March 25, 2008
RUSTON, La. - Louisiana Tech football coach Derek Dooley was forced to answer the question of depth on the offensive line during spring practice during the team's workout Tuesday. With only 10 O-linemen working out in the spring, what happens if one gets injured?
Four offensive linemen are already missing the entire spring workout period - centers Greg Greathouse and Jon LeBlanc, guard David Accardo and tackle Bill Jones - leaving eight scholarship players and two walk-ons to take all the reps. Starting center Lon Roberts went down during practice but is expected to return soon.
"Today's story is `In Search of Centers,'" Dooley said after practice.
Dooley said Accardo would normally fill in as a backup center in the event Roberts goes down, but with him out along with Greathouse and LeBlanc the O-line was forced to make a change on the fly.
"Center is the one position that's harder to throw a guy in because you've got to snap it," Dooley said. "We had to make a battlefield adjustment. We moved Ben Harris in there and Will Taylor. They had to learn it on the run."
The offensive line returns a lot of young experienced players in 2008 as Roberts played every snap at center as a redshirt freshman. True freshman Jared Miles earned a starting role at guard shortly into the season, and redshirt freshman Rob McGill earned a starting spot on the interior line as well. Accardo, Bill Jones, Ben Harris and Cudahy Harmon all also have starting experience.
Dooley said he has been pleased with the progression the line has made with so many players missing spring drills.
"I think the guys are really showing improvement - every one of them," Dooley said. "Our biggest challenge is replacing the tackles because we had a really nice young interior. What we've done is we've got Rob McGill and Cud Harmon making sure those guys are every down dependable players and finding some backups we can count on."
But the one glaring issue on the line was just accentuated in Tuesday's practice, which Dooley elaborated on.
"I've never experienced this many offensive linemen out. It makes it challenging to structure practice. It's hard to practice without an offensive line," Dooley said. "That's almost an entire line that's not practicing through spring drills. We basically have 10 guys going through spring including walk-ons. All of a sudden if one guy goes down you don't even have a two-deep."
