Longhorn Offensive Line....Better Or Worse Than 2009?

After Ndamukong Suh ripped Colt McCoy a new one is the Big 12 Championship game, one of the biggest holes in the Longhorns offense was exposed.  The Texas offensive line was unable to protect the QB and may have been the primary reason for the sub par running game that has been plaguing the horn's since the departure of Jamaal Charles.  Think about it Colt got hurt 3 out of four year behind the Texas o-line.  Is it possible that Texas wasn't as deep at the line of scrimmage as previously thought?  Well, little known fact that the Longhorn have lost 5 top recruits at the o-line position mainly due to grades.  In fact the 2006 class lost 3 of their 4 offensive lineman.  This humongous loss has truly weakened Greg Davis' ability to enact a strong running game.

2008's o-line with Dockery and crew was able to protect McCoy without much interruption, but this year both Nebraska and Alabama took advantage of the weakness in the front five which proved to be very costly.  Most people want to focus on the running game because it is flashy and easily measured but evaluating a offensive line is only easy if they are doing horribly (see the 2009 Oklahoma o-line).  Since seniors Chris Hall (C), Charlie Tanner (G), and Adam Ulatoski (T) are all gone who will set up and replace them?  Well Mack Brown is looking at David Snow (C), Michael Huey (G), Kyle Hix (T), Tray Allen (T) to be the lead candidates for the top of the depth chart in 2010.  In addition to these four the 5 star Mason Walters and 4 stars Thomas Ascraft, and Garrett Porter all appear to be ready to step up from the 2009 recruiting class.  Brown has stated that even the two 4 star linemen he just signed in the 2010 recruiting class also have potential.  Both Dominic Espinosa and Trey Hopkins have the size and talent to not only support the offensive line in 2010 as quality back ups but may also get a chance to start.  Brown traditionally tends to redshirt incoming freshman lineman but has been very vocal before, during, and after the recruiting process about these two individual player.  Last year people criticized Brown for not redshirting Gilbert but as it turns out he made the right call (can you imagine what Harris would have done against Alabama?), and hopefully we'll be saying the same thing in a year about Hopkins and Espinosa too.  This new o-line need to step up and facilitate the running game by opening a few holes for Newton or Whitaker or McGee or Johnson so that Texas can have a more balanced offense and most of all protect Gilbert so he does not suffer the same injuries as Colt did.  Knock on wood.