Ranking Big 12 offensive lines for 2022

Offensive line play in the Big 12 is not always particularly well understood by commentators. Granted, a major reason Oklahoma consistently won the league under Lincoln Riley was their superiority along the O-line, but for the rest of the league the differentiation between who wins and who doesn’t isn’t typically along the line.

In 2021, Oklahoma slipped in O-line play and slipped out of the Big 12 Championship game (barely). The two teams who took part instead had lines composed as follows:

Baylor

• Left tackle: Connor Galvin, senior, former low 4-star recruit.
• Left guard: Xavier Newman, redshirt senior, former low 4-star recruit.
• Center: Jacob Gall, redshirt senior, former low 2-star recruit and Buffalo transfer.
• Right guard: Grant Miller, redshirt senior, former low 3-star recruit and Vanderbilt transfer.
• Right tackle: Khalil Keith, redshirt junior, former low 3-star recruit.

The Baylor group wasn’t an impressive collection of talent by any stretch of the imagination. They did have some serious experience, Jacob Gall had a few years of starting under his belt from Buffalo and Galvin had several years of experience with Baylor, albeit in a different system. Grant Miller was a starter at Vanderbilt as well. The main story here was that new Baylor offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes and his assistant Jeff Mateos are terrific line coaches who had experience training less heralded talents to execute this system back at BYU.

The fact all four except Newman (the weakest member) took their COVID years to return rather than heading off to the NFL is clear evidence that this unit is effective because of skill, coaching, and system rather than sheer talent.

Oklahoma State

• Left tackle: Cole Birmingham, redshirt sophomore, former high 3-star recruit.
• Left guard: Josh Sills, 6th year senior, former low 3-star recruit and West Virginia transfer.
• Center: Danny Godlevske, 6th year senior, former low 3-star recruit and Miami of OH transfer.
• Right guard: Hunter Woodard, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star recruit.
• Right tackle: Preston Wilson, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star recruit.

Oklahoma State entered the season with Taylor Miterko and walk-on Jake Springfield as the tackles and had to adjust over the course of the season when Miterko wasn’t ready and Springfield was still limited by being a small former walk-on. Cole Birmingham, who is well regarded but considered to be a guard ultimately, had to be moved out to left tackle early in the year while Springfield was relegated to the bench.

The strength of the unit was their interior in zone blocking schemes, which caught up to them when they lost Godlevske and all of their good blocking tight ends for the Big 12 Championship game. As you would guess for a team who had to find two starting tackles during the season because the camp tackles didn’t hold up, pass protection was not a point of strength for the 2021 OSU O-line.

It’s hard to look at the composition of either of these units and conclude that stacking talent along the line is essential to compete in this league. If anything, development, system fit, and then having one good tackle is probably the barometer for winning O-line play. Spacing and run/pass conflicts tend to do a lot of the heavy lifting for Big 12 offenses rather than sheer talent.

With that in mind, how do various Big 12 teams rank in terms of constructing offensive lines who can set up their offenses for success?

No. 10: The Texas Tech Red Raiders

Loads of question marks here on the starting lineup, I feel confident my guesses will be flawed.

• Left tackle: Caleb Rogers, junior, former mid 3-star recruit.
• Left guard: Weston Wright, redshirt senior, former low 3-star recruit.
• Center: Cade Briggs, senior, former unranked recruit and New Mexico transfer.
• Right guard: Cole Spencer, 6th-year senior, former unranked recruit and Western Kentucky transfer.
• Right tackle: Ethan Carde, senior, former low 3-star JUCO recruit.

Incoming transfers Cade Briggs (played center for New Mexico) and Cole Spencer (played left tackle for WKU) seem very likely to start, but both likely inside. Spencer is 6-foot-4 and playing tackle at the level WKU plays at is not a good test for handling Will McDonald, Felix Anudike-Uzomah, or Ochaun Mathis. Tech’s actual tackles aren’t amazing though, they return three 6-foot-6 guys who’ve started between Rogers, Carde, and Wright with the last player having played inside up till now. They also brought in Michael Shanahan, a 6-foot-5 transfer, who probably figures to play guard.

