UGA football roster: Xavier Truss, starting tackle or utility lineman?

UGA football’s left tackle race is wide open and one of the names leading that race is the giant redshirt freshman Xavier Truss.

As mentioned yesterday in Warran McClendon’s profile, left tackle is the most important offensive line position for teams with right-handed quarterbacks. Teams need a lineman who can reliably protect the quarterback’s blindside snap-after-snap. McClendon might be the frontrunner for UGA football’s starting left tackle job, but he isn’t running away with it by any means because Xavier Truss is right on his heels.

Truss is a giant on the offensive line. The Warwick, R.I. native stands at 6-7 and weighs 330 lbs. He’s actually gained a much needed 15 lbs. since arriving in Athens last summer. 247Sports Composite ranked him No. 19 in the nation among offensive tackles and No. 214 overall despite his size because he did have some deficiencies in his fundamentals.

Truss only appeared in three games last season as Georgia was fairly deep on the offensive line and coaches decided to preserve his redshirt. With numerous new starters all around the offense, Georgia needs its left tackle to be solid. Fortunately, Georgia’s coaches already thought highly of Truss when the 2019 season ended.

Now, Truss needs to prove himself to new offensive line coach Matt Luke. He already had the athletic part of his game down. Truss is good at pulling and he has good speed for the position. He also uses his superior size very well to gain leverage in run blocking and utilize his arm length in pass protection.

To separate himself from other tackles on the roster, Truss needed to gain some strength and work on the fundamentals. The word around the program late last year was that Truss was progressing very well. But voluntary workouts just began and Georgia’s spring season was canceled, so there’s no way of knowing just how much Truss has improved in the year since enrolling.