Previewing Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss: Offensive Line

OFFENSIVE LINE

Texas Tech

Scary

I was trying to figure out a statistical method of determining the overall play of the offensive lines and although I don't have the mathematical smarts of Rock M Nation I did come up with a few metrics to figure out offensive line play.

Up first, passing stats. Texas Tech gave up 5 sacks for 604 passing attempts, which turns out to be 1 sack for every 120.8 attempts. In terms of a percentage, the Red Raiders are giving up a sack at a 0.83% rate, which is unbelievable. This offensive line has done an unbelievable job of keeping Graham Harrell upright all season long. I wish I had the time to look at offensive lines and how they have historically done as this seems almost unbelievable considering the volume of attempts that Texas Tech has. Granted, most of those throws are short passes, but still, this offensive line is outstanding at protecting it's quarterback.

The running statistics are plainly yards per attempt, where Texas Tech averages 4.71 yards per attempt and to top it off, Texas Tech averages a touchdown for every 10.82 attempts (303 rushing attempts and 28 touchdowns). For comparison purposes, this leads the nation. Again, pretty amazing stats for a team that primarily passes. Nationally, just basing this off of yards per attempt, Texas Tech sits 31st in the nation.

Post-season awards have seen quite a few of Texas Tech's offensive linemen receive accolades. Brandon Carter was named to Phil Steele's 1st team offense and the AFCA coaches' All-America team. Louis Vasquez was named to Steele's 3rd team offense. Rylan Reed was named to the Walter Camp All-American team and ESPN's 1st team all big 12. Bottom line, three of the five offensive linemen have been named on various all-america teams for their play this year (Brandon Carter, Rylan Reed and Louis Vasquez).

Quite frankly, this is an offensive line that folks have noticed and may have missed the most consistent lineman in right tackle, Marlon Winn.

Mississippi

Michael Oher, dominating tackle.

Same stats above apply to grade out Ole Miss' line. Ole Miss gave up 23 sacks in 311 passing attempts, which works out to be one sack for every 13.52 passing attempts. In terms of a percentage, Ole Miss was giving up a sack 7.40% of the time, and as mentioned above, Texas Tech's percentage was 0.83%. These Ole Miss numbers aren't bad, in fact, I think they are pretty good.

As far as rushing statistics, Ole Miss is averaging 4.62 yards per attempt. Nationally, this puts Ole Miss at 36th in the nation in yards per attempt, which is a very good rate. As far as attempts per touchdowns, Ole Miss is scoring 1 touchdown for every 25.05 rushing attempt (476 attempts and 19 touchdowns). This ranks 68th nationally and puts Ole Miss near the top half of punching the ball in the endzone rushing the ball.

Michael Oher is the unquestioned leader of this offensive line and future top 10 pick in the NFL and much like Crabtree, would be silly for me to name every All-American team Oher is on, because it's probably every one. To put it simply, he is absolutely dominating. Michael Oher is to Ole Miss as Michael Crabtree is to Texas Tech.

Tackle John Jerry is on Steele's 2nd All-SEC team , as well as 1st team All-SEC according to the AP, and Ole Miss' other offensive line standout.

Conclusion:

A close matchup again, but a slight edge to Texas Tech. Ole Miss has one absolutely dominating tackle in Oher and Jerry is an All-SEC performer. It bothers me that Ole Miss has given up so many sacks relative to the number of passes. The Texas Tech line does a better job of protecting it's quarterback and is slightly better running the ball on a yards per attempt analysis.

I know that this is looking a little one-sided, but it's not even close to being over. Be patient Ole Miss fans.

Previous Matchups

Quarterbacks :: Running Backs :: Receiver :: Offensive Line :: Defensive Line :: Linebackers :: Secondary :: Special Teams :: Coaching

Matchup	Advantage
Quarterback
Running Back
Receivers
Offensive Line