Chattanooga Mocs Becoming ‘O-Line U’
Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Chattanooga might soon be known as ‘O-line U’.
They’ve sent two offensive linemen to the NFL over the last two years.
How is this year’s unit stacking up?
Brian Armstrong gets down in the trenches.
Said offensive line coach Kevin Revis: “A special thing to play o-line here with all the guys that you’ve had going to the next level.”
Chattanooga Moc
s offensive line has been a huge strength for the team in the past few years with Cole Strange being selected in the first round and McClendon Curtis being picked up by the las Vegas Raiders.
Said offensive lineman Griffin McDowell: “Just knowing that there’s a shot there’s a goal now, some guys have been here. They’ve done it. They trust the process. And it just makes me want to come out and do the same.”
Said Revis: “Biggest thing is, is drawing attention to the little things we got to do outside of the bare minimum and outside of the things that they do a daily basis, and they get that. That’s what they’ve seen from the Cole’s and the McClendon’s and the Corey Levins.”
Now the search for the next top offensive lineman continues.
Said head coach Rusty Wright: “The thing is we’ll see we got some young guys in that room, and a couple of older guys too, but we got good players in there. So we’ll see, we’ll see who steps up and becomes that next guy.”
The goal of this offensive line is not to be the next Cole or McClendon, but to be the best version of themselves.
Said Revis: “To say the next Cole or the next McClendon. We don’t have Cole or McClendon. We have some really friggin good football players, but I don’t know if we necessarily have that exact know, we have some guys that can be great players within their own right, and not to say we don’t have NFL players, but to say the next Cole or next McClendon. Those guys know very unique.”
With a group of potentially great linemen.
Said McDowell: We’re able to set the tone for the rest of the offense output. We come here, we make plays for the offense to work, and we get the job done.”
Said Wright: “We’ve made an emphasis in that room trying to be good. We try to recruit good players, try to develop good players, try to get all that stuff done for them. But, I mean, the biggest thing is we know we have to be good up front to have success.”
and that includes blocking for running back Ford.
Said Revis: “That’s one of our main goals, is to not make it about him. You know, go in and say, all right, you make our job easy. Let’s make your job easy.”
Said Wright: “Well, it helps when you have someone like him back there. You don’t necessarily have to block them all, you know, at times.”
