Georgia football: ESPN’s Holly Rowe praises the Bulldog’s offensive line
One of the biggest questions around the 2017 Georgia football season is how improved will the offensive line be?
ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe was in Athens yesterday. She spent time around the athletics office, tweeting three photos of her visit with Georgia Gymnastics coach Courtney Kuppets. But Rowe was really in Athens for the fourth day of Georgia football preseason practices.
The unit that Rowe seemed most impressed by was the offensive line. She tweeted this late last night after the practice ended:
I will admit. I am an offensive line snob. Super picky. Let's just say, after seeing @FootballUGA today....excellent potential!
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) August 4, 2017
Evidently, Rowe is an offensive line snob so it must take a lot for an offensive line to impress her. That is a good sign for fans as the offensive line has to be the Bulldog Nation’s biggest concern heading into the 2017 season.
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Last year, Georgia fielded one of the worst offensive lines in recent memories. So bad that Nick Chubb struggled to get to 1,000 yards and Sony Michel had to settle for 840 yards after rushing for 1,136 as a sophomore.
The first team offensive line still didn’t look all that great at the G-Day Game either as Jacob Eason was running for his life after every snap. Although Kirby Smart did admit to limiting the black teams playbook and letting the red team know that the black team was going to pass almost every down.
Rowe is first person out of Athens to give the offensive line any kind of praise. And if she is the offensive line snob that she says she is, she won’t be the last person the offensive line will impress before the start of the season.
However, someone else praised the offensive line yesterday as well. Rowe tweeted out a video of her interview with staring defensive lineman John Atkins:
John Atkins on how the competition drills of Offensive line vs. Defensive line may help everyone. PS: it was... https://t.co/EacxaxUXXy
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) August 3, 2017
In the video, Atkins talked about the competition between his defensive line and the Bulldog’s offensive line. He stated that both units have been pushing the other around so far and that the competition has been great for both sides.
The defensive line will be one of the best if not the best in the SEC. Last year, Georgia was able to use third stringers on the defensive line without much of a drop off meaning they have a really deep unit up front.
Next: Preseason preview of the Kentucky game
If a leader of that group is impressed by the offensive line, then you know they have made improvements. This gives fans a reason to be optimistic about the offensive line. And if they’re as good as Rowe says they are, then Georgia’s will have a great offense once again.
We already expect a great run game with Chubb and Michel going into their senior seasons. Jacob Eason will be better as a sophomore and he’ll have more targets to throw to this season with Georgia bringing in four new receivers on signing day, and two more during the off-season.