One of the most substantial reasons the Alabama offense had such success in the 2020 season was in large part due to the incredible play along the offensive line. Whether it was opening up lanes in the running game, or allowing Mac to go through his progressions, the big guys up front were always on the top of their game.
As a unit, they collected enough hardware to fill up an entire trophy case.
Senior offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood brought home the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman. Fan-favorite Landon Dickerson secured the Rimington Award given to the nation’s top center. To top things off, in conjunction the unit brought the Joe Moore Award back to Tuscaloosa as the nation’s Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit.
As we head into the 2021 football season, one of the biggest question marks for this particular Alabama football team is, how will the offensive line shape out? Alex Leatherwood, Landon Dickerson, and Deonte “Cornbread” Brown are all now in the NFL.
Even with the loss of the three aforementioned players, there are really only two spots that remain open along the offensive line. Evan Neal returns at one tackle spot, Emil Ekiyor Jr. will hold down one of the guard positions, and Chris Owens will most likely handle the center duties.
That leaves one guard and one tackle position open for competition.
So who might we see fill out the rest of the offensive line? We all know that Nick Saban and the rest of the staff recruit at a very high level, and perhaps no one recruits along the offensive line better than Alabama. Even with all that said, first-year offensive line coach Doug Marrone has his hands full when trying to piece together an Alabama-worthy unit.
Some of the names to keep an eye on this fall are Kendall Randolph, JC Latham, Terrence Ferguson II, Javion Cohen, Pierce Quick, Damieon George Jr., Tommy Brown, Tommy Brockermeyer and Amari Kight.
I realize that is a long list and you can see now why coach Marrone has such a difficult task ahead of him when fall camp rolls around, but I do believe each of those guys has a chance to grab a spot on the starting offensive line.
The four players that I am watching most are JC Latham, Javion Cohen, Damieon George Jr., and Tommy Brockermeyer. I believe those are the four most talented players out of the group and would give Alabama its best chance of duplicating the incredible 2020 performance.
Let me be clear, I do not think the 2021 Alabama offensive line will be as dominating as the 2020 group was, but that doesn’t mean it still can’t be among the nation’s best.
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