PFF Lists Woodard, Sterling on Preseason All-Big 12 First Team

OSU’s offensive line is in for a bounceback year in 2021. I might be a bit orange-tinted in my view on that, but PFF’s preseason analysis seems to back me up a bit. The analytics-heavy website listed returning guard Hunter Woodard on Wednesday as a preseason First Team all-conference player in its All-Big 12 projections for the upcoming season.

Josh Sills was listed as a third-teamer and Danny Godlevske, in line to start at center after transferring from Miami (OH), is named an honorable mention.

Here’s PFF on Woodard:

Woodard was nothing short of exceptional in his first year as a starter, posting top-10 grades as both a run-blocker and pass-protector, leading to a 76.6 PFF grade that ranked fifth among the Power Five’s right guards. He’s in contention for that top spot in 2021.

On the other side of the ball, OSU safety Tre Sterling was also named to the PFF First Team All-Big 12 preseason team. Fellow safety Kolby Harvell-Peel was named to the second team, as were linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez and cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse.

Sterling first took on a starting job in the 2019 season and immediately made his name known as one of the top cover safeties in the country. Since then, he ranks fourth among all FBS safeties in coverage grade and has racked up 14 combined pass breakups and interceptions over that span, seventh at the position in the FBS.

The third and final First Teamer from OSU was kicker Alex Hale, who missed the final five games of last season after suffering an injury in the pregame warmups vs. OU.