Greatwood Faces Another Reloading Job, but he's good at that

If Hroniss Grasu, Ramsen Golpashin and  Andre Yruretagoyena  ever appear in a game together, they may force Brent Musberger into retirement.

Just kidding.  Golpashin's a senior walk-on, and Grasu and Andre Y may have to wait another year  to crack the lineup.  Oregon is blessed though, with a wealth of talent and potential on the offensive line, in addition to a veritable plethora of multi-syllabic strongmen.

Running a play every fifteen seconds in practice, it's hard to think how Steve Greatwood barks out instructions to this group.  Maybe he uses jersey numbers a lot.

Whatever he does, it's working.  Greatwood,  named the nation’s college football Assistant Coach of the Year by FootballScoop.com in 2008, teaches line play as well as anyone in the country.  His charges hold school records for rushing yardage in a game (465 versus Washington in 2007) and a season (3,721 in 2010).

Rob Moseley has the breakdown of this year's offensive line.  Here's an excerpt:

Comparisons will be made this offseason between this Oregon offensive line and the group from 2009, which was completely rebuilt after heavy losses to graduation and suffered the consequences in the opener at Boise State that fall. But this group is starting from a far better base of experience than that one. The 2009 group brought 19 career starts into that season; between them, the 2011 offensive line boasts 55 career starts, including 24 by right tackle Mark Asper and 22 for left guard Carson York.

Moseley points out Darrion Weems emerged last season with plenty of playing time and seven starts.  A senior this season, he's the likely starter at the critical left tackle spot.  Redshirt transfer Ryan Clanton and Golpashin will duel for playing time at right guard, and center is shaping up to be a battle between Grasu and the athletic Karrington Armstrong, a sophomore from Las Vegas who was a state champion wrestler in high school.

Greatwood will sort them out.  They'll be superbly conditioned, deep, and eager to power the bus.  It will be fun to watch their progress this spring.