10 Questions: Are We Underrating Oklahoma State’s Offensive Line?

Welcome to the fourth of my 10 preseason questions about Oklahoma State (at this rate, we might not even make it to five). These are, of course, unanswerable — like a lot of the writing we do — but still fun for discussion and debate.

Let’s jump into today’s question. Here’s a list of previous questions.

1. Can you Change a Discipline Culture in One Year
2. Who is RB2?
3. Wait, Chuba’s not better than Justice, right?

4. Are we underrating the offensive line?

Carson and I recently ran through our overrated/underrated position groups on a podcast, and as we were doing it, I realized I’d whiffed. I said the defensive line for Oklahoma State had a chance to be underrated — and while that might be true — I think I got the wrong side of the ball.

It’s actually OSU’s offensive line that has an opportunity to shine as a position group we don’t expect to shine in 2019. Part of this is self-inflicted. After allowing just 24 sacks in 2017, that number rose to 34 in 2018, outside the top 100 in the country. While that’s not the only measure of success for an OL, it’s emblematic of a line that was oftentimes quite shaky in protecting QB1.

Enter Vince Lombardi Charlie Dickey, Mike Gundy’s most prized assistant coach hire since … Dana Holgorsen? Dickey is raved about both in front of and behind the scenes in Stillwater, and he’s inheriting a cupboard that’s quite full thanks to Josh Henson.

Although not much has changed in terms of the starters at the end of last year (only Bryce Bray is new), OSU has far more depth than it’s had in years. Here’s the two-deep.

LT: Dylan Galloway (297 lbs), Hunter Anthony (330!)
LG: Marcus Keyes (309), Hunter Woodard (295)
C: Johnny Wilson (304), Ry Schneider (320)
RG: Bryce Bray (300), Ry Schneider (320)
RT: Teven Jenkins (330), Jacob Farrell (308)

OSU running 295-plus across the board on their two-deep with four guys who were just entering college a year ago (Anthony, Woodard, Bray, Farrell), while not super unusual in 2019, is nonetheless encouraging. More importantly, Dickey molding them into something worthy of a Big 12 contender seems imminent.

“The offensive line has come a long way,” said wide receiver Dillon Stoner recently. “Coach Dickey is an awesome guy and a great coach. I know all the guys respect him a bunch. Assignments-wise, they just seem sound. Very few mistakes on the line from what I’ve noticed. Obviously, I’m out running around, but they seem to be doing great and I love our o-line.”

There is a sense of organization and toughness from that crew that there just hasn’t been in recent years. Henson was a great recruiter and a good coach, but Dickey seems like he might be great at both. And it’s not as if last year’s OL was completely lousy. They did creat enough space for OSU to average 4.8 yards a pop in 2018 (more than Gundy said is necessary).

And we haven’t even mentioned who they get to block for. RB1 is one of the most electric (and versatile) in the country. QB1, no matter who it is, will be able to escape more and be more elusive than Corndog (an underrated runner!) ever was. Add it all up, and I’m excited for a group that includes four redshirt freshmen in the two-deep and some potential pros starting.

Only the games will give us the answers we want here, but with Oregon State on deck, there’s a ton of reason to be optimistic about a position group that hasn’t been at the forefront in years in Stillwater. A loaded class of 2019 is stepping into the mix with somebody Gundy has coveted for years at the helm. Maybe it still goes badly and Dru Brown and Spencer Sanders get sacked 34 more times, but heading into the 2019 season it seems as if this is one position group that’s moving forward in the right direction.