This offensive coordinator has desired to throw the ball a ton in the past, which would call for playing as many tall guys as they can to protect. On the other hand, I’m not sure if either Tyler Shough or Donovan Smith are guys you want throwing the ball 40-50 times. They’d both do better with a run game. We’ll see what all they get up to in Lubbock.

No. 9: The Kansas Jayhawks

Maybe something like this:

• Left tackle: Earl Bostick, Jr, 6th-year senior, former 2-star recruit.
• Left guard: Armaj Adams-Reed, junior, former low 3-star recruit.
• Center: Mike Novitsky, redshirt senior, former 2-star recruit and Buffalo transfer.
• Right guard: Michael Ford, Jr, redshirt sophomore, former low 3-star recruit and Buffalo transfer.
• Right tackle: Bryce Cabeldue, redshirt sophomore, former low 3-star recruit OR
• Nolan Gorczyca, redshirt freshman, former low 3-star recruit and Buffalo transfer.

Life is easier on offensive line when you can use the transfer portal to backfill your underclassmen ranks with players you evaluated and perhaps even coached a little in your system at your previous job. Normally offensive line development is the major obstacle to a new staff in building out a culture and roster the way they want, but everything is sped up when you can add a few transfers to the roster rather than waiting for a full cycle to find the freshmen you want and then waiting several more years for them to develop in your program.

Overall, Kansas has some pieces to build a solid run game but pass protection looks as iffy here as anywhere in the league.

No. 8: The TCU Horned Frogs

Sonny Dykes is walking into an interesting set-up here. From what I’ve heard, they’re looking at something like this:

• Left tackle: Marcus Williams, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star recruit OR
• Michael Nichols, redshirt sophomore, former high 3-star recruit.
• Left guard: Brandon Coleman, redshirt junior, former high 3-star recruit.
• Center: Esteban Avila, redshirt senior, former mid 3-star recruit.
• Right guard: Alan Ali, redshirt senior, former high 3-star recruit and SMU transfer.
• Right tackle: Andrew Coker, redshirt junior, former high 3-star recruit.

There’s considerable overlap and fit between these guys which makes for a promising start to the Frog line. For one, most of these guys are really massive. Williams is 6-foot-6/321 pounds, Coleman is 6-foot-6/325 pounds, Avila is 6-foot-4/334 pounds, and Coker is 6-foot-7/320 pounds. All of those guys excel at covering up opponents on inside zone, getting push on double teams, and executing RPO/play-action spread tactics, which is what Dykes wants to do.

Ali is smaller and lighter at 6-foot-4, 309 pounds and was a credible right tackle for SMU last year. I wouldn’t be shocked if he ended up outside and flipping with Coker would make sense but Coker was much improved at right tackle last year. He’s learned how to play the angles and use his size and length to cut off pass-rushers despite possessing fairly heavy feet. Left tackle is the weak spot of this whole group. Williams hasn’t done much of anything and Nichols is a very athletic player who’s been too small and unskilled to play up till now. Dykes will help them with the tight end and their new transfer there, Jake Wiley from Texas, has TONS of experience helping in pass protection on play-action. The only thing is that he wasn’t very good at it, despite being 6-foot-7/250 pounds. Worst case scenario would be having to move Ali out to tackle opposite Coker.

I think they’ll run block well and put together some workable protections but be vulnerable against particularly athletic defensive fronts and/or teams who blitz well. They’ll be imposing moving straight ahead but a bit slow going backwards.

No. 7: The Oklahoma State Cowboys

The Cowboys have one of the most wide open range of outcomes of any team in the league. They just added THREE different transfers on the O-line for the 2022 season. It’s not clear to me if any of them will participate in the remaining spring practices for OSU but they’re mostly younger guys with a lot of eligibility left so this seems to be more about back-filling the roster with depth because of OSU’s problems in the last few seasons with recruiting and out-going transfers. Here’s how I personally think their line will shake out in 2022:

• Left tackle: Caleb Etienne, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star JUCO recruit.
• Left guard: Preston Wilson, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star recruit OR
• Prince Pines, redshirt senior, former mid 3-star Baylor recruit and SHSU transfer.
• Center: Joe Michalski, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star recruit.
• Right guard: Hunter Woodard, redshirt senior, former mid 3-star recruit.
• Right tackle: Cole Birmingham, redshirt junior, former high 3-star recruit.

