When I was researching the story I ran today on the more experienced offensive unit, one of the items that I found the most interesting was the difference in the number of starts of the projected starting offensive line compared to last year.

Math is not always one of my strong suits but if I added correctly, the starting offense in the 2015 season opener against Villanova combined to start 45 games with 32 of them coming from the offensive line. This year if the No. 1 offense in the two-deep chart starts tonight have combined for 128 career starts with seven players having started at least 10 games.


2015 (45 starts)                  2016 (128 starts)
QB Bryant Shirreffs 0       QB Bryant Shirreffs 12
RB Ron Johnson 5            RB Arkeel Newsome 13
WR Noel Thomas 5          WR Noel Thomas 17
WR Thomas Lucas 2        WR Hergy Mayala 5
TE Tommy Myers 1         TE Tommy Myers 9
TE Alec Bloom 0             TE Alec Bloom 11
RT Andreas Knappe 7      RT Andreas Knappe 20
RG Tyler Samra 13          RG Richard Levy 25
C Brendan Vechery 0         C  Ryan Crozier 3
LG Tommy Hopkins 0     LG Tommy Hopkins 13
LT Richard Levy 12         LT Matt Peart 0