Auburn looks for these seven traits in an offensive lineman. Two are non-negotiable
Auburn offensive line coach JB Grimes has a coaching career that spans 30 years including stops at East Carolina, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, UL-Monroe, and Delta State.
His accomplishments as an offensive line coach are too long to list here (just listing the accomplishments from last season would be more than enough to impress), and those accomplishments are just a small part of the reason he's regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in the business.
To play offensive line for coach Grimes, offensive lineman must have a specific set of traits, and when he looks at offensive lineman while recruiting he's specifically looking for seven things, according to a recent piece by AL.com. According to the piece, these are the seven traits that Grimes looks for, some are more obvious than others:
- Size
- Quickness
- Balance
- Strength
- Football IQ
- Character
- Toughness
Ask any offensive line coach in the country worth their salt and their list will look nearly identical, but the one trait that stands out to me that might be overlooked on the lists of other coaches is balance. But when you really think about life in the trenches, having balance on your short list makes a whole lot of sense.
The two traits that are non-negotiable for Grimes are character and toughness, and the veteran offensive line coach believes that just possessing two of the remaining traits is enough to "contribute at the college level", according to the piece.
The full article talks about one player in particular, freshman offensive line phenom Braden Smith (who repped out 515 on the bench as a senior in HS), but those nuggets from Grimes are what really stood out. Read the whole article here.
