The second most common question I've been getting during the off-season (after the QB question) is whether the Michigan State offensive line can become a strong unit in 2020.
With that question in mind, I took a deep dive into the subject for the next installment of our State of the Program Series, which we will publish on Friday.
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You will hear me complain about this many times in the next couple of months, but I would really, really liked to have seen some of these offensive linemen play this spring, especially in the Green-White Game. I have no read on players such as James Ohonba and Damon Kaylor. I would have liked to have seen the beginnings of the next stage of development in players like Jacob Isaia and Devontae Dobbs.
As for other players such as A.J. Arcuri, J.D. Duplain and Matt Carrick (as well as Jordan Reid and Matt Allen, Dobbs and Mustafa Khaleefa), I wanted to look at their most recent specimens of work in order to be reminded of how the performed the last time we saw them.
Well, that takes us back to December in the Pinstripe Bowl. I rewatched the offensive line in that game, and even re-opened my notes from the Rutgers game, in which Dobbs and Khaleefa played extensively for the first time (it wasn't pretty).
Also, I dove into Pro Football Focus' grade sheets for the Pinstripe Bowl, the Rutgers game and the season as a whole.
Sometimes it's hard to make sense of PFF's numbers. So assigned letter grades to the PFF numbers, to make it easier for the readers to digest.
Then I was left with a bunch of Michigan State internal (and unofficial) offensive line grades and rankings.
In order to get a baseline comparison, I chose to call up the PFF grades of a comparable program. Ohio State, Wisconsin and even Michigan didn't provide the type of apples-to-apples comparison that I was looking for. So I called up Iowa's PFF grades. Iowa is a strong offensive line program. Iowa's left tackle was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft; and the Hawkeyes right tackle, Detroit native Alaric Jackson, is a player Michigan State fans have been familiar with for several years.
As expected, Michigan State's o-line PFF grades paled compared to Iowa's.
Out of curiosity, I called up MSU's o-line PFF grades from the successful 2017 season. Not surprisingly, Michigan State graded out pretty well that year. Of note, players such as Tyler Higby, who struggled last year, graded out pretty well in 2017. Kevin Jarvis's grades didn't change much from 2017 to his brief appearance in 2019. Stunningly, Jordan Reid's PFF pass protection grades as a freshman were excellent in 2017, better than last year.
Anyway, I recorded all of the PFF numbers and rankings from the above seasons. I mention some of these figures in tomorrow's story. But there is so much box information in the story that there was no room to include this PFF information. I didn't want to just throw my PFF notes away, so I decided to post them here. Maybe you'll find them interesting:
2019 Michigan State Offensive Line Grades
By Pro Football Focus
PASS BLOCKING
(Players with 180 or more snaps)
Player, PFF score, (letter grade)
1. Matt Allen 75.0 (B)
2. J.D. Duplain 62.7 (C)
3. Luke Campbell 62.5 (C)
4. Nick Samac 61.2 (C-)
5. Jordan Reid 61.1 (C-)
6. Blake Bueter 59.2 (C-)
7. Matt Carrick 57.1 (C-)
8. AJ Arcuri 54.3 (D)
9. Tyler Higby 34.6 (F)
Comp's Takeaway: Arcuri is better than that grade, and he showed it by the end of the season. That being said, no player on the o-line has a more difficult pass protection job than the left tackle. Everyone else on the team would have fared much worse if they had his assignment each week. In tomorrow's story, we detail how he shut down future NFL Draft pick Carlos Basham of Wake Forest in the Pinstripe Bowl.
