A clash of the some of the nation’s best will occur between LSU’s offensive line and Tennessee’s defensive line when they meet Saturday in Tiger Stadium.
College Football News ranked the Tigers’ offensive line No. 4 in the country, and the Volunteers’ defensive line No. 3 in the nation.
“They’re really going to be a great challenge for us,” senior left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “They’ll really tell us where we’re at in the SEC and across the country. They have a big physical defense and probably one of the bigger and tougher defenses we’ll face.”
The Tigers average 303 pounds across the line, which is anchored by Whitworth, who started his 40th consecutive game against Arizona State.
Whitworth was on the pre-season watch lists for both the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award. Both are presented to the nation’s best offensive or defensive lineman.
LSU senior Rudy Niswanger is on the watch list for the Rimington Award, which goes to the nation’s top center.
“[LSU’s] offensive line is a big, physical group of guys who have all played,” Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said in a news release. “They’re experienced. They’ll play a lot of those guys. And the tight end [David Jones] is very much interchangeable with the fullback, and he’ll end up in different places, and that ends up being an adjustment problem from time to time if a defense doesn’t handle it well.”
In their season opener against Arizona State, the Tigers rushed for 190 yards with tailback Joseph Addai’s 109 yards and two touchdowns.
But that feat will be much more difficult to accomplish against the Volunteers, who have the No. 13 rushing defense in the NCAA, allowing 60.5 rushing yards per game.
“They’re going to be physical in every way in the game,” Whitworth said. “It’s going to be something we’re going to have to be ready for, and they’re going to try to stop the run.”
The Volunteers defensive line has an average weight of 278 pounds and is led by seniors Parys Haralson and tackle Jesse Mahelona.
The duo is also on the watch list for the Lombardi Award, and Mahelona is also on the watch list for the Outland Trophy.
“It seems like they hardly give up any rushing yards,” Whitworth said. “The only offense Florida had sometimes was [quarterback Chris] Leak scrambling.”
Although Florida defeated Tennessee 16-7, the Gators rushed for only 68 yards on 37 carries. Gator tailback DeShawn Wynn had the most success with 17 carries for 53 yards.
Florida’s lone touchdown was an 18-yard run by receiver Andre Caldwell, but it came on a fake option misdirection pitch to Caldwell, which caught the defense off guard.
The Volunteers held Leak without a touchdown for the first time in 24 games and sacked him five times with two coming from the defensive line.
“I think they have a dominant front rush,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “I think our offensive line matches up well against them. But it’s certainly a big concern.”
Despite running the ball well against Arizona State, the Tigers allowed four sacks of quarterback JaMarcus Russell, which bodes well for Haralson who is the Southeastern Conference’s active career leader in sacks with 12.5.
Haralson has registered a sack this season, but Mahelona has one sack in both of the Volunteers’ two games.
“Defensively, I think we’ve got a very, very fine defensive front,” Fulmer said. “[LSU has] an exceptional defensive front as well. So that’s going to be a tremendous matchup for us as we go into this football game – to play against those guys, and winning at the line of scrimmage will be really important.”
Contact Clinton Duckworth at [email protected]