Great Performances 2006---- Offensive Line

In the rush to the National Championship Game, it was easy to forget the performances that got us there.

In two previous blogs, I covered the play of Liam Coen and Steve Baylark.

Not much happens on offense without good play from the Offensive Line. In 2006, UMass' OL played superbly.

In 2006 UMass had 898 offensive plays and gained 5757 net yards. That's 6.4 yards/play. It's also good for 12th in the nation in offensive production.

The Offensive line gave up 16 sacks for 105 yards in 334 passing attempts. That's one every 20.8 attempts and just a tad over 1 sack per game. Those totals are good for 1st in the A10 and 14th in the nation.

The O-line also racked up a slew of awards for 2006:

• Matt Austin----SPORTS NETWORK 2006 1-AA/FCS 3RD TEAM ALL-AMERICA
  � ECAC 1-AA FIRST-TEAM ALL-STAR
  � ATLANTIC 10 FIRST-TEAM OFFENSIVE LINE
  � NEW ENGLAND FOOTBALL WRITERS ALL-STAR TEAM
• Nick Diana--- SECOND TEAM ALL-A10
• Alex Miller---- SPORTS NETWORK 2006 1-AA/FCS FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICA
  

� COLLEGE SPORTING NEWS' OFFENSIVE LINEMAN OF THE YEAR, ALL-STAR
� AFCA ALL-AMERICA
� ATLANTIC 10 FIRST-TEAM CENTER
� ECAC 1-AA FIRST-TEAM ALL STAR

• David Thompson----SECOND TEAM ALL-A10
• Chris Hopkins---- Took over for an injured Sean Calicchio and had an excellent year.

Alex Miller said several times that the backs and quarterbacks stats are the offensive line's stats. Looks like this year the O-line had some good stats of their own.