Tech sports best OL since Holtz's arrival in Ruston
Not only is it the best OL since Holtz arrived in Ruston, it is the deepest.
In a game where the offensive line inevitably shuffles a few times throughout the season, depth is perhaps the most important factor in a team’s corps of blockers.
If the first week of Fall Camp is any indication, the 2016 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs will have no trouble filling any holes in the offensive line.
After the team’s first scrimmage on Saturday, head coach Skip Holtz told BleedTechBlue.com that this crop of linemen is the best he’s had since arriving in Ruston in 2013 and that depth is a large part of that.
“I look at it where we’ve been trying to just find 5 in the last couple years, and I feel like we have 10 guys right now who are good enough to play on this football team,” Holtz said. “They’re competing for a spot; David Mahaffey started 11 games for us at center and now he’s competing like crazy to get in that first 5 right now.”
Tech returns Mahaffey and five other linemen who have already started for the Bulldogs, and the addition of two gargantuan junior college transfers has made the competition quite stiff.
[RELATED: Skip Holtz went in depth on Tech's roster and depth at multiple positions, check it out here]
Both Joshua Outlaw (6-6, 305) and Gewhite Stallworth (6-8, 320) have had good camps thus far, and one or both could wind up starting over a veteran.
Those veterans include Darrell Brown, who started every game at left tackle last season and made second team All-Conference USA; Kirby Wixson, the 2014 starting center who missed last season due to injury; the extremely athletic O’Shea Dugas, who started at left guard last year as a true freshman; center and guard Joseph Brunson, who has 24 games of playing time over the past two seasons; and tackle Shane Carpenter, who started twice last year.
“We’ve got much more depth than we’ve had in the past, and that will give us the ability to keep those guys a little bit fresher, maybe play more guys than we have in the past,” Holtz said. “Hopefully over the long haul of the season that’s going to make a difference.”