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Chris Doering identifies the SEC’s Achilles’ heel through 2 weeks of the season
By Sean Labar
Published:
Chris Doering knows the SEC has looked solid as a conference to start the 2024 college football season, but he has also noticed a disturbing trend that could hold back several teams if it isn’t corrected.
“One of the things I’m really concerned about as we get into conference play, and ultimately as the season plays out, is there is a dearth of good offensive line play right now,” the SEC Network analyst said.
“This is going to be the potential Achilles’ heel of the SEC.”
@ChrisDoering told @PeterBurnsESPN that he hasn’t been impressed with the big guys on offense through 2 weeks.
#SECThisMorning pic.twitter.com/h7S7kXDxGw— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) September 10, 2024
He went on to mention how Miami pushed around Florida’s offensive line and how Notre Dame thrived against Texas A&M’s offensive line in Week 1.
He then pointed out how in Week 2, Cal upset Auburn and poor offensive line play was an issue. Oklahoma almost lost to Houston because the Sooners have a young offensive line.
Doering even questioned some of the top-tier teams in the conference like LSU and Alabama.
“Even some of the teams we thought were good, you mentioned LSU earlier,” Doering said to his co-host. “We are still waiting for them to dominate on the offensive line. Alabama gets the win but yet Jalen Milroe is under pressure the entirety the of the night. Through 3 quarters they only ran for 1.6 yards per carry on the ground.”
Doering believes poor offensive line play could hold back several SEC teams as the season progresses and could be the reason the conference doesn’t produce a national championship winner in 2024.
“This is going to be the potential Achilles heel of the SEC, poor offensive line play,” predicted Doering. “If it ends up costing us a national championship at the end of the year, go back and look at those guys up front, because right now, there’s not a lot of teams with good offensive lines.”
Sean Labar is an SEC football contributor for Saturday Down South.