The offensive line crisis in college football: What’s behind the decline?

Less than 48 hours after Washington lost in the College Football Playoff National Championship to Michigan, it was open season on its roster. The primary targets were obvious: the Huskies’ Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line, regarded as the best in college football. 

Essentially, every scholarship offensive lineman on the team was contacted through intermediaries. It only became more complicated when it was clear that coach Kalen DeBoer was in line to take over for Nick Saban at Alabama.

Out of the 10 offensive linemen listed on Washington’s depth chart in the title game, eight were sophomores or younger. These days, two remain on the roster. Tackles Troy Fautanu and Roger Rosengarten declared for the draft. Center Parker Brailsford followed DeBoer and offensive line coach Scott Huff to Alabama. Guards Julius Buelow and Nate Kalepo transferred to Ole Miss. Tackle Jalen Klemm remained for a year but left for Arizona State after the 2024 season. 

Last season, new Washington coach Jedd Fisch trotted out three transfers (out of five spots) to start along the offensive line. The new-look Huskies fell from No. 17 to 127 in pass blocking grade, per Pro Football Focus. The team went 6-7. In the first seven years of the CFP, the national runner-up won at least 11 games five times the next year. Since Name, Image, Likeness laws became part of the game in 2021, two of three finalists finished with losing records the next year. 

Welcome to the new world of college football. Transfers transfers and pay-for-play under the guise of NIL have created a chaotic marketplace that has hit the heart of the team harder than anywhere. 

At its core, the offensive line is the heart of football. It requires the most clear and coordinated action from the biggest and most lumbering of athletes on the field. It forces players to bulk up to tremendous sizes while retaining their balance, feet and hands. 

But in the era of NIL and the transfer portal, every player is a target. Last offseason, starting-caliber linemen had offers nearing $500,000, according to CBS Sports, making for truly difficult decisions. With revenue sharing on the horizon, the offers have gotten higher. Development falls to the wayside. Priorities shift. And, even for the best coaches in the game, stocking a championship-level offensive line rotation has never been more complicated. 

“Wherever I’ve been, the development of offensive linemen is still the same, but the keeping [of] them is totally different,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman told CBS Sports. “I have been surprised when guys come in here and they’re going, ‘Coach, I need X amount of dollars.’ I go, ‘God dang, man, you played two games.'” 

The root of the problem

Legendary Notre Dame offensive lineman Aaron Taylor has made it his life’s work to bring attention to offensive linemen. In 2015, the CBS Sports analyst helped launch the Joe Moore Award, the only major college football honor that annually spotlights a unit instead of an individual. 

Taylor identifies six key criteria as being central to the award: toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique and finishing. He points to 2016 Iowa as one of the most emblematic groups to ever win the award. Finding comparable offensive lines is getting more difficult in this era. 

“Fundamentals and physicality are what launched this award,” Taylor told CBS Sports. “That’s becoming harder and harder to find.” 

All the outside forces impacting college football have done a number on offensive linemen, who are more context-dependent than anyone outside of quarterback. Physically, players have to take part in a development plan that will take several years, even for elite prospects. Mentally, every system asks for precise movement and technique. There’s little preparation for it, and finding comfort in your development process is critical. 

“Offensive line is the most developmental of all positions,” Miami offensive line coach Alex Mirabal told CBS Sports. “You know why? Blocking is not natural. It’s something that you have to teach from the ground up, and it takes time. You’re teaching them to do something that’s unnatural. These bodies are so big, it takes time to gain the core strength they need being a 345-pound man. It just takes time.” 

Even for elite offensive line evaluators, it takes time to know what they have. Take Texas offensive line coach Kyle Flood. He signed 17 offensive linemen in his first four years with the program, including the 2021 transitional class. All five starters on the 2024 offensive line were homegrown players, but not necessarily the most obvious prospects. 

Guard DJ Campbell and tackle Kelvin Banks were the Longhorns’ No. 1 and 2 linemen in their recruiting class, but No. 6 Cameron Williams emerged as a star at right tackle. Center Jake Majors and guard Hayden Conner were older players who found their groove late in their careers. Only six of Flood’s 17 linemen have started a game heading into 2025; Banks was the only true freshman to do so. The rest needed time. 

“It’s not easy evaluating big people,” said Andrew Ivins, who oversees recruiting rankings for 247Sports. “Football is a genetic sport where size is always going mater. So, not only do you have to find the biggest individuals, but you have to find the ones with the quickness and balance to counter all the twitched-up pass rushers that everyone is rostering these days. 

Of course, those same individuals must also be willing to drive an assignment into the ground every single snap while sealing off run lanes. It’s a taxing job and it’s extremely difficult to identify the ones that are going to have a chance to do it at the game’s highest levels when they are 15, 16 and 17 years old.”

Hanging over the position group, too, is the schematic change in the game. Increased passing meant that linemen trained far more moving backwards than pushing forward. Quick passing and the run-pass option both de-emphasize lines and let players hold their blocks for shorter periods of time, making fundamentals less costly. 

Offensive Line Trends (P4 vs. P4)

Continuity along the offensive line is paramount as five players aim to act as one. The results speak for themselves. Out of 40 players to earn All-America honors from CBS Sports in each of the four post-NIL seasons, 36 were homegrown players. Out of 50 players to start on a Joe Moore Award semifinalist in 2024, 39 of them were homegrown. Two of the three finalists, Army and Texas, were completely built through high school recruiting. 

