Building a better line

Photo by Michael Patrick

Tennessee’s Josh McNeil, right, holds up Marshall’s Bilal El-Amin during a game last season, while Anthony Parker looks for someone else to block. Returnees on the UT offensive line have a combined 102 games of experience.

It’s an equation that almost doesn’t make sense: Lose an All-American and get better overall.

That’s not to say the Vols won’t miss Arron Sears, a second-round draft pick in April’s NFL draft and 2006 Jacobs Award winner, and his 37 career starts.

But even with Sears and guard David Ligon gone from the left side of the line, Tennessee brings back a more experienced group in 2007 than the one it started with in 2006.

Of the seven primary players on UT’s offensive line heading into two-a-days, the Vols have a combined 102 games of experience with 44 starts. Last year, the Vols brought back 76 games of experience and 33 starts. Take Sears out of the mix, and the rest of the line had 45 games and just nine starts.

This year, only redshirt sophomore tackle Chris Scott has not started a game in his career. And he’s 6-foot-5, 305 pounds.

“We’re going to miss Sears,” says Eric Young, the Vols’ lone senior up front. “But all around, as a whole group, we have the potential to be better. We have some guys who are more athletic and can move better. I think we’re going to be better.”

Young, who started all 13 games last year at right tackle, is expected to move over to replace Sears on the left side of the line.

Returning at right guard is junior Anthony Parker, who was a third-team selection on the coaches preseason All-SEC team after starting all 12 regular-season games.

Parker agrees this year’s group could be a better overall unit, despite the absence of a superstar like Sears.

“Arron Sears is tough to replace,” said Parker, who is healthy after missing the Outback Bowl to undergo knee surgery. “But you’ve got me, Eric and Josh coming together with that unity. Maybe the year before, I don’t think we had that. And Ramon Foster was a big part of the line last year. He’s got the experience even though he didn’t start.”

Foster was named UT’s most improved player on offense during spring practice and is penciled in to start at left guard. He started two games in 2005, but for his career the junior has played in 18 games.

In the middle is Josh McNeil, a freshman All-SEC center last year, who returns with nine starts and 12 games played in his first season.

The Vols’ experience isn’t just limited to the starters, either.

Senior center Michael Frogg, who lost his starting job to McNeil following the Marshall game in week four, has four starts as a former walk-on.

Sophomore guard Jacques McClendon — already the strongest offensive lineman in UT history — played in 12 games and started the Outback Bowl in Parker’s absence.

“I’m really excited about our offensive line,” McNeil said. “We’ve all played beside each other, this is going on our third year. We’re all comfortable with each other. We’re a really close-knit group.”

And one that really wants to run the ball.

The Vols showed their wares as a pass-protecting unit last season, allowing the third lowest sack total in the league (19) while the Vols threw the ball more than any team besides Kentucky (415 attempts).

It’s no secret by now that the Vols ranked 10th in the SEC in rushing offense. Part of that can be attributed to sharing the ball with the league’s second-best passing attack.

Still, coaches focused on making players more physically and mentally tough in the trenches this spring.

Parker, for one, is ready to put UT’s 108 yards per game rushing average in the history books.

“That was last year,” he said. “We’re focusing a lot on running the ball. That’s a big emphasis for our team all spring, and right now even. Not because of last year and those numbers. It’s our goal this year to be a good running team and bring back how Tennessee used to be.”

That’s how McNeil feels, too. He wants to see the Vols become the team he signed with as a highly recruited high school senior from Mississippi.

“When I thought about Tennessee, I thought about the Power T and the running game,” he said. “We have to get that back to where it was.”

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.