Despite spring injuries, Texas A&M offensive line believes they will show improvement

23 hrs ago
Texas A&M offensive line coach Steve Addazio walked in the middle of an offensive line drill during the Aggies first practice of fall camp with a simple, calmly-stated message to his players.
“We are not developing bad habits,” Addazio said.
Sure, there is plenty of experience returning on the Aggie offensive line this season, with only center Matthew Wykoff departed by way of transfer portal. However, he was an injury substitute for center Bryce Foster last season.
But, with injuries limiting the amount of offensive linemen the Aggies featured at the spring game, building continuity on the offensive front took a front seat during summer workouts and at this season’s preseason camp.
“You get so many walkthroughs now in the summer, so from an assignment standpoint, a lineman standpoint and the work—they’ve all worked all summer long,” head coach Jimbo Fisher said. “So we feel very good about that. And it’s a lot of guys with experience, so it’s not like you’re missing guys that haven’t played. Feel very good with that and should be ready to go.”
The absences came in an offseason that needs improvement from the offensive line. According to Pro Football Focus, tackle Reuben Fatheree II was the only Aggie lineman to grade above a 67 in pass blocking last season. Fatheree’s 77.5 grade finished 10th in the Southeastern Conference, according to the analytics service.
As practice opened Wednesday, Fatheree was doing individual work to the side as he continues his recovery from injury. Fisher said they would gradually work him into the preseason.
“I think we’ll ease Deuce into practice as we go, because he hasn’t practice,” Fisher said. “He’ll take some individual reps and go, but we should be good.”
Both left tackle Trey Zuhn III and Foster returned to work Wednesday after missing portions of the spring due to injury and Foster’s work with the A&M track and field team. Alongside the pair was freshman Chase Bison’s at right tackle, Layden Robinson at right guard and Mark Nabou at left guard. Nabou, a sophomore, also took reps at center, where he played during the majority of spring ball in Foster’s absence. Sophomore Kam Dewberry also took first team reps at left guard.
After a lackluster season both as a team and on the offensive line, Robinson said they are approaching this new year with eyes wide open.
“My perspective is we got woke up last season,” Robinson said Wednesday. “That’s all that is to it. The people that are here that experienced that know how that feels and it was a wake up call. We took that into the summer and the way we finished, we took that in just see how we could do when we do the little things right.”
Also working in the Aggies favor is a second season under Addazio, who came to A&M after serving as head coach at Colorado State. Prior to Addazio, Josh Henson took the Aggie offensive line to the peaks of the finals for the Joe Moore Award, losing out only to Alabama—all in his second season in Aggieland.
Robinson said he believes another year under the tutelage of Addazio could produce noticeable gains on the field.
“It’s always being going into the second season, because you know your coach and you know what your coach expects from you and you adjust to his play style and you adjust to his system,” Robinson said. “So its always good, especially going through spring with them.”
And he didn’t have a problem speaking for his coach when he said the proof of the summer’s work has already manifested itself.
“If you asked him, we’ve made tremendous strides,” Robinson said. “This is the best that we’ve looked with him and he’s very excited with us right now, but he’s not satisfied. We’ve got a lot more work to do, but it’s all going to come together in the second season. That’s the best part about it.”
Fisher agreed, saying the execution of the offensive line has been more consistent than last season. But, the key is translating it off the practice fields.
“Hopefully, we can take it out in the fall and go,” he said. “We’ll wait and see. We’ll find out.”