop these techniques?
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written by TheMinnesotaBuckeye, July 07, 2009
Duane, do the Southern teams very often move kids from the d-line to the o-line -- and recruit high numbers for the d-line with that in mind?
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written by MacAuley, July 07, 2009
This column got me wondering...with an 85 scholarship limit, what is the ideal distribution of scholarships among positions?

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