Tennessee offensive line is in bad shape entering Arkansas game

As Arkansas football gears up for Saturday's game against Tennessee, there isn't a whole lot of guesswork about the Vols' main source of concern on their roster. The Tennessee offensive line is and has been a mess. The Vols allowed 10 sacks against Texas, and the offense continued to struggle in an ugly win over Auburn this past weekend. A to Z Sports offered some perspective and context on the poor offensive line play in Knoxville and, for that matter, across the sport of college football:

"Why did they have a bad game? How much was on the quarterback? Was it a scheme issue? Was it effort? Was it a poor job preparation by the coach? Is it a talent issue? I don’t know if the poor offensive line play against Texas is completely on Elarbee or not. That’s something that Vols head coach Josh Heupel will have to evaluate (he knows the situation better than anyone else — certainly better than all the YouTube film analysts who don’t know the playcalls, assignments, etc). What I do know, though, is that offensive line play across the sport in general is in a rough place right now.

"Offensive line is a very developmental position. And development has been put on the backburner over the last several years thanks to the rise of the NIL/transfer portal era. Programs aren’t able to build depth anymore. If a talented player isn’t playing, they often hit the portal. Teams are forced to bring in transfer replacements, and those players may not pick up the scheme immediately. It’s probably the toughest position in college football, outside of quarterback, to coach right now. When you combine the transfer portal era with the fact that teams often aren’t practicing with as much hitting as they did in the past, it’s easy to understand why offensive line development is in such a rough place right now."

ESPN/SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic added to the discussion about offensive line development (or lack thereof):

“To be a great offensive lineman, you have to do it full speed against people that are trying to make you look bad on a consistent basis,” said Cubelic. “To be a great offensive line, you have to do it at full speed together against people trying to make you look bad on a consistent basis. We have removed a large portion of full-contact practices, in which that piece of the development is most important at that position. And we have allowed escape routes (the portal) for the continuity to be as bad as it’s ever been. You put those things together, and you’re going to have a hard time developing great offensive linemen or great offensive lines.”

Tennessee is having a very tough time dealing with this specific issue. Arkansas has to be able to exploit and magnify the Vols' problems on Saturday.