USU football fall camp diaries: Offensive line

Fall camp signifies the long-awaited start to the college football season for programs around the nation. The start of it means there is only a few more weeks before meaningful games start showing up on the schedule and teams start to reveal how strong — or poor in some cases — they might be. But the time in-between serves as a necessary window to get back into game-shape and for coaches to sort out the athletes that will eventually end up on the top of the depth chart. 

Utah State football opened its fall camp just a few days ago on Thursday, August 1. Saturday came as the first day the players were able to put on pads, and Monday will be the first with full contact. A major question heading into the season for Utah State, like any program, is how will the unknown quantities come to be a part of the week-to-week gameplan, how well will they perform? For Utah State, this aspect of the team looks very promising. 

Last season, the Aggies had four all-conference offensive linemen on the roster, but all four have graduated. The one returning starter is sophomore Alfred Edwards, who spent the majority of his time last year at left-tackle. Naturally, this position comes as a question mark heading into next season. But, to its credit, Utah State has been incredible in recruiting over the past couple of years. And although young, there is plenty of talent currently on the roster. 

First-year offensive coordinator Mike Sanford Jr. had a lot of positive things to say about his guys on the line. 

“I think each one of those guys really has the care factor that this program’s been built over the last decade,” he said. “I think the other thing that’s really fun to watch, is some of the guys that you didn’t expect to be in the starting lineup — or maybe even cracking the two deep — some of those guys are starting to kinda play really well.”

The overwhelming majority of those guys have only been with the program for a short amount of time. Only three of 15 players on the depth chart at one of the offensive line positions are upperclassmen. But, again, Utah State has recruited smart and efficiently, only bringing in players that can fit a fast-paced dynamic offense. According to 247sports, two of the top six recruits in USU football history are offensive linemen signed in the past two years.

“Long gone is the day and age of us recruiting 330-350 pound offensive lineman. Really we want great athletes, it’s fun to recruit too,” Sanford Jr. said. “You can tell an offensive lineman you can come play at Utah State and have abs. I think that’s a pretty cool thing to have as a 290-300 pound individual.”

Heading into the season, it’s likely there is a battle for the starting center position between redshirt-freshman Karter Shaw and junior Demytrick Ali’ifua. Regardless of who starts, coach Sanford believes, “center was our biggest question-mark and we feel good that we have two or three guys that can really play that position.” This including freshman Aric Davidson who has impressed some coaches and rounds out the position group.

First-year offensive line coach TJ Woods is in his second stint with the program, having coached under head coach Gary Andersen from 2009-2012. Most recently, he coached under Sanford at Western Kentucky for two years. Woods has a proven record of getting the best out of his players, having coached five All-Americans among a high number of players to receive all-conference honors. 

Author’s note: Tomorrow’s article will focus on another position of question, and one with a ton of new talent, the running backs.