First off, I don't think this is all on the OL.
They are certainly part of the problem, but I think the loss of Strickland really hurt us. He did a great job calling out blocking assignments and was by far our best RB picking up blitzes. Our RBs this year are really struggling to effectively block anyone. I see a lot of confusion out there on passing plays, from the RBs and the OL too.
Part of it is the opposition. We have been matched up against some teams that are really good at pass rushing.
Part of it is injuries. Sam Heckel was by far the best center on the roster and when he got hurt, we got a big downgrade there moving Servais to fill in. And then we took a double hit because Servais was by far our best OT. Duerig got hurt early too. Had he stayed healthy, he might have been able to fill in at center so we could have left Servais at OT.
Gabe Horan was, in my mind, going to be one of our best OTs in a long while. Losing him was a big loss for this year and beyond. Liam O'Sullivan should be a junior this year. He could have been a good player. Sam Clausman should be a senior. Colin Byrne should be a senior. It is a shame he wasn't around for his final year of eligibility; he might have finally returned to a starting role at center again.
Part of it is our WRs, who I think are generally small, not super fast, not very strong and not very physical. I think our scheme remains very good but we need big, physical WRs who can get open, win 50-50 balls against tight coverage and block.
Part of it is with our QB, who is not experienced, has had to face extreme duress most of the season and I think has been affected by the constant pressure he faces from defenses. He is definitely missing some open receivers. He has been extremely relucant to run, even when defenses have been clearly ignoring him as a threat to run. When you establish yourself as a running threat on passing plays, it opens things up for the passing game. We saw that all the time with Eric was here and we saw it when Clayton came in last week. TD's habit of stepping back a step or two to buy time just as he should be delivering the ball is also not a good thing.
Part of it is our offense. We don't have effective responses when we get blitzed, even against all out blitzes. There needs to be a hot route on all passing plays and we need to get better using it. It is not good teams continue to blitz us relentlessly and we have no answer.
And yes, we haven't done great recruiting OL, especially tackles. We aren't getting the numbers we need and there is too much attrition at this position.
When Dino was hired, I expected to see us become much more successful recruiting players for his dynamic offensive scheme, and struggle to get players to sign up to play on the defensive side of the ball, where his teams had not been as successful.
That never happened. In fact, the opposite happened. We have had very good success recruiting on the defensive side of the ball and only decent success recruiting players for the SU offense.
I remain kind of mystified as to why this is the case. I think at least part of this is because our best recruiters are on the defensive side of the ball.
I think you can question development as well. I don't see our OL getting measurably better any longer from year to year. Take last off season.
How did Adams, who desperately needs to lose 30 pounds, not lose any weight and how did Servais, who has had trouble getting overpowered for years, lose 25 pounds? It seems to me that the guys I keep seeing setting records lifting weights, getting bigger and stronger, always seem to be on the defensive side of the ball.
Anyway, to summarize, I think the scheme is fine. The play calling might need tweaking and we appear to be missing some key components needed to run this offense successfully, but IMHO, we aren't far away from being solid on offense.