[Goose]

After observing football for nearly 40 years, it is my opinion that the whole "offensive line gelling" thing is an excuse for poor performance more than a meaningful reality.  The best players play the best.

Given the options the QB has at the line I believe jelling like in the NFL is very important

Of course agree so is skill

I think you are both correct. It depends on the situation. Some OLs are just physically so good that the members are "plug and play". If somebody gets hurt, there is an equivalent player who can come in and they don't miss a beat. Other OLs are a case of "the whole is better than the sum of the parts". This second case may have good players, but they play so well as a team there is a synergistic effect. In this second case, they may need some time to reach that synergy. It is also true in those cases that if somebody gets hurt, the line doesn't play nearly as well with the substitute.
In very, very few cases (that I know of anyway), you get both. Right now, Stanford has athletes that are good enough, at least by reputation, that they probably shouldn't need much "jelling". However, experience can matter a lot in terms of individual performance. At the very least, technique should improve with more playing time.  Last year, we had several linemen with little experience. Herbig's trajectory may be instructive. We may see a similar situation with our freshman tackles, if we are lucky.

[Goose]

After observing football for nearly 40 years, it is my opinion that the whole "offensive line gelling" thing is an excuse for poor performance more than a meaningful reality.  The best players play the best.

Given the options the QB has at the line I believe jelling like in the NFL is very important

Of course agree so is skill

I think you are both correct. It depends on the situation. Some OLs are just physically so good that the members are "plug and play". If somebody gets hurt, there is an equivalent player who can come in and they don't miss a beat. Other OLs are a case of "the whole is better than the sum of the parts". This second case may have good players, but they play so well as a team there is a synergistic effect. In this second case, they may need some time to reach that synergy. It is also true in those cases that if somebody gets hurt, the line doesn't play nearly as well with the substitute.
In very, very few cases (that I know of anyway), you get both. Right now, Stanford has athletes that are good enough, at least by reputation, that they probably shouldn't need much "jelling". However, experience can matter a lot in terms of individual performance. At the very least, technique should improve with more playing time.  Last year, we had several linemen with little experience. Herbig's trajectory may be instructive. We may see a similar situation with our freshman tackles, if we are lucky.