The Bobcat Nation

You all know I am not as big of a football guy as basketball, but in my limited knowledge I always tend to look at the offencive line as the key to a great football team/season. Injuries rank right up their too, but you can not really predict them. You can have a great running back, or quarterback all go to waist if the offencive line can not do their job. They never get much credit I do not know of any historically top notch team that did not have a top knotch O-Line, but there have plenty of quality teams with soso Quarterbacks (a..hum John Edwards) running back ect. ect.

Do you feel I am off base, and how is will our O-line rank this year.

If they stay healthy, this O-Line has the potential to be very, very good.

And I agree that the fate of the offense (and for that matter the defense) rests mostly with the big men.

You're right Mc..but I would take it a step further...i.e. BOTH the offensive and defensive lines are where football games are won or lost. You must have both talent and depth in those two areas to be successful IMHO.

Barring injury this will be one of the best o-lines in MSU and possibly BSC history. Even with a couple injuries it will still be an excellent o-line. There is great depth and versatility. Bolton can play guard or tackle. Birkeland and Figueroa can play center or guard. The tackle positions are overflowing with very talented players.

Info is right the d-line is also very important and MSU needs work there, which I'm guessing he was hinting at. However, I agree with Mcat in that the o-line is the single most important unit on a football team. I wouldn't be surprised if MSU averages 35 pts. per game this year, because the talent at the skill positions is also very good and deep. I don't think a defense in the BSC can stop the MSU offense this year.

MC- You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Without a good o-line and a functionable D-line- good luck. One more addition, and I guess injuries have to do with this, is depth. Depth is such an instrumental factor at the end of the season. Football is a physical game and guys get hurt- you need to be able to have someone dependable backing people up. I do not think that we are in danger here except for a couple of positions- I would hate to see Travis go down!

I am going to relate what I have just typed to one of my biggest pet peeves: Frontier VS. Big Sky. I have heard the Carroll College thing before, but what we are hitting on is exactly why a smaller school like Carroll just cannot compete. Position-by-position, they might have some players who not only could play, but could do well at the Big Sky level and beyond. Games are won in the trenches and special teams. Have a great o-line and get a few breaks on special teams and things can turn around in a hurry!

Don't get me wrong Lulay going down would be bad, but Carpenter and Coppack are better than they are given credit for on this board. Unfortunately for them they will lose a lot to graduation this year. Of course, any struggles they have next year will be attributed to them not being as good as Lulay. Hopefully folks will also look at what they have to work with vs. what Lulay had this year.

Agreed- those guys have great potential, but are unproven. I do not care who my backup is, it would not be fun if Trav goes down. I do, however, hope that we can get those guys some reps this year incase something happens and to help them adjust better for next season. With the team that we have, I would tend to think that we will have a couple of blowout opportunities where we can get them into the mix.

1AA: I wasn't impuning the ability of your d-line...I frankly don't know enough about your guys on the d or o line to be supportive or crticial. I do know this however, depth is absolutly critical in these two areas because it's not if it's when, you will need to use some of your back-ups. The Griz have a great o-line returning, basically the same one they had last year. On the d-line they have the same ends but lost two good tackles to graduation. They do have two returning part-time starters coming back and three new guys that have a ton of potential, led by Great Falls High product Gabe Brown who will be a great player in this league. We will be very good up front on both sides of the ball, our questions will be at QB and possibly reciever(although I like our new guys).

You might get a key of the OL by their awards

RT - Hirst All league BSC as a Freshman (hurt last year)
RG - Fig 1st team BSC last year
C - Birkland Started 10 games last year at guard
LG - Bolten Preseason All American - 1st Team BSC last year
LT - Jensen started first 9 games last year as Freshman.
before breaking his leg, Still recovering somewhat.
DeCock Played in multiple games last year as Freshman

Three of the five are All League (2 first team) - one an All American
First five are returning starters with DeCock improving.

Hard to say any line in the BSC is even close.

I'm no die-hard Cat or Griz fan so it's not 'my' line. The oline at UM is going to be good and deep no doubt about that, but with Proctor (1st team All-BSC) gone it isn't the 'basically the same as last year's.' Add in the graduation of Green (2nd team All-BSC) and Walden (HM All-BSC) and that's not 'basically' anything like last year's line. Yes they had depth last year and that bodes well for this year, but they have three All-BSC players to replace.
I don't know for sure that UM will be 'very good' up front on defense. Spencer is not fully recovered from his injuries. Murphy is one of the best in the nation. The tackles should be good, but not for sure. They 'should' be good. But to say they 'will be very good up front...' is being overly optimistic. UM has great linebackers in MacIntyre, Joyce, Utterback, Ryan and Hawthorne. I'd say that is UM's strongest unit.