The point of this series of blog posts is pretty straight forward; to examine what we do and don’t know about each position group on the Michigan State football team.

It may seem hard to believe, but the college football season is–currently–scheduled to kick off in less than three months. Time flies when you’re stuck inside. Whether or not Michigan State and the rest of the country play football this fall, or what that football looks like, is a conversation for another day. Today I want to start taking a deeper look at each position group on the team, broken down by what we know and what we don’t know. These will continue throughout the next couple of weeks until all of the positions are covered. Today: The offensive line.

What we know

The MSU offensive line has felt a bit like Groundhog’s Day. What I mean by that is seemingly for the last three years (and many of the years prior to that) the preseason narrative around the group has been something along the lines of: “Well, there’s plenty of guys with experience and there’s some talent . . . if they can just stay healthy.” Wash. Rinse. Repeat. MSU’s offensive line has struggled mightily with continuity due to injuries and/or performance. Turnstile-like describes both the rotation and performance. It’s impossible to be a good offensive line when the unit has to use 10+ different starters over the course of a season. Getting that fixed is goal number one.

There’s experience and talent! Stop me if you’ve head this before! Michigan State is returning 12(!!!) offensive linemen who saw significant time on the field in 2019. Of those 12, ten started games. Tyler Higby is the lone contributor from 2019 that is no longer with the team. That’s a lot of depth and experience and a few of those 12 have flashed some real ability.

The young kids are ready and waiting. Michigan State has a really nice core of young and talented offensive linemen. We’ll get to whether or not we see them a ton in the “What we don’t know,” segment, but Nick Samac, JD Duplain, and Devantae Dobbs all earned starts as true freshman. Samac looks to be the real deal and Duplain and Dobbs each had moments. Dobbs was a highly-touted recruit out of high school. Asking a true freshman to play on the line is completely unfair and should almost never happen. They just aren’t ready at that young of an age. But taking some lumps early could pay huge dividends for those three starting in 2020. Spencer Brown was injured in 2019 and enters his redshirt freshman season with some expectations as well. The same goes for redshirt sophomore James Ohonba, who chose MSU over a very impressive list of colleges coming out of high school.

Perhaps most importantly, there’s a new coach in Chris Kapilovic, with an impressive track record. Mel Tucker bringing Chris Kapilovic as the o-line coach and run-game coordinator could prove to be the best hire for MSU. I’m far from an offensive line coach expert, but whatever was being done with the group during the last few seasons just wasn’t working. Yes, injuries were a huge factor, but injuries don’t cause tackles to run into each other in the backfield because an assignment got screwed up. (Yes, that happened last year). Kapilovic received high praise from his players during his lone season at Colorado and had a successful seven-year run at North Carolina prior to that. There’s work to be done on the group, but Kapilovic with have plenty to work with and MSU fans are hoping he’s the right man to turn it around.

What we don’t know

Can the group finally stay healthy? Can the dreaded AMSUOLHG (A Michigan State University Offensive Line Hating God) be held at bay finally? While a mystical being that specifically targets offensive linemen at MSU probably isn’t the cause for all of the injury issues the Spartan line has suffered, something is. Was it technique? Was it training? Was it bad luck? Was it a combination of many things? I lean towards the last option, but the coaching and training will be changing in 2020. Hopefully a change in luck comes too. There is a really good offensive line in the group of 10+ guys that have the potential to play. Almost everyone has shown flashes of being really good. Can they stay healthy and form a collective unit? Can MSU make it through a season using one offensive line starting unit with just an occasional injury replacement? If they can, they can be good.

Who the hell starts on day one? I know I’ve got my opinions, but even then I struggle to get a concrete unit of five. The problem is so many guys have played all over the line over the last two years and it’s hard to get a read on the group. Luke Campbell was very good at right tackle as a freshman, but has primarily played guard the last two years. He’s been good there, but also injured a lot. Does he move back outside? Does Jordan Reid stay at right tackle despite the fact that he’s built more like an interior linemen? He’s been the only one to stay healthy the last two years, but he was playing out of position. Is Dobbs going to play tackle or kick in to guard where his future is? There are scenarios like these with almost every guy on the line and right now it’s nearly impossible to figure out.

How long does it take to transition to the new offense? Matt Allen told media that there are some similarities between the old scheme and the new one, but also there’s a lot of new terminology. He equated it to learning a new language. There will be some speed bumps with that and the coronavirus pandemic killing spring ball certainly isn’t going to help. How quickly can the line get up to speed on new blocking techniques and new plays? Is there any benefit to having experience or does it matter less because so much of the playbook is new?

How do the coaches handle an offensive line group that doesn’t exactly fit what they want? This is a big one. If you pay any attention to recruiting you know that MSU has been offering absolutely massive offensive tackles. Their lone OT recruit, Ethan Boyd, is 6-foot-7. The new staff is adamant about pursuing tackles that are absolute behemoths. If you aren’t 6-foot-6 or taller, get on the interior of the line. AJ Arcuri, who started a couple games at left tackle is 6-foot-7. So that works. But Jordan Reid is *maybe* 6-foot-4. Dobbs is 6-foot-3. Kevin Jarvis is 6-foot-4. Campbell is 6-foot-5 but has been playing guard. Spencer Brown and Damon Kaylor fit the size bill, but have no experience as redshirt freshmen. Does Arcuri get left tackle because he’s the only experienced guy with the size the coaches want out there? Judging by the new size standard, MSU has one experienced tackle, a couple inexperience tackles, and a crap load of interior linemen. How do the coaches handle that? Do they plug holes and just get by for the first couple of years and use guys out of position? Do they force younger players into bigger roles? We’ll have to wait until fall to see, but it’s an important storyline to follow.

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