Here is an article from the spring:
Tho
http://tennessee.247sports.com/Article/Spring-Primer-Tennessee-Vols-football-offensive-line-36285200I learned a few thing from that. One, we had 4 full time starters coming back(Jackson, Crowder, Kerbyson, and Robertson) and one half time starter (meaning he started 5 games last year) in Thomas. It's nice that we basically had 4.5 seasons of starting time coming back.
Jackson is out, so that's down to 3.5. Of course, I have heard repeatedly "he wasn't that good anyway", but that article seems to be a rough ranking. Newsflash...none of our guys were that good last year! In losing Jackson, we lose our most experienced starter (17 games total) and one the author of that article apparently felt was our second best guy coming back. It's a big hit no matter how you slice it. It doesn't mean we are doomed or that our OL will be anywhere near as bad as last year, but at the very least it costs us depth and at worst it will take his replacement a few games we cannot afford to get it together.
Having said that, there are two guys (Wiesman and Kendrick) that have at least started two games each. On that site, they are essentially listed as the 6th and 7th guys in the lineup. Last year, our FREAKING STARTERS only had one more game than those two together. Thus in spite of the loss of Jackson we are far, far better off this year. How much better is the $64,000 question.
Speaking of talent, every one of the top 6 remaining guys on that list was a 3 star. Ratings are not perfect, but they didn't come in highly rated. It's unlikely that every single one of them will exceed their rating, so likely we will need a newcomer or two to step up, whether that's someone red shirted last year or a true frosh.
And on that note, our three most experienced guys are seniors. I thought we were younger across the board than that, with perhaps only one senior. If there is a silver lining in losing Jackson, it's that he won't be around next year anyway, so we might as well get someone else experience (unless he qualifies for a hardship, because he has already red shirted).
We are still in much better shape than last year at this time, and of course Dobbs being mobile helps tremendously, but losing Jackson is not trivial and it's critical that a couple younger guys step up. I will be pleasantly surprised if a true frosh or two contributes significantly or even breaks the starting lineup, because that gives us consistency for the years ahead.
