Most intriguing questions heading into the 2019 college football season

How dominant can this Oregon offensive line be?

Every year there seems to be that one great unit on a college football roster. Whether that was the Clemson D-line last season, some of the extremely talented LSU secondaries in recent years or even those loaded Miami backfields back in the day. I think this upcoming season the most dominant unit in the nation could be the Ducks offensive line. First of all, Oregon has all five offensive linemen from last year returning and three of those guys – Calvin Throckmorton, Shane Lemieux, and Jake Janson – likely will be selected in the top 100 picks of the 2020 draft.

Looking at the advanced stats, the unit ranked 35th in stuffed run and 41st in sack rate, which are rather mediocre numbers, such as their 4.5 yards per rush. However, watching the tape of these guys, they are a special group. They can run inside and outside zone, use all five guys as pullers in power schemes, have the athleticism to get on the move in the screen game and work well together in protection with everybody looking for work if they are uncovered originally.

In their first loss of 2018 versus Stanford, Oregon ran the ball 49(!) times because of the job the O-line was doing against a physical Cardinal front. On designed runs with their backs, more than three-quarters of their attempts went for 3+ yards with a lot of them being so well executed that nobody had a clear shot at the ball-carrier until he had easily picked up first down yardage. Stanford actually started blitzing their corners to create a couple of negative plays. The O-line also kept a textbook-like pocket for quarterback Justin Herbert, who went on to complete 17 of his first 18 passes and really only was touched when he ran himself into trouble. Oregon only lost the game due to turnovers and some craziness at the end.

While that 7-6 loss in their bowl game against Michigan State left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, I think this offensive line combined with their NFL prototype quarterback could lead the Ducks to a Pac-12 title. Right now I’m giving this group a slight edge over what Georgia has up front.