Part of it comes down to priority; elite offensive line prospects are well taken care of by their original schools. However, there’s little replication for units growing and developing together over the course of multiple years, both physically and in communication. The consequences over hundreds of snaps can be devastating. 

“Consistency across the offensive line in general is huge because one bad play from the offensive line can blow up an entire drive,” Pro Football Focus head of analysis Billy Moy told CBS Sports. “As soon as you start to remove parts of that consistency, the floor isn’t necessarily going down a little. You’re going way down because of the ramifications it can have, especially in the college season where every single win matters.” 

The cost of transfers

Pittman is considered one of the great offensive line coaches in history after developing many of the best units of the past several years. He was offensive line coach at Georgia when the program brought many elite players into the program, including most of the starters that ultimately won back-to-back national championships. 

As a head coach, though, results have been more mixed. The 2021 group was great. The 2023 one struggled. Last year, Arkansas managed to pull together a solid offensive line behind four transfers. After the season, two transferred out along with three other key depth pieces. 

“Now it’s a deal where the cohesiveness of that group is not the same,” Pittman said of rotating transfers. “And I think there’s so much power in the cohesiveness of the group. It’s the most players in one area at a time and it’s a vital part of the team. So the camaraderie and the togetherness of that room is not the same.” 

Arkansas, like many teams, feels decent about their potential starting five. Past that, it’s getting harder to know. The lack of quality depth has been a major red flag for even many of the elite teams in college football. 

“One of the things we noticed this year was that a single injury was having not just a 1-time effect but a 2- or 2.5-time effect on the play of the unit as a whole,” Taylor said. “We’re still trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but when playoff teams all suffered major injuries, the decline in play was seismic. A lot of them fought hard and got better as the season went along, but that’s something we hadn’t seen before.” 

Oregon was one such team last year as the Ducks played depth to start the season. Idaho and Boise State stymied the unit as the games were decided by a combined 13 points. Losing a center can prove especially devastating as the calls and communication structure can change with another snapper. 

Ohio State, the eventual national champions, also had to fight through some major injuries. Left tackle Josh Simmons, a future first round pick, tore his ACL in a loss to Oregon. Weeks later, center Seth McLaughlin tore his Achilles and Ohio State’s offensive line strung together a disastrous performance in a loss to Michigan. They eventually pulled together behind a monstrous effort from star Donovan Jackson, but a previous CFP system wouldn’t have been quite as forgiving. 

While the transfer losses can cause discomfort in a single season, it can completely screw up the long-term planning. A few whiffs, a few transfers and suddenly a projected offensive line depth chart for the next year can vanish. When that happens, you have no choice but to return to the portal once again. 

Flattening the field

Four years into the NIL era, offensive lines are less consistent. There’s little argument. The days of Alabama or Georgia hoarding the very best players in America and deploying generational lines is simply over. However, while the top groups are leaking talent, the rest are taking advantage. 

Last season, the gap between the No. 2 Georgia and No. 11 Penn State in the 247Sports Talent Composite was one of the smallest gaps between two such spots in recent years. That lack of depth is starting to drag elite teams back to the pack. 

“To me, it’s almost like a redistribution of wealth,” Moy said. “If Alabama recruits eight offensive line prospects in a given season, half those guys aren’t going to see the field at all. It just allows other schools to go after those sorts of guys. As the wealth gets spread around and more floors get raised, that’s how you’re going to see that gap closing from the middle up as teams just get more consistently good across that spot.” 

That Alabama redistribution has already been felt. In 2023 and 2024, seven Alabama offensive linemen transferred from the program. Five of them became primary starters at power conference schools. Where the Tide lose depth, programs like TCU and Florida gain starters. It allows players to get both the most money and also create the best possible fit. 

Additionally, the NIL component has been a serious game changer in shaping recruiting battles. Suddenly, the elite level schools are starting to get squeezed by newcomers for top prospects. 

“I think that we all thought that when NIL came in that there would be superteams because some would have more money than others,” Pittman said. “But what we’ve seen is that parity has grown. I think that has a lot of correlation between the quarterback and the offensive line.” 

Take a player like Jackson Cantwell, rated one of the top offensive line prospects in the Class of 2026. He was considered a Georgia lean for much of his process. At the end, Miami came to the table. They offered him both significant money and a coaching staff that has done exceptionally well with offensive linemen. NIL gave them the chance to make a closing statement that could compete with Kirby Smart dropping rings on the table. 

Since the days of Knute Rockne and Fielding Yost, offensive linemen are the players who have changed the least. Five big bodies are all that protects the offensive skill talent from some of the most athletically gifted humans on the planet. They have to do it while walking backwards, and getting little recognition in the process. 

Modern college football prevents a litany of complications. The Wild West of player movement has arrived. However, those who manage to ride the bronco and instill the fundamentals are the ones who are best positioned to succeed in this era. To win big, an offensive line coach has no choice but to convince players to stay the course. 

“You’ve got to develop your room as if you’re going to have them there for five years,” Mirabal said. “Even if your kid is coming only for a year, you’ve got to coach him up like if you have him. I haven’t allowed it to change what we expect from the players.”