Lex, you and I have always agreed on that. It all starts up front.
That's why I'm relatively bullish on our 2022 offense. I realize the offensive line had its struggles last year, but Rouse, Bragg, and Nugent are legitimately solid linemen by Pac-12 standards and to have that trio with an extra year of seniority is a big deal. In general, having five of the top six linemen be fourth year players and the third a third year player is such a massive improvement over what we've had recently. I worry about Hinton as a weak link but we have the nice luxury of a good sixth man if need be, plus a highly-regarded class of backups now in their third year. We need to pull Hinton if he hasn't improved substantially.
But it's also why the transfers of Austin Jones and Nathaniel Peat bummed me out so much. We went from one of the deepest running back rooms in the conference to one of the most shallow. We go from the former Pac-12 scoring leader, who is the only Stanford player to average over 100 yards of scrimmage per game in the last four years (Jones averaged 117.7 in 2020, next closest on our last four teams was Fehoko at 95.5 and next closest among running backs was Cameron Scarlett at 90.0, dramatically behind Jones) to a back we have high hopes for but who is halfway into his college career, has never had more than 62 yards in a game (and second best is 32), and wasn't even a good running back in high school. These are body blows to our running back situation. I do take some solace in the fact that running back isn't the most fundamental factor for the run game, offensive line is. But the ceiling on this offense is lower than it would have been with a proven running back and with some depth at running back.
That's why I'm relatively bullish on our 2022 offense. I realize the offensive line had its struggles last year, but Rouse, Bragg, and Nugent are legitimately solid linemen by Pac-12 standards and to have that trio with an extra year of seniority is a big deal. In general, having five of the top six linemen be fourth year players and the third a third year player is such a massive improvement over what we've had recently. I worry about Hinton as a weak link but we have the nice luxury of a good sixth man if need be, plus a highly-regarded class of backups now in their third year. We need to pull Hinton if he hasn't improved substantially.
But it's also why the transfers of Austin Jones and Nathaniel Peat bummed me out so much. We went from one of the deepest running back rooms in the conference to one of the most shallow. We go from the former Pac-12 scoring leader, who is the only Stanford player to average over 100 yards of scrimmage per game in the last four years (Jones averaged 117.7 in 2020, next closest on our last four teams was Fehoko at 95.5 and next closest among running backs was Cameron Scarlett at 90.0, dramatically behind Jones) to a back we have high hopes for but who is halfway into his college career, has never had more than 62 yards in a game (and second best is 32), and wasn't even a good running back in high school. These are body blows to our running back situation. I do take some solace in the fact that running back isn't the most fundamental factor for the run game, offensive line is. But the ceiling on this offense is lower than it would have been with a proven running back and with some depth at running back.