Check out the video from day 5 practice.  These men look lean and fit to me for 300 pounders.


http://www.ohiobobcats.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/040512aab.html

I saw the results of the Winter 2012 Offensive Line competition on Facebook. It encompasses a lot of physical fitness standards and also includes racquetball and GPA, ranking the guys 1-20 and giving them points in 15 categories. In a lot of the categories, the rankings stopped at a certain point and the rest of the guys got 20s, so I'm guessing those were guys who did not participate in those events. A few guys seemed to miss most of the events for one reason or another. Eric Herman was the winner, with Sam Johnson second. Bryce Dietz, Skyler Allen and John Prior were 3-5 and were only a few points apart.

Some observations: Eric Herman has a very impressive combination of strength and athleticism. Dietz ranked extremley high in pure strength categories. Prior won categories that indicate he probably is the most purely athletic lineman in the bunch. Sam Johnson finished in the top 8 in everything. Everyone else had a finish of 11 or lower in at least one event. Skyler Allen probably could have finished third but he got a 20 in racquetball. Guys who were limited in participation were Bales, Welter, Lucas, Curtis, Carlotta and McQueen.

Winners were: Herman, iron grippers, racquetball and big guns; Dietz, pull-ups, sled push and power clean; Allen, iron cross and pound-for-pound; Prior, vertical and 10-yard dash; Lechner, squat; Prichard, bench; Powell, sit-ups; Welter, GPA; and Carlotta, medicine ball toss.

Herman is a beast!  I'm excited about our line.  It was awesome last year and looks to be set to be awesome for several years.  The foundation has been built!

Remember just a few years ago when there was not even a possibility of a Spring game because they only had 8 total offensive linemen? There is solid depth at OL, now. Your example of Mark Smith is a good one. When he has played, he has played very well, but unfortunately for him, he's behind two very good left guards, Lechner and Carlotta. Perhaps they might move him to LT to back up Prior? 

On the offensive line depth chart, 9 of the top 11 players return. In the top 2 strings, the only openings are starting LT and RT, with the #2 guy at both positions (Prior and McGrath) moving up. At both guards and center, the 1-2 guys return. There is a hoard of guys behind these returning veterans, looking for PT, guys like Dietz, Powell, Curtis, Lucas, McQueen, Welter, Pritchard, Crane, Fain, and Everhart.  The good news for them is that, with the offense Ohio has, I expect them to put some teams away early, so I think even the #3 linemen will get snaps this year.

Thinking back to 2005, everyone expected Solich would build the offensive line until it looked like this. Who knew it would take 7 years? I sure didn't think it would take this long, but now it is definitely where I expected it would be.

LC, you are REALLY good at this.  As always, great analysis and rational comments.

But again... who is (not) editing this content??? The grammar is terrible.

I presume he is referring to these items from ohiobobcats.com

The one thing those quotes make clear - a spell-check is not a replacement for a proofreader.

The Ohio offensive lineman challenge has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/bobcats512

There was a winter challenge that Eric Herman won. The current summer challenge has him winning again so far with only a few events left. Sam Johnson is second. Vince Carlotta has one three events but missed several others. Skyler Allen sat out all events until the most recent one. J.D. Bales is not taking part because of an internship. Pritchard, Fain, Dietz and Lechner all missed some events, but there was 100 percent participation in the most recent event (front squat) so it seems everyone is healing up, which is very good news.