Each and every year, programs from across the country rely heavily on the offensive line in various ways. From pass protection to opening up running lanes, the linemen often perform a task that goes unnoticed when done well. Today that changes as the Oklahoma Sooners’ line has been named the recipient of the Joe Moore Award.
RELEASE—The University of Oklahoma has been named as the 2018 Joe Moore Award Winner. Congratulations to the best offensive line in the country.https://t.co/Y8U0mRT0xC pic.twitter.com/a4MFUgoCw0
— Joe Moore Award (@JoeMooreAward) December 18, 2018
Producing back-to-back Heisman winners, the combination of Cody Ford, Dru Samia, Creed Humphrey, Ben Powers, and Bobby Evans have remained a staple of Lincoln Riley’s offense. Consistently touted as the nation’s premiere offensive line, there’s now hardware associated with the claim. Since the 2015 campaign, the Joe Moore Award has been given to the most outstanding group of lineman in the country. It’s important to note that the Joe Moore Award voting committee judges solely on six criteria: toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique and finishing.
Excelling in those areas throughout the duration of the season, the 800-pound trophy will now reside in Norman until the conclusion of the year.
En route to the award, the Sooner lineman edged out the other finalist which included the linemen from Georgia as well as Alabama. As the storylines for the Orange Bowl continue to rack up, we’ll add this one as one to watch. How well will this offensive line perform against one of the better defensive lines in all of college football?
What Voters Said
“They were technical and fundamentally sound. Consistently finished their blocks. Always looking for work, especially on second level blocks which sprung many of the big runs. Once they had the line of scrimmage secured and displaced, they turned up the intensity and continued tracking and engaging defenders downfield. Beautiful.”
“They exemplified teamwork. They really worked well together in their combination blocks and showed passion to wear their opponents out. Good fundamentals. Finished their blocks. There were a lot of [defenders] on the ground when the play was over and they followed through downfield.”
“A bunch of athletic beasts. The ‘100% Pure Beef, Pancakes on the Side’ motto on the [Joe Moore Award] aprons fits this unit perfectly.”
“Very efficient in both protection and run game. I thought they played with the most attitude. All of the finalists were tough and physical, but it seemed like Oklahoma went out of their way to try punish their opponent any chance they got.”
“They improved throughout the season, playing their best ball late. They are a physical group that looks to impose their will on opponents. Also, because of their 108th ranked defense, they couldn’t have a bad series or half. They had to play well and score often. That factored in for me. There’s a certain amount of pressure to that and I think they rose up to meet it.”