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Georgia Football Fall Camp: A shake up on the O-Line.

By John David Butler

ATHENS, GA - OCTOBER 15: Members of the Georgia Bulldogs take the field before the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Sanford Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA - OCTOBER 15: Members of the Georgia Bulldogs take the field before the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Sanford Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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Fall Camp is upon us, Georgia Football is starting the prep for the upcoming season and we’ve had a shake up on the offensive line.

Related Story: Some Smart observations from fall Camp.

Isaiah Wynn is out with an illness, and has been for about a week now. This has opened up the possibilities for some of the younger Georgia Football players to get experience with the first team offensive line. Specifically Andrew Thomas, and Ben Cleveland have taken advantage of this situation, and find themselves in the starting rotation. This shows just how much work they have put in this off-season. For a redshirt freshman, and a true freshman to earn the trust of a Coach like Sam Pittmanis no joke.

For Ben Cleveland this just shows how far he has come since arriving on campus as a monster of a man, but a not so technical blocker. Cleveland has always had the raw strength and athletic ability to be a outstanding offensive linemen. He just needed to be able to focus on shoring up his technique, because at the SEC level, no one is really able to just out-muscle their opponent. Even though I believe Cleveland could give any ‘strong-man’ a run for his money, when it comes to lifting heavy weights. His ability to bend and get low is where he sometimes struggles. If he can improve this, he has incredible promise.

This is a really big achievement for Thomas who in many ways was under appreciated in the 2017 class. It shows how much work he has put in his very short time on campus as well as how talented he is. Thomas will eventually be sliding out to the left tackle position for the Dawgs. For now I think he might just find the left guard spot to be his home for his freshman season.

My Thoughts on the Shakeup:

One major take away from this; either we have super talented younger guys, or the juniors/seniors on the team aren’t the caliber that the coaches want playing. Cleveland and Thomas are ultra-talented, and Coach Pittman wouldn’t do this, unless they earned it. So I think that the coaching staff doesn’t believe that the older guys are the caliber of players that we want starting. I don’t think anyone is going to be shocked by this.

Next: Top Stories from the last week of Fall camp

This line was clearly lacking in talent last year and there are clearly better young players in camp this year. The big question is when will these players be ready to step up and win playing time. If this team can see improved offensive line play, they can win a lot of games this year. Hopefully this is a sign that the line will do just that in 2017.

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