The Maturation of the Offensive Line

Clemson entered the 2008 season ranked as the preseason #9 team in the country, but the hopes of a dream season were dashed right off the bat when the Alabama rocked the Tigers to a tune of 38-10 in the Georgia Dome. The Tigers were mauled physical up-front and the season quickly unraveled and Tommy Bowden was fired after the Wake Forest game and replaced by Dabo Swinney. Alabama exposed a weakness along the lines especially at OL where the Tigers clearly lacked the talent and experience up front to be even a Top 25 team much less a Top 10 team.

Here is the starting line-up along the OL from that 2008 game:

LT – Chris Hairston - SO
RG – JeMarcus Grant – JR
C – Thomas Austin – JR
LG – Barry Humphries – JR
RT – Corey Lambert – JR

The line only featured two quality players in Hairston and Austin. Hairston was only a SO and was replacing Barry Richardson, so it should be no surprise that this unit was just completely manhandled and abused throughout the season.  This group simple lacked the talent and experiance to play physical football.  It also showed that it is borderline impossible to win consistently when your OL is a weakness regardless of the amount of talent elsewhere on the squad.

To start the 2009 season the Tiger’s had a completely reshaped offensively line and started the season with the following look:

LT – Chris Hairston – JR
RG – Mason Cloy – SO
C- Thomas Austin – SR
LG – Antonio McLain – SO
RT – Landon Walker – SO

This line was better than the 2008, but struggled early in the season to the point that the line was shaken-up after the Maryland game with Dalton Freeman a redshirt freshmen moving to C and Austin replacing Cloy at RG. The line really started to improve as Austin looked better and looked much more comfortable at OG and Freeman really emerged as a beast a C. The OL keep getting better and better as the season progressed and the line jelled and started working together as an effective unit.






Dalton Freeman

Clemson started the following OL in 2010:

LT – Chris Hairston – SR

RG – David Smith  – JR
C- Dalton Freeman - SO
LG - Antonio McLain – JR
RT – Landon Walker – JR

The 2010 line has a combined total of 71 starts lead by Hairston with 23 and Walker with 22.  Mason Cloy is also a valuable swing-man who has started 17 games and can fill in at any position along the interior with almost zero drop-off.  Cloy would likely have been a standout on the 2008 OL, which speaks to how far the line has progressed in two seasons. For the first time since the 2006 season, Clemson has an OL that is a strength of the team and OL that is able to play physical and hard-noised football.

I thought the OL was impressive in the first real test of the season at Auburn on Saturday.  They played a physical brand of football that was rarely seen during the Bowden era.  The group still has room to improve especially in-terms of pass protection, but overall this OL has the talent and potential to be the best OL since the Ford era as long as they play with passion and intensity for the rest of the season.