Offensive line has own agenda moving forward

Justin Shaffer’s message going forward for himself and the rest of Georgia’s offensive line can be summed up quite succinctly.

“I feel like we’ve got to finish; finish that second half,” the Bulldogs’ senior left guard told reporters earlier this week.

He would not be off base.

Offensive inconsistency has been a problem. Although Georgia ranks in the top six of the SEC in regard to scoring offense (5th, 33 points per game) and total offense (6th, 418.5 yards per game), second-half disappearing acts against Auburn (three second half points) and Alabama (zero second half points) has been a point of consternation.

Although many will point to the quarterback, the Bulldogs know it's not as simple as that. According to head coach Kirby Smart, the offensive line could stand to develop more consistency.

“I think our offensive line has probably played pass-pro pretty well this season, in terms of protecting the quarterback and not losing one-on-one battles,” Smart said. “But I don’t feel like we’ve had a lot of mismatches, where we’ve said, ‘That guy is really going to struggle against that guy.’”

Consistency appears to be the biggest issue right now.

Although the Bulldogs have used the same offensive line—Jamaree Salyer (left tackle), Shaffer (left guard), Trey Hill (center), Ben Cleveland (right guard) and Warren McClendon (right tackle)—position coach Matt Luke hasn’t always known what to expect on a week in, week out basis from the group.

“Maybe some of that has to do with who we’ve played and what the defenses are like. I don’t know that, defensively, teams are as good as they were last year, across the board,” Smart said. “We’ve been able to run the ball at times. At Arkansas, we really struggled to run it, and that was probably the game where we struggled to run it the most, in terms of down in, down out.”

Shaffer feels that he and Salyer, Georgia’s first-year left tackle, are starting to gel.

“Jamaree and I will always have that bond, because we come from the same area,” he said. “We’ve always had that bond. We always told each other we needed to be on the right page; the biggest thing we need to work on is just being able to finish on the right page.”

Smart said the Bulldogs hope to develop more depth.

Along with Owen Condon, who started the opener before suffering a minor ankle injury, the only other linemen who have made Georgia’s two road trips are redshirt sophomore Warren Ericson, redshirt freshman Xavier Truss, freshman center Sedrick Van Pran and true freshman Tate Ratledge.

Other than Ericson and Truss who have played in all four games, Van Pran and Ratledge have only received a handful of snaps

“We have to develop more depth at the offensive line,” Smart said. “We have to get the guys within the offensive line to play with even more conditioning and stamina, so that when we do go tempo we can out-compete the other team in terms of conditioning level.”