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Underappreciated All-Stars – Offensive Line Edition: vs. Hawaii

Football is often referred to as the ultimate team sport, yet we often only focus on a handful of players as the key to a recent victory, and even among those players we only recognize a handful of plays. In reality, there are countless numbers of players and unseen plays that are absolutely crucial to a team’s success, yet these rarely receive the recognition their play deserves. Every facet of the game has these underappreciated all-stars, and this column seeks to recognize them. After every Aggie game, we’ll take a look back, win or loss, at the unheralded players responsible for Utah State’s success. These are the Underappreciated All-Stars.

It’s time we take a look at Utah State’s offensive line. The numbers already show USU’s prowess in the trenches, as the Aggies average 5.2 yards per carry (20th in the nation) and have allowed only 1.0 sacks per game (11th in the nation). The advanced stats are even more amazing for USU, with the line allowing a 2.4 percent sack rate in all non-garbage time pass attempts (fifth in the nation, according to Football Outsiders). In standard downs (1st-and-10, 2nd-and-7 or shorter, 3rd-and-4 and shorter, or 4th-and-4 and shorter), that sack rate remains at 2.4 percent (17th in the nation, according to Football Outsiders), and on passing downs (the opposite of standard downs, so longer than 1st-and-10, 2nd-and-8 or longer, etc.), USU’s sack rate remains steadfast at 2.4 percent (sixth in the nation, according to Football Outsiders).

If you got lost in that shmorgishborg of stats and parenthesis, the gist is that Utah State’s offensive line is really damn good. And that showed in Hawaii in multitudes. USU scored a total of seven rushing touchdowns, equaling or surpassing seven FBS teams’ season total. It was nothing short of a dominating performance, and serves as an excellent starting point for examining the offensive line’s play, not just versus Hawaii, but for the entire season.

Let’s start at Hawaii, though, with the first of RB Gerold Bright’s three rushing touchdowns on the night.

An overlooked aspect of offensive line play is athleticism. Just like a mobile quarterback allows you to alter launch angles and stretch the defense, a mobile offensive line allows a greater range of schemes for rushing plays. Instead of simply running in a straight line between the tackles, an athletic offensive line allows for a team to deploy their best blockers in a multitude of area and angles on the field. Here, all three of Quin Ficklin, Rob Castaneda, and Roman Andrus are all able to move laterally to the right immediately after the snap and seal the edge for Bright to turn the corner and waltz into the endzone.

Bright’s game-sealing touchdown versus Air Force showcases another example of the line’s ability to maintain physicality and stay on blocks while moving laterally.

This athleticism displays frequently in Utah State’s use of pull-style blocks. A pull block refers to a player crossing over the formation immediately following the snap to make a block. The easiest examples are that of USU’s three tight ends: Dax Raymond, Carson Terrell, and Travis Boman. That trio’s combination of size and athleticism is extremely rare. Raymond lists at 6-foot-5 and 250 lbs, and Terrell and Boman are both listed at 6-foot-4 and 245 lbs. USU frequently deploys the group as a freakish strain of hyper-speed offensive linemen, to devastating effect. The most frequent of examples takes place in many of the Aggies’ short-yardage situations this season. Jordan Love has five rushing touchdowns on the season, with none coming from further than two yards out, and all coming on a read-option play. Defenses know that option is coming near the goalline, but are largely incapable of preventing its success.

The ability of USU’s tight ends to jump across formation immediately at the snap to take out the linebacker or defensive end guarding the option is a major reason for the play’s repeated success. And I mean repeated.

Over and over again.

It isn’t only the tight ends responsible for these types of pull-blocks, however. USU frequently pulls guards across formation in the same manner, and success still follows. The 65-yard TD run from Darwin Thompson versus Tennessee Tech is a prime example.

The sideline view doesn’t do this play justice. From behind USU’s endzone, however, the work of the offensive line is blatantly apparent. There’s some complex blocking assignments going on here, and it’s definitive proof of the work put in by this offensive line, as well as the coaching staff’s trust in them to make the correct play. Junior Moroni Iniguez is the pulling guard on this play, but his assignment is a linebacker a the second level of the defense when the ball is snapped. Raymond and Andrus are responsible for collapsing the defensive line down to the right, joining Ficklin and senior Sean Taylor in sealing that side of the lane for Thompson. Freshman left tackle Alfred Edwards jumps to the second level after the snap, getting enough of a block on the linebacker for Thompson to burst through into the secondary. Complex blocking scheme. Near-perfect execution.

Utah State has a unique combination of strength and athleticism up front this season. Defenses are constantly stretched by the need to cover the perimeter to prevent USU from sealing an edge, but also needing to stack the box to counter USU’s strength up the middle. Having to worry about Love and a dynamic passing attack makes matters even worse. That inability for a defense to focus on a single threat can lead to the line overwhelming a defensive front, such as against Hawaii.

Both Bright and Thompson are adept at picking up yardage after contact, but oftentimes, this line removes the need for the duo to showcase their elusiveness. A run up the middle inside the 10-yard line is not supposed to look this easy. Bright picks up about four yards before a defender can even lay a hand on him, by which time Bright has worked up enough speed and momentum to plow into the end zone.

USU’s skill players are dynamic and lethal this season, capable of taking any reception or carry for a touchdown if given the space to do so, and this offensive line has proven more than capable of providing that space, like Castaneda did on this Bright TD versus Hawaii.

Utah State is in the midst of an offensive explosion. The Aggies are averaging over 50 points per game this season, nearly 20 more points per game than a season ago. A lot of that credit is due to USU’s impressive collection of talent at the skill positions, but those skill players don’t look nearly as threatening, and this offense wouldn’t be nearly as explosive, without the stupendous play of this offensive line. The big guys up front are the engine for the rest of the offense, and this season, they’ve been firing on all cylinders.

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