Daily Blog •May 25, 2011	Blog Archives

Today’s blog starts my in-depth look at my New and Improved 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 Ball St is the top team in the country with 115 career starts returning and they are clearly one of the top OL in the MAC with a couple of players making my Preseason All-MAC team. NC State is #2 with 112 starts returning and when you add that stat with a very good QB in Mike Glennon, you have a dangerous Wolf Pack team this year. While everyone likes to talk about the dangerous skill positions that West Virginia has this year in QB Geno Smith, WR Tavon Austin and WR Stedman Bailey their OL is actually tied for #3 in the country with 105 career starts returning and that is yet another reason why the Mountaineer offense should be among the best in the country this year.

At the bottom of the list is Rice who has just 15 starts returning. Penn St and Virginia Tech are the 2 lowest BCS conference teams with just 17 career starts returning for each team and clearly the OL are my biggest question marks on both of those teams especially the Hokies.

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 USC can be just #66 in career starts returning but rated as my #4 overall OL this year.

Here are the rankings for all 124 teams with regards to Career OL Starts Returning.

Career OL Starts Returning

		OL CAR			OL CAR
Rank	Team	STS	Rank	Team	STS
1	Ball St	115	63	Washington	62
2	NC State	112	64	Arizona	61
3	West Virginia	105	64	South Carolina	61
3	Tennessee	105	66	USC	60
5	LSU	104	66	Vanderbilt	60
6	FIU	103	68	New Mexico St	59
7	Oklahoma	102	69	Indiana	58
8	Kent St	101	70	Washington St	57
9	Ohio	98	70	Mississippi	57
10	Eastern Michigan	95	70	FAU	57
10	Alabama	95	73	Colorado St	56
10	Texas A&M	95	73	Troy	56
13	Central Michigan	94	75	Iowa St	53
14	North Carolina	93	75	UTEP	53
15	Louisiana Tech	92	77	Pittsburgh	52
16	Duke	90	78	Fresno St	51
17	UCF	89	78	Colorado	51
18	Miami, Oh	88	80	Florida St	50
18	WKU	88	80	Tulane	50
20	Umass	85	80	Oregon St	50
21	Georgia Tech	83	80	Kentucky	50
22	UNLV	82	84	Purdue	49
23	Southern Miss	80	84	Wisconsin	49
24	Florida	79	86	Clemson	48
25	Bowling Green	78	86	Connecticut	48
26	Baylor	77	86	UTSA	48
26	BYU	77	89	Arizona St	47
28	Virginia	76	90	Maryland	46
28	Rutgers	76	90	USF	46
30	Kansas	75	92	Iowa	45
30	San Diego St	75	92	Army	45
30	Nevada	75	94	Nebraska	44
33	Louisville	74	94	Marshall	44
33	Michigan St	74	96	Kansas St	43
33	UCLA	74	96	Miss St	43
36	Northwestern	73	96	Texas St	43
36	Louisiana	73	99	Ohio St	42
38	Buffalo	72	99	Memphis	42
39	Houston	71	101	Minnesota	40
40	Tulsa	70	102	Air Force	39
41	Texas Tech	69	103	Stanford	37
41	ULM	69	103	Middle Tennessee	37
43	Illinois	68	105	Miami, Fl	36
43	East Carolina	68	106	Auburn	35
43	Western Michigan	68	107	Navy	34
43	Missouri	68	107	Akron	34
47	North Texas	67	109	Arkansas St	33
48	Boston College	66	110	Georgia	31
48	Utah St	66	110	Idaho	31
48	San Jose St	66	112	South Alabama	30
51	Notre Dame	65	113	Temple	29
51	New Mexico	65	114	Cincinnati	28
51	Utah	65	114	TCU	28
51	Oregon	65	116	Toledo	26
51	Arkansas	65	117	SMU	24
56	Michigan	64	117	Northern Illinois	24
56	Wyoming	64	119	Hawaii	20
56	Boise St	64	120	Wake Forest	19
59	Syracuse	63	121	Virginia Tech	17
59	Texas	63	121	Penn St	17
59	Oklahoma St	63	121	UAB	17
59	California	63	124	Rice	15

Please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my Top 40 Countdown which continued today with #20 USF and #19 Michigan St. Every day now thru June 12th, I will post both magazine pages on each team that day and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite team. Remember I will make those magazine pages available for only 24 hours for you to download.

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