There’s a lot going on here worth explaining. Etienne was hoped to be an answer at tackle last year but he was too big and raw, he’s now slimmed down to 325 pounds (from 350 or some absurd size) and is starting to sound like the next Teven Jenkins. I don’t know if he’ll be skilled enough to play left tackle over Birmingham, if not he’ll probably be the right tackle. They’d probably like to slide Birmingham inside to guard but don’t think it’s gonna happen.

A big part of making that happen was grabbing well-regarded Tyrone Webber, a low 4-star JUCO recruit, but he came in and turned out to be 6-foot-3, 285 pounds and unready for football at this level. Give him a year with Rob Glass and he’ll show up next spring as a monster like Etienne is reportedly doing, but for now he’s not pushing Birmingham off a tackle spot.

Preston Wilson played right tackle last year and he at least should be able to slide inside. Michalski made some nice improvements from the Baylor game to the Notre Dame game and Woodard has been a mainstay for a while now. One of the more impressive transfers is Prince Pines, who started the last two years for Sam Houston State at left guard after transferring there from Baylor. Perhaps Pines can move someone inside to center from guard. Pines would also pair nicely with Etienne on the left side, he’s 6-foot-5, 340 pounds and thus similarly massive.

There’s a good chance this could be a much better line, closer to 2017 or 2018, it really all hinges on how much Etienne has improved. He’s the one guy in the unit who has major NFL size and athleticism, everyone else is a solid player with the potential to be very good in concert with the right coaching and fit.

No. 6: The Iowa State Cyclones

So, here’s where things looked after the season was over, some caveats to follow:

• Left tackle: Tyler Miller, redshirt sophomore, former high 3-star recruit.
• Left guard: Jarrod Hufford, redshirt junior, former high 3-star recruit.
• Center: Trevor Downing, redshirt senior, former high 3-star recruit.
• Right guard: Darrell Simmons, redshirt junior, former low 3-star recruit.
• Right tackle: Jake Remsburg, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star recruit.

Some obvious mitigating factors include Remsburg hardly playing in 2021 (injury, I believe), Jarrod Hufford playing left tackle for much of the season until moving inside to guard for the bowl game to make room for 6-foot-9 Tyler Miller, and the fact quarterback Hunter Dekkers is left-handed.

If you want to play your best pass protector on the quarterback’s blindside tackle spot, that’s right tackle for a lefty. Who’s the best tackle on this team if Remsburg is healthy and has a good offseason? Presumably him or Miller, or else Hufford doesn’t move inside for Miller, but we don’t have a ton to go on. There’s also Grant Treiber, a 6-foot-6 tackle who’s drawn positive reviews in the past and then disappeared in 2021 (injury, I believe). One thing I do know is Remsburg is a fantastic run-blocking tackle and the Downing-Simmons combo at center and guard is a near-lock. Everything else is unclear. Not bad, perhaps quite promising, but unclear.

You can watch all of their snaps against a very good Clemson D-line here.

My notes from the Clemson game are that Tyler Miller is pretty light on his feet for a big guy but he’s not Orlando Pace. If he can add more technique and anticipation of opposing pass-rushers and more strength, he can probably be a very good Big 12 tackle. He’ll only be a 3rd-year player next season, I think he’ll probably be their best pass-protector so we’ll see if they slide him to the right side. Run blocking should continue it’s slow, steady, and annual improvement under Matt Campbell.

