Alabama Fooball: Where Do the Kouandjio Brothers Fit on the Offensive Line?

The words Arie and Cyrus can be found deep in human history.  Plug those in a search engine and you'll find references to ancient mythology, star charts, jewish history and astrology.  But alas the thousands of years of human history have now given way to The Kouandjio brothers and Myle Cyrus.

The unprecedented saga that was the 2011 national signing day ended Saturday for Kouandjio and the Crimson Tide with his signing and faxing of a letter of intent to Alabama.

By now you've heard all about his recruitment,  but where does Cyrus and his famous brother Arie fit in to Alabama's offensive line?

To answer that we have to review three facts:

1. Alabama did not run block well in 2010

2. Alabama has a new offensive line coach

3. 90% of the human race is right handed.

Fact number one is obvious.  When a Heisman Trophy winning running back struggles to get 50 yards a game you know you're having issues.

With the arrival of new offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland he may have a few different ideas on alignments.  Plus every player will start with a clean slate with a new coach.

Fact number three may need some explanation.  Most people are right handed.  That includes most quarterbacks and running backs.  

A right handed quarterback faces his right when he's getting ready to pass.  Which means he can't see anything to his left.  The point was made beautifully by the opening sequence of the movie "The Blind Side".  

Teft tackle needs to be a superior pass protector.  Any failure on his part can result in the quarterback getting hit when he's not prepared and unable to defend himself.  Such things tend to end badly for the offense.

Running backs on the other hand want to always keep the ball in the arm facing the sideline.  So if the ball is knocked loose it stands a greater chance of bouncing harmlessly out of bounds.  Most impacts are going to come from the field side as well reducing the overall chance of an impact that will dislodge the ball if its in the outside arm.  With that in mind many backs are more comfortable running to the right.

Thus the design of the standard offensive line is as follows:

Better pass blockers to the left,  better power run blockers to the right.

The left tackle is the star,  he's got to be big and strong enough to run block,  but agile enough to handle speed rushers.

The Right Tackle has to be similar, but he can be more of a power run blocker and doesn't have to be quite as good a pass blocker.

The Left guard has to be a good pass blocker too but all guards must be large, strong and powerful.  

They have to be able to dislodge or control the biggest defensive tackles and absorb the impacts of stunting middle linebackers.

The center is generally a short but unnaturally strong, nasty individual who can manage to snap the ball perfectly while absorbing a blow from a massive defensive lineman a half second later.  Due to his central location he has to make the line calls too so he must be intelligent.  Intelligent and nasty is hard to find,  Fortunately for Alabama they have a master in senior William Vlachos.

Cyrus Kouandjio is a prototypical left tackle type and Alabama badly needed him.   Alabama's starting left tackle the last two seasons graduated and with the recruitment of jr college lineman Aaron Douglas to come in and compete for or win the job it's clear the long term answer was not obvious to the staff. 

Douglas however will be eligible for the NFL draft in a year so if he wins the job and has a great year Alabama may lose him. If that does happen Alabama will need Cyrus to be ready.

There are other tackles on campus.  Both senior Alfred McCullough and junior Tyler Love have experience, but neither appears to be a top flight player at this point.  While its not unusual for a player to dramatically improve as an upper classmen,  the staff only has past performance to go on when planning for the future.

During the recruitment of Cyrus Kouandjio the issue of his brother came up.  If Cyrus signs with Alabama does that put his older brother Arie out of a job?

The answer is no.  Arie has impressed alabama coaches since arriving on campus a year ago.  He redshirted this year but its clear that his future was bright at Alabama no matter where his brother went.  He is also a different kind of player.

He's not quite as tall as Cyrus and was not reviewed to be quite as nimble.  But he's powerful, and has gotten bigger since arriving in Tuscaloosa.  Arie will most likely compete at right guard and tackle.  Both spots have established starters right now.  

Barrett Jones is a solid starter at right guard and DJ Fluker is at right tackle.  Alabama lost both players for multiple games in 2011 and their replacements played well, but not well enough.  Arie could be the primary backup at both spots this year.  

Additionally Jones could move to left guard and Arie could start in his spot.  That would mean pushing last years starter Chance Warmack to the 2nd team.  I have no reason to predict such a thing except for items one and two above.

Alabama didn't run the ball well last  year,  They have a new coach in town.  And Nick Saban isn't going to stand by and watch Trent Richardson struggle to get 50 yards a game.  

All that means the current starters are going to have to step up their game significantly or be prepared for realignment and experimentation. 

That experimentation may begin in earnest this spring without Cyrus around.  But make no mistake.  Cyrus was signed to be our starting left tackle of the future.  I believe that future is bright and it looks much better in Crimson and White than Orange and Blue.

As for the rest of us.  We could all use Eli Gold to teach us exactly how you pronounce the name Kouandjio.   Either that or we need a nickname for the massive brothers from Maryland.  I'll leave that up to the collective wisdom of fools that is the internet.