Mizzou's offensive line did its job last year. Now it's taking on more responsibility

While playing in Missouri’s fast-paced offense a season ago, linemen could reduce their responsibilities to a simple task.

The Tigers just pushed the opponents across from them for about a second, which was normally how long it took quarterback Drew Lock to throw the football. Most of the offensive linemen didn’t have to worry about reading the defense before the snap.

Missouri allowed the fewest tackles for loss in the country and tied for the fifth fewest sacks allowed, so the system worked. But senior tackle Paul Adams said he did a “horrific” job of keeping his body square while pass blocking because he could get away with bad habits. He said he found “so many flaws” in his game during Missouri’s spring practices.

“Just so many things that I relied on last year (because), well, the ball’s going to get out fast,” Adams said.

That will not always be the case next season, when Missouri will sometimes play at a slower pace and Lock will more often read the entire field before making a throw.

So Adams and his fellow linemen must work to fix poor hand placement and pad level — things they could get away with a season ago. They must also master the increased pre-snap responsibilities they have in this new pro-style offense. Everyone along the offensive line will have to identify their blocks and communicate during the seconds before the ball is snapped.

“Every play, there’s a conversation going on at the line of scrimmage,” said Missouri offensive line coach Brad Davis, who knows this is a “foreign concept” to blockers who are used to playing at constant, swift pace.

A single play in Missouri’s new playbook might have seven variations, and each version comes with its own set of terminology for guards, tackles and centers to know.

Center Trystan Colon-Castillo said that a season ago, all that he might have done before a play was point out the middle linebacker and yelled “fire,” to signal a pass block. Now, Colon-Castillo must survey the entire field in search of a blitz. If the defense audibles, then Colon-Castillo will bark out a new set of orders — sometimes in full sentences.

“You’ve got to be in-tune to those guys up there,” Lock said. “Last year, they would make the calls, and I wouldn’t necessarily key in on that. (Now) I’m keying in on everything they say, every single play.”

Missouri returns its entire starting offensive line from a season ago, and Davis believes having some established chemistry among the group is useful as the unit learns a new system. The linemen help each other work through the confusion that comes with a new playbook’s vocabulary, Adams said.

The Tiger offensive linemen are still “a long way away” from properly identifying their blocks and communicating, according to Colon-Castillo. But it is still spring, so that’s OK.

The real challenge is months away, when Colon-Castillo will grip the ball, survey the field and work with his teammates to keep Lock upright for longer than a second.

“I’m making the call,” Colon-Castillo said. “Hopefully they don’t want to fight me.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Mizzou's offensive line did its job last year. Now it's taking on more responsibility."