No. 5: The Kansas State Wildcats

I had thought earlier this offseason that K-State had more of their COVID-eligible upperclassmen returning. They certainly have a few but there will be some shakeup on their line from last year. Currently it sounds like they’re about here:

• Left tackle: Cooper Beebe, redshirt junior, former low 3-star recruit.
• Left guard: Taylor Poitier, redshirt junior, former low 3-star recruit.
• Center: Hadley Panzer, sophomore, former low 3-star recruit.
• Right guard: Dawson Delforge, redshirt senior, former low 3-star JUCO recruit OR
• Andrew Leingang, redshirt freshman, former mid 3-star recruit.
• Right tackle: Christian Duffie, redshirt senior, former mid 3-star recruit.

The recruiting rankings aren’t super helpful in understanding the K-State offensive line. Cooper Beebe is a very good player who has a shot in the NFL as a guard (he’s about 6-foot-3, 320 pounds) but has to play tackle by default at K-State because he’s their best player. Much like Cody Whitehair from the Jake Waters era.

Taylor Poitier is one of their best players, despite checking in at 6-foot-2, 281 pounds on their current roster. He missed last year with an early season injury and has the athleticism and reach to play tackle if he needed to. Duffie has been a mainstay at right tackle for a few years now, Delforge has been on the two-deep for multiple seasons, Hadley Panzer and Andrew Leingang are the up and comers who figure to break into the lineup if they can put it together. The Wildcats also have veteran Katori Leveston and young Carver Willis at tackle. Leveston has been safely established as being an inferior tackle to Beebe who could move inside to guard if they got enough from Willis. If Willis really put it together they could move Beebe inside but that probably won’t happen.

I just named eight players who could credibly end up as starters and didn’t mention Hayden Gillum, who would play center if Panzer can’t figure it out in time (converted from guard this spring). The Wildcats have a lot of options and a few players who are legitimately quite good, Beebe and Poitier in particular. They have a lot of experience now playing together with this coach and their strengths (run blocking) match the strengths of the talent on offense.

I tend to get the impression many Big 12 commentators don’t quite realize the potency of the run game K-State will be assembling in the fall with this line combined with Adrian Martinez and Deuce Vaughn. K-State always flies under the radar but Beebe and Poitier are very good players and that backfield is serious.

No. 4: The West Virginia Mountaineers

This is an interesting one.

• Left tackle: Wyatt Milum, sophomore, former mid 4-star recruit.
• Left guard: James Gmiter, redshirt senior, former mid 3-star recruit.
• Center: Zach Frazier, redshirt sophomore, former low 4-star recruit at defensive tackle.
• Right guard: Doug Nester, redshirt junior, former mid 4-star recruit and Virginia Tech transfer.
• Right tackle: Brandon Yates, redshirt junior, former mid 3-star recruit OR
• Ja’Quay Hubbard, redshirt junior, former high 3-star recruit and Virginia transfer.

This is one of the most talented (by recruiting rankings) units in the entire Big 12. I thought Yates would be good as a left tackle in 2021 but he didn’t have a great season and now he’s losing his spot to blue chip Wyatt Milum. Gmiter and Frazier have been stacking a lot of game reps in this system and Nester was unsurprisingly quite good by the end of 2021. Getting all five guys back is big, flipping young Milum to left tackle and adding Virginia transfer Ja’Quay Hubbard to push Yates is significant as well.

They have all the ingredients. A legitimately talented and athletic tackle flanked by veterans who know the system and each other.

No. 3: The Texas Longhorns

I’ve already covered this one quite a bit, I think it’s one of the main factors which will shape the Big 12 Championship in 2022. Here’s where things appear to be currently:

• Left tackle: Andrej Karic, junior, former low 4-star recruit OR
• Kelvin Banks, freshman, 5-star recruit.
• Left guard: Junior Angilau, senior, former mid 4-star recruit.
• Center: Jake Majors, redshirt sophomore, former low 4-star recruit.
• Right guard: Hayden Conner, sophomore, former high 3-star recruit.
• Right tackle: Christian Jones, senior, former mid 3-star recruit.

