'The backbone of the team': Offensive linemen say they work hard so skill players shine
If you’re in it for the publicity, for the newspaper clippings, for the player of the week or month or year honors in high school football, offensive line is not the job for you.
An important position? Good grief, yes. But members of the OL labor, to a large degree, in anonymity, at least on the individual level. Collectively they receive the praise of the press and public; but individually, the attention is painfully limited. While a defensive lineman can stir up the fans and grab some press with sacks, and tackles and forced fumbles, an offensive lineman is most conspicuous when he or she false starts.
“You never get the recognition,” said Brendan Hubbard, a three-year starting offensive lineman for Old Rochester Regional High School in Mattapoisett. “We’re doing the work for the quarterback, running back, wide receiver. They get all the shine … We’re the ones doing all the work, getting down and dirty.”
The OL individual anonymity can be even more pronounced for teams, such as Somerset Berkley Regional, that run the tightly-packed double-wing offense. Trying to spot an individual SBR offensive lineman’s work, in real time, can be next-to-impossible without the use of a drone. The 200-plus yards of rushing offense in a game is the testimony to the group’s work.
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“There isn’t a lot of glory, especially from the fans,” said SBR senior Caden Vertentes, a starting offensive tackle and a top 10 student. “They don’t know the depths of our offense and everything. But once you start to learn more, and talk to the coaches, that’s where you get the glory mainly, from your own team. I know how important it is to be an offensive lineman, so that’s why I do it.”
Nick Wood, a junior, is the starting left tackle for B.M.C. Durfee High School. An offensive lineman since he started playing youth football, he sounds very content doing his job out of the spotlight. He said he doesn’t find himself slipping into a fantasy football world where he’s the start quarterback or wide receiver, or even the tight end, the lone member of an OL who is eligible to catch a pass. He’s playing exactly where he wants to play.
No publicity? No problem for the 220-pound Hilltopper.
“I always loved being up front,” said Wood, an offensive lineman since he stated Pop Warner football at age 9. “I always wanted to stay there. Blowing someone off the ball and then my teammates being in the end zone, that always brings a smile to my face.”
'No better feeling than throwing other players around'
That’s the mentality shared by Nathan Laplante, Taunton High School’s 6-foot-3, 275-pound offensive guard. The senor captain is entertaining scholarship offers from the University of Maine, Bryant University and Georgetown, all NCAA Division 1 programs.
“For me it is not frustrating playing a position where you don’t get that much recognition because that’s not why I’m playing,” Laplante said in a text. “I’m playing to have fun, and make myself and the team better. I don’t ever wish I was a skill position. I love being a lineman. There is no better feeling than throwing other players around.”
Vertentes said that while he and other members of the OL occasionally enjoy passing and kicking the ball around for a few minutes, he doesn’t burn energy wishing he were a quarterback, running back or receiver.
Hubbard said “you’re not a true lineman” if you never think of the fun and potential glory of playing a so-called skill position…. But, “At the end of the day, what matters to me is we’re winning. Every lineman wishes he had shine, some day. But we all know we do all the work and all the big plays happen because of us.”
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'A lot more techique ... than people think'
While QB, RB, and WR, and TE are generally referred to as the “skill positions,” offensive tackles and guards and centers will be happy to remind fans that skill, not just strength, is part of their job description. They have specific assignments. Footwork is crucial. So is intelligence. Take a close look and see that a running back’s 45-yard touchdown dash was only possible because of that pulling guard taking out a linebacker, or the tackle trapping a defensive lineman, or the center occupying two defenders.
These are the spectacular plays missed by most of us obsessed with following the ball.
“You’re not just brute strength 100 percent of the time,” Vertentes said. “You do have to think a lot, your rules, what you’re supposed to be doing every play, not messing up. A lot more technique and thought goes into it than people think. People might think it’s all strength. But if you just have the strength, it doesn’t make you a great lineman.”
Teammates, coaches show appreciation
Hubbard, Wood, Vertentes and Laplante all said that their coaches and teammates — especially the running backs — make it a point to let the offensive linemen know they are appreciated. That, and the self-satisfaction of a job well done, keeps them content.
“Plays don’t start without the offensive line,” Hubbard said. “It’s the backbone of the team. I like that.”
And Hubbard, who this year switched to right tackle after two years at center, can tell you that an offensive lineman, just like a running back or QB, can make spectacular plays, ones they’ll never forget, even if few others ever know about it.
Laplante has a favorite play he loves to recall. “There was one play where I pushed the defensive lineman into a linebacker and I pancaked two players at one time, and that play went for a big gain,” he said in a text.
For Hubbard, the special play was in last year’s home win over Somerset Berkley. “My buddy Cam Smith [left guard], we had a really good double team. We lifted [the defender] off the ground and landed on him,” he said.
That double team helped open the hole for a long touchdown that pretty much put the game away for ORR. It also made for an exquisite video clip that remains dear to Hubbard’s heart.
“I have it saved on my phone,” he said.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: High school football offensive linemen OK with being 'anonymous'
