![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Wyoming-v-Air-Force-096.jpg\")
<\/a>The Wyoming offensive line gets ready pre-snap before in a recent game vs Air Force. (Photo via KFBC Radio)<\/p><\/div>\n
Position Preview: Offensive Line<\/p>\n
Wyoming\u2019s offensive line is just like a Clint Eastwood movie.\u00a0 The 2014 season proved it.\u00a0 It was the very definition of \u201cThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.\u201d They paved the way for some of the best running production, particularly from running backs, that we\u2019ve seen in the past 10 years.\u00a0 We also had, by a reasonable margin, the worst pass protection in the Mountain West Conference.\u00a0 All in all, for the first season in Coach Craig Bohl\u2019s system, we had some growing pains, but it will begin to show its fruits this season.<\/p>\n
Turnover isn\u2019t always a bad thing.\u00a0 Going into the 2015 season, Wyoming returns only two starters from the end of last season.\u00a0 The offensive line was a huge cause for concern in 2014.\u00a0 They ranked near the bottom of the nation in all pass protection.\u00a0 According to Football Outsiders, Colby Kirkegaard was sacked 6.9% of standard play dropbacks.\u00a0 This only got worse on passing downs, where it shot up to 11% of the time, good for 119th in the nation.\u00a0 We can\u2019t blame the offensive line for this folly entirely.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, Kirkegaard makes Corey Bramlet look like Brett Smith with his legs.\u00a0 Having a more mobile quarterback should help, but the pass protection also figures to be better this coming season.<\/p>\n
As Wyoming tries to improve its pass protection, there\u2019s a couple promising signs.\u00a0 The two returning starters are both on the left side.\u00a0 Ryan Cummings and Chase Roullier, left tackle and left guard, began to work well to protect the blind side last season.\u00a0 New starters Charlie Renfree, Troy Boyland and Taylor Knestis are going to be tasked with being more mauling, brutish type players.\u00a0 As long as they can give Shaun Wick and Brian Hill a sliver of air space, the running game will be fine.\u00a0 It will be particularly interesting to see how Boyland converts to the offensive side of the line.\u00a0 One thing is for sure, if he keeps his tenacity, he\u2019ll be a great addition.\u00a0 Additionally, having Rafe Kiely as a \u201cplug and play\u201d backup is going to help through the arduous schedule we have ahead.<\/p>\n
This year, Wyoming fans\u2019 patience will begin to pay off.\u00a0 We saw how dominant the running game can be, and given time it will only get better. We have a quarterback with experience at the D1 level, which should allow for some more looks down the field.\u00a0 It will be much easier to protect Cameron Coffman when he\u2019s able to go over the top of the 8 in the box.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just hope our offense can \u201cHang \u2018Em High\u201d and lead us to victory this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editors note: This week we welcome a new blogger to the site, Boone Brady. Boone will be writing a weekly blog about the positions leading up to the season for the summer. You can give Boone a follow on Twitter at @b_rad_y. Welcome to the site, Boone! ==== Position Preview: Offensive Line Wyoming\u2019s offensive line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[684,685,679,683,214,682,369,681,680,31],"class_list":["post-4647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wyoblog","tag-brian-hill","tag-cameron-coffman","tag-charlie-renfree","tag-chase-roullier","tag-mountain-west","tag-ryan-cummings","tag-shaun-wick","tag-taylor-knestis","tag-troy-boyland","tag-wyoming-cowboys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}