As I’ve noted, the missing piece is an island tackle who can handle a 1-on-1 matchup and allow the other four to gang up on opposing defensive fronts in protection. Texas has at least two guys who could play right tackle at a winning level should they find a good left tackle in Karic and Jones. Potentially Jaylen Garth could as well, the current 3rd tackle before Banks or the other talented freshman arrive in the fall. The most likely positive scenarios for Texas are for Karic to put it together this offseason and provide Honorable Mention caliber play or for Kelvin Banks (or maybe Cameron Williams) to arrive in the fall and just take over at left tackle with their superior athleticism and talent. Christian Jones is a big, talented player who simply hasn’t taken well to the nuances of good tackle play.

No. 2: The Oklahoma Sooners

From what I can tell, here’s how the Oklahoma line looks early in spring.

• Left tackle: Anton Harrison, redshirt sophomore, former mid 4-star recruit.
• Left guard: McKade Mettauer, COVID junior, former low 4-star recruit and Cal transfer.
• Center: Andrew Raym, junior, former high 4-star recruit.
• Right guard: Chris Murray, redshirt senior, former low 4-star recruit and UCLA transfer.
• Right tackle: Wanya Morris, senior, former 5-star recruit and Tennessee transfer OR
• Savion Byrd, redshirt freshman, former high 4-star recruit.

The sheer top-line talent in this group is something no one else in the league can match, save perhaps for Texas once all their freshman arrive in the fall (and not before then).

Oklahoma’s approach is changing significantly from a year ago, even though Bill Bedenbaugh remains the O-line coach. Check out some of these comments from the players:

“For the center, it’s actually taken a lot off my plate because we’re moving so fast,” Raym said. “I don’t have the time to make as many calls. Now, the whole O-line is expected to know what they’re doing on every play.”

Andrew Raym, Oklahoma center.

That’s a wholesale change in philosophy. It’s all about tempo and spacing doing the work now of skill and versatility. Line up fast, play hard and trust in tiredness, forced simplicity, and run/pass conflicts to set up the field of play to advantage your own side. This style tends to work very well right up until it doesn’t (when you face a team who isn’t phased by the tempo and can add complexity back into the equation).

Oklahoma is clearly advantaged by having the spring to incorporate transfer McKade Mettauer and to establish their identity as a unit over the whole offseason. They’ll probably be able to make their talent and weight felt pretty quickly on the field in 2022, although they are now capped in terms of ceiling by the very thing Raym notes above as giving him an advantage.

The modern Big 12 isn’t going to be thrown off by tempo, you can’t totally shake them out of being able to throw complex looks at you, they’ve had years to learn how to defend this style. Big 12 defenses today can turn the game back into a half-court slog, so to speak, like playoff basketball. Then you do want the extra complex techniques, more intricate play-calls, and the flexibility to quickly make in-game adjustments from a deep bank of resources.

So my guess is that Oklahoma is going to look BACK! on offensive line at times and more “NOT BACK!” at other times.

No. 1: The Baylor Bears

Mostly more of the same from Waco:

• Left tackle: Connor Galvin, COVID senior, former low 4-star recruit.
• Left guard: Mose Jeffrey, redshirt senior, former low 3-star JUCO recruit.
• Center: Jacob Gall, 6th-year senior, former low 2-star recruit and Buffalo transfer.
• Right guard: Grant Miller, 6th-year senior, former low 3-star recruit and Vanderbilt transfer.
• Right tackle: Khalil Keith, redshirt senior, former low 3-star recruit.

This is unquestionably one of the most veteran O-line units ever assembled in the league and actually close to the absurdly old BYU unit I questioned if Baylor could mimic when they hired Grimes before the 2021 season. How much better can they get next year? I think most of these guys won’t be significantly better, you hit diminishing returns eventually, but if Mose Jeffrey can be a big upgrade over what Newman offered in 2021 (very possible) that’s a not-insignificant boost to the offense. What’s more, a boost to a unit which has already proven itself in Big 12 play.

Overall this unit figures to be very good, safest bet to be the best in the Big 12.

Who will have the best O-line in the Big 12 in 2022? Discuss for free on the Flyover Football Board!