I went back and watched the OLine play from the Purdue game and came away with the good, bad and the ugly.
The Good: Tommy Olson is a player...no doubt about it. Kid has great feet and understands position and leverage better than any lineman on the team. That said, he needs 2 years in the weight room to fully compete inside. Sad we had to burn his redshirt on this crap year.
The Bad: Pretty much everyone else. Ed Olson is not the answer at left tackle...he doesn't have the feet or the hands for it...he can play the position in our option run game, but straight pass protection he needs a back or TE to chip the end or he wont be able to stay in front of a speed guy. The seniors were all horrible. Linkeiwics is sooooo undersized I fear for him out their...but man, he plays hard and I love seeing that. We should call him Rudy!
The Ugly: Epping is getting destroyed....blown up play after play. Getting thrown backwards into the QB/RB exchange and getting beat to the point of attack. I watched him on about 20 plays and he stands almost straight up when he steps, his first step is wrong most of the time, he has no understanding of leverage and the most egregious of all OLine sins...his feet stop moving at contact. That's why you always see his guy beating him at the point of contact...Epping's head is in the right position, his hands are right, he is too tall, but should still be able to block, but he just stops for a second at impact and the DLine just crosses his face to make a play....over and over this happens. I recognize this problem as I had the same issue my Sophomore year in HS...it was coached out of me with a steel rack, a one man blocking sled and hours upon hours of one on one drills. Epping needs the same thing...if he can fix his feet problem, I think he will be a good linemen...if not, well, you see what we got.