| Daily Blog •June 8, 2013 |
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Today’s blog starts my in-depth look at my NCAA Experience Chart. For 7 years I had listed an experience chart, which broke down the number of seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen each team had in the two deep and rated the teams experience level with a formula I devised. In 2009, I made the experience chart FIVE TIMES better.
Today I will look at the number of career starts returning for offensive lineman.
When most folks judge a team for the upcoming season they look at the QB, RB and WR’s that are returning. A few may take the time to look at star defensive players that are back (those with a lot of sacks or interceptions). However, very few look at the offensive line and yet the team that controls the line of scrimmage wins the game more often than not.
This year Texas is the top team in the country with 124 career starts returning and they are actually my #1 rated OL in the country as well as they have all 5 starters back with 3 Sr’s and 2 Jr’s. All 5 are VHT’s. Tennessee is #2 with 123 starts returning and are also my #2 rated OL in the country. Last year they allowed just 8 sacks (1.7%) and return 4 starters this year including OT Antonio Richardson who I named 2nd Team Preseason All-American. Coming in at #3 is Duke who has 113 career OL starts returning and two of their OL made my Preseason All-ACC team.
At the bottom of the list is FIU who has just 9 starts returning. Texas Tech and Kansas are the 2 lowest BCS conference teams with just 27 career starts returning for each team.
Now experience on the O-line is not the only criteria for an offensive line’s potential for the next year. You have to add in the Blue Chips, how last year’s line performed (ypc rushing and sacks allowed), size, etc. That is how a team like Oregon can be just #77 in career starts returning (55 starts) but rated as my #10 overall OL this year.
Here are the rankings for all 126 teams with regards to Career OL Starts Returning.
Career OL Starts Returning
| RANK | TEAM | OL CAREER STS | RANK | TEAM | OL CAREER STS |
| #1 | Texas | 124 | #63 | Louisville | 64 |
| #2 | Tennessee | 123 | #63 | Arkansas St | 64 |
| #3 | Duke | 113 | #66 | Middle Tennessee | 63 |
| #4 | Utah St | 110 | #66 | Fresno St | 63 |
| #5 | New Mexico | 107 | #68 | Cental Michigan | 62 |
| #6 | Georgia Tech | 105 | #68 | South Alabama | 62 |
| #7 | Georgia | 101 | #70 | Missouri | 61 |
| #8 | Minnesota | 100 | #70 | Buffalo | 61 |
| #9 | Michigan St | 97 | #72 | Arkansas | 60 |
| #10 | Florida St | 96 | #73 | Michigan | 58 |
| #11 | Mississippi St | 95 | #73 | Temple | 58 |
| #12 | Colorado St | 94 | #75 | Ohio | 57 |
| #13 | Miami, Fl | 93 | #76 | UTEP | 56 |
| #14 | Florida | 92 | #77 | North Carolina | 55 |
| #14 | Houston | 92 | #77 | Illinois | 55 |
| #16 | Rutgers | 91 | #77 | Oregon | 55 |
| #17 | Oregon St | 90 | #80 | Memphis | 54 |
| #18 | ULM | 86 | #81 | Hawaii | 53 |
| #19 | Oklahoma | 85 | #82 | Purdue | 52 |
| #19 | USC | 85 | #82 | Boise St | 52 |
| #19 | Marshall | 85 | #84 | Syracuse | 51 |
| #22 | Cincinnati | 83 | #84 | Colorado | 51 |
| #22 | UTSA | 83 | #84 | Tulsa | 51 |
| #22 | East Carolina | 83 | #84 | BYU | 51 |
| #22 | Georgia St | 83 | #88 | Eastern Michigan | 50 |
| #22 | Old Dominion | 83 | #89 | LSU | 49 |
| #27 | Stanford | 82 | #90 | Wisconsin | 48 |
| #27 | Mississippi | 82 | #90 | Penn St | 48 |
| #27 | WKU | 82 | #90 | USF | 48 |
| #30 | Virginia | 81 | #93 | San Diego St | 46 |
| #30 | Ohio St | 81 | #94 | Iowa | 45 |
| #30 | Washington | 81 | #94 | UAB | 45 |
| #33 | Rice | 80 | #96 | Virginia Tech | 44 |
| #33 | San Jose St | 80 | #97 | Army | 43 |
| #35 | Nebraska | 78 | #98 | NC State | 42 |
| #35 | Kansas St | 78 | #98 | Baylor | 42 |
| #35 | Tulane | 78 | #98 | Nevada | 42 |
| #35 | Toledo | 78 | #98 | Navy | 42 |
| #35 | New Mexico St | 78 | #102 | Wake Forest | 41 |
| #35 | Notre Dame | 78 | #102 | TCU | 41 |
| #41 | Washington St | 77 | #102 | West Virginia | 41 |
| #41 | Connecticut | 77 | #105 | Northwestern | 40 |
| #41 | North Texas | 77 | #106 | Maryland | 39 |
| #44 | Miami, Oh | 76 | #106 | Kentucky | 39 |
| #45 | UCLA | 75 | #106 | Alabama | 39 |
| #46 | Indiana | 73 | #109 | Oklahoma St | 38 |
| #46 | Texas A&M | 73 | #109 | Kent St | 38 |
| #46 | Vanderbilt | 73 | #111 | Wyoming | 36 |
| #49 | South Carolina | 72 | #112 | Akron | 34 |
| #49 | Bowling Green | 72 | #113 | Ball St | 33 |
| #49 | Northern Illinois | 72 | #114 | Western Michigan | 31 |
| #52 | UNLV | 71 | #115 | Air Force | 30 |
| #53 | Boston College | 70 | #116 | SMU | 29 |
| #53 | Iowa St | 70 | #117 | Utah | 28 |
| #53 | Arizona | 70 | #117 | California | 28 |
| #53 | Auburn | 70 | #119 | Texas Tech | 27 |
| #57 | Idaho | 69 | #119 | Kansas | 27 |
| #58 | UCF | 68 | #121 | Massachusetts | 26 |
| #59 | Pittsburgh | 66 | #122 | Troy | 25 |
| #59 | Louisiana | 66 | #123 | Florida Atlantic | 23 |
| #61 | Arizona St | 65 | #124 | Southern Miss | 20 |
| #61 | Texas St | 65 | #125 | Louisiana Tech | 15 |
| #63 | Clemson | 64 | #126 | FIU | 9 |