Players with fewer than 180 snaps:
1. Jacob Isaia (13 snaps) 68.8 (C+)
2. Kevin Jarvis (176 snaps) 61.7 (C-)
3. Mustafah Khaleefa (36 snaps) 42.6 (D-)
4. Devontae Dobbs (57 snaps) 30.8 (F)
RUN BLOCKING
(Players with 180 snaps or more)
1. Luke Campbell 60.6 (C-)
2. Jordan Reid 58.1 (C-)
3. Nick Samac 57.2 (C-)
4. Matt Allen 54.9 (D)
5. AJ Arcuri 54.3 (D)
6. Matt Carrick 54.2 (D)
7. Tyler Higby 53.3 (D)
8. Blake Bueter 52.0 (D)
9. J.D. Duplain 51.2 (D)
COMP's TAKE: It's kind of easy to forget how solid Luke Campbell is when he's right. I remember him having some good moments last year, but it surprises me that he ended up grading out the best of MSU's o-linemen in 2019 by PFF.
180 snaps or fewer:
1. Mustafa Khaleefah 65.5 (C+)
2. Jack Henrichs 60.4 (C-)
3. Kevin Jarvis 60.1 (C-)
4. Jacob Isaia 57.7 (C-)
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Okay, that's a lot of C's and D's.
I wanted to find a comparison, to see how many C's and D's show up in the PFF grading system when researching a very good, but not great, offensive line. So I chose Iowa, which went 10-3 last year.
Iowa Pass Blocking: (180 or more plus snaps)
1. Tristan Wirfs, T, 88.7 (A)
2. Tyler Linderbaum, C, 80.0 (B+)
3. Mark Kallenberger, G, 74.5 (B-)
4. Kyler Schott, G, 69.2 (C+)
5. Alaric Jackson, T, 65.7 (C+)
6. Levi Paulsen, 59.4 (C-)
7. Landan Paulsen, 55.1 (D)
Run Blocking
1. Tristan Wirfs, T, 91.8 (A)
2. Tyler Linderbaum, C, 79.8 (B)
3. Kyler Schott, G, 76.8 (B)
4. Alaric Jackson, T, 71.7 (B-)
5. Mark Kallenberger, G, 69.8 (C+)
6. Levi Paulsen, T, 65.3 (C+)
7. Landen Paulsen, G, 59.1 (C-)
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Okay, so we learned that PFF doesn't hand out many A's. But you'll see fewer D's with Iowa than Michigan State. And for good reason.
But realize that Iowa was a quality, 10-3 team with an o-line serving as the team strength. The moral of this story is that you can build a good o-line with PFF B's and C's. It helps to have an A-level left tackle and a B-plus center.
Note that Alaric Jackson was third-team All-Big Ten by coaches and media, but he was the fifth-ranked player on the Iowa o-line. The moral of that story is that it's hard to grade out well at the tackle position. Ask Jordan Reid.
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Okay, so out of curiosity, and to seek another baseline, I went back to MSU's 10-3 season of 2017 to see how many B's and C's were on that offensive line. It ended up looking a lot like Iowa's, but without a first-round draft pick at left tackle.
MSU’s 2017 Offensive Line
Pass Blocking
(180 or more snaps)
1. Brian Allen 84.7 (B+)
2. David Beedle 84.1 (B+)
3. Jordan Reid 76.3 (B)
4. Tyler Higby 71.1 (B-)
5. Cole Chewins 69.2 (C+)
6. Kevin Jarvis 68.4 (C+)
7. Luke Campbell 66.1 (C+)
Run Blocking
1. Brian Allen 80.7 (B+)
2. Luke Campbell 72.7 (B-)
3. David Beedle 66.2 (C+)
4. Kevin Jarvis 65.4 (C+)
5. Cole Chewins 61.3 (C-)
6. Tyler Higby 58.4 (C-)
7. Jordan Reid 51.3 (D)
COMP's TAKE: Note that MSU's o-line stayed away from injury in 2017. Michigan State had only seven players with 180 snaps or more. Last year, Michigan State had 10 players with 170 snaps or more.
Might Michigan State have had more players with B's, and fewer players with D's, if the Spartans had been able to play a healthy group of seven last year rather than a ramshackle shuffle of 10? Of course.
Anyway, we'll trot out the o-line State of the Program story tomorrow. There is some optimism in it, but only if Michigan State can shake the injury bug that has bitten the Spartans the last two years.
