Offensive Line Index

Written By - Lennie Mac

Georgia Tech's offensive line has a perception among GT fans as being one of the elite lines in the country. Is it? Let's take a look.

There are three major responsibilities for the offensive line:
- open up running lanes for the ground game
- keep the QB's jersey clean
- dominate time of possession

A team with a good offensive line is going to do all three of those things well.

So we ranked all 66 BCS teams in three categories that correspond directly to these responsibilities:

Yards per rush - Any team can hand it off 40 times a game and amass yards, but that doesn’t mean the line is opening holes. Yards per carry, however, is a solid indicator of the job an offensive line is doing to clear a path for its ballcarriers.

Negative pass plays - Quarterbacks with poor pass protection are more likely to be sacked. They’re also more likely to be forced into making bad passes – passes that result in interceptions. We count both sacks and INTs as a percentage of total pass plays.

Time of possession - Duh.

What these rankings will look like is the ranking among those three categories one through 66. We'll add up all three to see who had the best o-line in 2006.

Rankings are listed as (yards per carry-time of possession-negative pass play %)

1. Texas A&M - 8-1-5 Total 14
2. Louisville - 7-13-6 Total 26
3. Rutgers - 12-7-8 Total 27
4. Ohio State - 16-16-10 Total 42
5. Texas - 22-10-14 Total 46
6. Oklahoma - 20-8-19 Total 47
7. LSU - 11-22-15 Total 48
8. USC - 35-14-2 Total 51
9. Florida - 13-11-29 Total 53
9. Nebraska - 26-4-23 Total 53
11. California - 9-44-4 Total 57
12. Michigan - 29-2-30 Total 61
13. West Virginia - 1-24-38 Total 63
14. Oregon - 6-51-7 Total 64
15. South Carolina - 18-26-28 Total 72
16. Oklahoma State - 5-49-22 Total 76
17. Clemson - 3-56-18 Total 77
17. Penn State - 28-36-13 Total 77
19. Arkansas - 2-52-24 Total 78
19. Notre Dame - 43-18-17 Total 78
21. Kansas - 10-19-50 Total 79
21. Texas Tech - 15-63-1 Total 79
23. Wisconsin - 37-3-46 Total 86
24. Boston College - 56-20-11 Total 87
25. Alabama - 50-5-33 Total 88
26. Washington St. - 36-30-27 Total 93
27. Missouri - 30-62-3 Total 95
28. Georgia Tech - 25-28-43 Total 96
28. Minnesota - 27-53-16 Total 96
30. Arizona State - 21-17-60 Total 98
30. UCLA - 41-37-20 Total 98
32. Purdue - 23-64-12 Total 99
33. Vanderbilt - 14-50-37 Total 101
33. Oregon State - 52-9-40 Total 101
35. Connecticut - 17-29-57 Total 103
36. Indiana - 53-32-21 Total 106
37. Georgia - 38-35-35 Total 108
37. Maryland - 46-31-31 Total 108
39. Michigan State - 34-39-36 Total 109
39. NC State - 44-40-25 Total 109
41. Wake Forest - 40-27-44 Total 111
41. Miami - 51-15-45 Total 111
43. Washington - 45-42-26 Total 113
43. Tennessee - 47-57-9 Total 113
45. Auburn - 31-23-63 Total 117
46. Illinois - 4-58-58 Total 120
46. Northwestern - 32-33-55 Total 120
48. Kentucky - 59-21-41 Total 121
49. Cincinnati - 55-6-61 Total 122
50. Pittsburgh - 39-55-32 Total 126
51. Colorado - 19-46-62 Total 127
52. Iowa - 24-65-39 - Total 128
52. South Florida - 42-38-48 Total 128
52. Arizona - 64-12-52 Total 128
55. Florida State - 54-45-34 Total 133
56. Kansas State - 33-66-47 Total 146
57. North Carolina - 49-54-49 Total 152
58. Mississippi State - 62-41-51 Total 154
58. Duke - 63-25-66 Total 154
60. Mississippi - 48-48-59 Total 155
60. Virginia Tech - 58-43-54 Total 155
62. Syracuse - 60-34-64 Total 158
63. Iowa State - 61-47-56 Total 164
64. Baylor - 66-61-42 Total 169
65. Virginia - 57-60-53 Total 170
66. Stanford - 65-59-65 Total 189

For the record, GT's yards per carry was 4.32 ypc, their time of possession was 29:51 and their percentage of negative pass plays was 9.72%.

Obviously, a bad QB (i.e. Reggie Ball) will take more sacks and throw more interceptions than a good QB, so playing with a bad QB hurts an offensive line's ranking.

Besides looking at 7 of the top 12 teams played in the BCS, was how weak the ACC schools were on the offensive line. Georgia Tech ranked third in the ACC.

One final note, there were only two teams that GT's defense could not stop, Clemson and West Virginia. Clemson had the best O-Line in the ACC (3rd in ypc) and West Virginia was 13th (1st in ypc). If GT's defense couldn't blitz, they would be on their heels.