Clemson Football: Tiger offensive line will have to reload in 2020
The Clemson football offensive line may be the biggest question heading into the 2020 season as the Tigers are set to lose four starters.
The 2020 Clemson football team is considered the favorite to win the National Championship heading into the offseason and much of that has to do with the talent the Tigers return.
However, one position in which Clemson won’t return much experience is along the offensive line.
The Tigers will be replacing four starters– Gage Cervenka, John Simpson, Tremayne Anchrum and Sean Pollard- on an offensive line that was considered one of the best in the country during the 2019 season.
The only returning starter will be junior LT Jackson Carman, who will likely be a preseason first-team All-American coming into the year.
The other four positions will be up for grabs and there should be some interesting competition as the Clemson football program heads into winter workouts, and especially into spring practice sessions.
Just because there’s not experience doesn’t mean that there’s not talent, though.
At this point, we’d expect the first-team offensive line to look like this:
- LT Jackson Carman
- LG Matt Bockhorst
- C Cade Stewart
- RG Will Putnam
- RT Jordan McFadden
All five of these offensive linemen earned decent playing time last season and are extremely talented. Right now, I would almost guarantee that Bockhorst and Putnam are starters alongside Carman. McFadden should have a heads-up on some of the younger guys coming in and Stewart will get the first shot at center.
However, if Stewart struggles as he did at times this season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a guy like Putnam move over to center. Finding a center is going to be one of the most important aspects of the offseason for Clemson football.
In addition to the five mentioned above, Clemson will also have some young talent looking to fill the two-deep with guys like Mason Trotter, Hunter Rayburn, Blake Vinson (who’s returning from injury), Chandler Reeves, as well as several highly-rated freshmen who are coming into the program.
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It will be interesting to see what the Clemson football offensive line looks like in spring practice and how the Tigers build depth heading into 2020.