Kirby Smart Indirectly Diagnoses Issues with Kentucky Offensive Line

The Kentucky offensive line has been in Big Blue Nation’s crosshairs after an abysmal performance against South Carolina. While piling on further does us no good, diagnosing the “why” might be helpful for some and Kirby Smart indirectly provided some insight on Wednesday afternoon.

“Offensive linemen are fewer and far between,” the Georgia head coach said during the SEC teleconference. Even for programs like Georgia, finding the right guys isn’t an easy task.

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from the NFL that it’s the position they struggle the most to find. They’re in constant pursuit in these colleges of looking and finding and trying to find linemen. So if they’re struggling to find them, so are we, and it’s certainly that way at the high school level too,” he said.

John Schlarman was the driving force behind the creation of the Big Blue Wall. He did it with some pretty good players from the state of Kentucky. Landon Young and Drake Jackson were High School All-Americans who turned into multi-year starters at left tackle and center, the two most important positions on the offensive line.

The stars aligned to create that magic. They also aligned in much more tragic fashion. Schlarman was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and passed away 2.5 seasons later. Despite the tragedy, for a moment it looked like Mark Stoops had the right bottle to fill with lightning.

Stoops hired Eric Wolford, another coaching journeyman from Youngstown, who successfully recruited three top 500 offensive linemen in his first class. Kiyaunta Goodwin and Nik Hall were All-Americans and Johnson Central’s Grant Bingham was a four-star talent heavily recruited by Notre Dame, an NFL OL Factory. Three seasons later, none of them are still playing football. Oh, and Wolford left Lexington to spend two seasons at Alabama before returning this spring.

Developing from the High School Ranks

The Kentucky offensive line experienced a series of unforuntate events that led to significant turnover. The “recruit and develop” mantra went by the wayside in both aspects. Offensive linemen are slow cookers who take time to reach their potential.

“How do you develop them? You have to be patient. You have to invest time in them at a young age, and grow them because they’re not typically ready physically that first year,” Smart said.

Not only are there physical challenges to playing offensive line at an early age, it’s demanding mentally. Finding the right guy from the high school ranks isn’t easy, and neither is finding one in the transfer portal. Georgia had three offensive linemen — Tate Ratledge, Xavier Truss, Dylan Fairchild — on either the first or second team Preseason All-SEC teams. They all were high school recruits who have been in Smart’s program since at least 2020.

“Personally, I feel like they need to be in the program for a while, and not because they can’t learn it, just because nobody’s — you’re not finding very many effective offensive linemen in the portal,” said Smart. “It’s not a position that is a high transfer position.”

Kentucky used the portal to remedy its offensive line recruiting problems, taking seven transfers over the last two cycles. It’s difficult to find effective short-term solutions for offensive line issues in college football, and that’s why Stoops brought Wolford back to Lexington.

“We have to settle in, we have to recruit,” the Kentucky head coach said on Monday. “I have unbelievable confidence in Coach Wolf, especially with the way he recruits and the way he coaches. We just have to continue to build that up. Over three/four years, attrition, it takes its toll on you.”