In Position: Creating Cohesion is First Major Step

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Offensive Line

Who's Back: Cameron Cooper, Brian Crespo-Jaquez, Jacob Gardner, Keegan Hamilton, Trevyn Heil, Aaron Karas, Sammy Norris, Moritz Oberhofer, Aubrey Scott, Teivis Tuioti

Who's New: Jakob Belton, Andrew Cannon, Ethen Erickson, Saveyon Henderson, Cameron Jackson, Oliver Jervis, Bobby Lawrence, Christian Martin, Tanner Morley, Drew Moss, Aitor Urionabarrenechea

Key Number: The obvious one is sacks allowed, which was 59 to lead the nation. Another one is the starters who have to be replaced, which is four, with Gardner moving back to center after playing at left tackle most of last season due to injury.

What Happened: The offseason led to a major overhaul of the room. Key additions came in during spring, as well as Teivis Tuioti moving from the defensive side. They were going to move him back to defense, but he played so well in the spring they are leaving him there and he remains with the first unit.

From the Top: Naturally, offensive line coach Bill Best has a laundry list of what he wants to see accomplished this camp as the line is being restructured. The best part is much of it began in the spring with the move of Tuioti and the arrival of Henderson, Jervis and Moss.

"We have to learn to play together," Best said. "We have to learn to trust each other, and we have to see toughness come out of these guys individually."

An offensive line coach likes depth. In an ideal world, he'd love to have nine guys he can trust heading into the season. He's working toward that number, but he's not there yet.

While toughness is required on the job, Best isn't worried about the physical aspect of the description, rather improving the mental connotation.

"The way we practice in individual, there' a trust factor that's built. There's definitely a trust factor built in team drills," Best said. "The toughness, when we push the tempo sometimes in certain drills, the way we run the football, we need to see that toughness. Guys need to come through and push through it. The biggest thing in a toughness factor is when a guy gets beat. They'll get beat from time to time, but they need to bounce ack the next play. That's the type of toughness we need and are looking for."

So far, Best is seeing what he was looking for. He's still working toward building up the depth numbers, but when it comes to being tied together and working as a group – and regrouping when necessary – the progress is there.

"I never feel good, but we are ahead of the bell curve, I will say that, with the first group," he said. "It's fluid, and it's fluid every day. The beauty of recruiting is we have guys in now who can push. All the way from he bottom of the depth chart, we have potential they can push the guy in front of them, and that will make everybody better."

From the Room: Even for the guys who weren't part of last year's team – and that's many in the meeting room – what happened last year still lingers. They didn't shy away from the problem, viewing it more as a chance to be part of the solution.

"Last year there were tons on sacks and our quarterbacks was getting beat up," Moss said. "Obviously, you don't want your quarterback getting beat up so he can make a throw, so it's allowing him to make a throw."

Moss feels the group which worked together as starters in the spring have picked up where they left off. In the spring, the group did a much better job of giving Clay Millen time in the quarterback, and they were basically facing CSU's starting defensive line from a season ago, a group which was considered a strong point.

That's a good place to start, but not where they want to finish when September rolls around. Not even when the season ends. Playing as one is something they feel can always be improved upon and they each have a part.

Even if sometimes they have to call someone out.

"We need to be talking all the time. We need to be telling each other what we do best and what we need to work on," Moss said. "We all need to be on the same page. If you've got to yell at a guy, you gotta let him know and make sure the point gets across. I'm pretty sure everyone has found their spot, and nobody is worried about getting retaliated at if you're yelling. We all understand."

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