JSU football: Offensive line impressing in preseason practices
JACKSONVILLE — While veterans are all over the field for Jacksonville State, one of the strengths during the team's preseason workouts has been the returning offensive linemen. Will O'Steen (left tackle), Clay Webb (left guard), Treylen Brown (center) and Brock Robey (right guard) are all set to return for the Gamecocks after finding starting roles by the end of the season. Ye'Majesty Sanders, who played at right tackle last season, graduated and signed with the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League.
“It's been really important. A lot of our guys know what to do,” Brown said. “Clay, he's a dog, man.
He's a dog and does his job. Robey, like I said, is the glue of the offense, and Will is just the motor. We're like a well oiled machine with KD and Bausley in there and we’re just going to keep going.
” Jacksonville State coach Rich Rodriguez has talked about the importance of returning four of the team's starting offensive linemen since the team's spring practices, adding on Wednesday that he still wants more depth on the line. “Those four guys returning, I think they know the system really well,” Rodrigiez said. “I think last year they were just doing it, but now they probably know the reasons why we do certain things and that really helps.
We’ve got to get more depth. I want to have at least 10 linemen that can play and some of those are going to be true freshmen, probably, but that's a hard working group. ” Among the many questions to be answered in the team's fall workouts is Sanders' replacement on the offensive line.
While both Brown and Jacksonville State coach Rich Rodriguez said that Kaiden Arnold and Xavier Bausley had a solid spring camp showing, Brown added that freshman Cameron Griffin has impressed him. “Both of those guys are really good,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of twos, even Cam, Cam’s a dog too.
A lot of people can fill the role, we’ve got a lot of twos that are really good. ” Rodriguez said that he’s been very impressed with the talent level among the younger players in the offensive line group. “We have a really talented group of freshmen,” Rodriguez said.
“All those freshman linemen I think are going to have great careers here. It's a little early yet to put them in a mix, but I think by the time the first game is there, you'll see several freshmen at two deep. ” Added Brown: “I feel like guys are getting better, especially a lot of the young guys who are coming through and really putting in effort.
We welcomed them into the program around summer and they've been nothing but great. Everything’s going well. ” Brown said that despite the hot practices and intense training schedule ahead, the offensive line group's main goal this summer is to push the tempo of practice.
“We’re going to go up tempo and we expect to do that every single day,” Brown said. “I know this is like the dog days of summer camp, but we’ve still got to keep working and still keep that up tempo. ” .