Angie Leno, Staff Writer

“You have to be selfless, you can’t be looking for a bunch of glory playing your position. The best time to be an offensive lineman is when you did great and don’t get mentioned at all,” said Augsburg offensive tackle, junior Andrew Hahn. 

Offensive linemen are the foundation of an offense in American football. The purpose of these five blocking specialists is to create opportunities for other skill positions on the field as well as protect them. As important as they are to a football team, offensive linemen could very well be one of the least talked about positions in all of sports. Offensive linemen have very little recordable statistics compared to any other position. They have games played in and sacks allowed. At the division three level, statisticians don’t even keep track of individual sacks allowed. Some argue that at all levels of football the “pancake block” statistic should be recorded. “They’re an easily recordable stat,” commented offensive guard, junior Kevin Grundhoffer, “if you push a guy over and fall on top of him, that should be a pancake.” 

Offensive linemen are also the least likely position to score any kind of points for their team, so what kind of a person does it take to play offensive line? An offensive lineman is typically one of the largest men on the field at any given time, but it takes a little more than that to be put in that position. “You have to have a little bit of internal aggression. Most linemen that you see are pretty nice guys outside of football. Once it comes to the games you have to have that protective instinct that nobody is going to touch my quarterback, nobody is going to touch my running back,” stated Grundhoffer on the personal qualities of an offensive lineman. Hahn also chipped in that “I like playing offensive line because there’s a clear goal. I want either to protect somebody or I want to move another person into a different spot. My favorite part of it is that I have the ability to protect somebody, especially being a blindside blocker. There’s a lot of trust put in me that I will get my job done even though not a lot of people are looking for it.”

It seems as though the only time offensive lineman are talked about is when they are being criticized by the fans or media. If a quarterback is having a bad day passing and getting hit a lot or if a running back is having a hard time finding open space to run, the blame immediately goes to the offensive line. However, when the quarterback has plenty of time to throw and shines in the passing game or when the running back consistently is making it to the second level of defenders before getting tackled, there isn’t a word to be said about the big boys up front. For a position that never truly gets a chance to shine, why would one play at the division three level where there are no athletic scholarships? Grundhoffer had this to say “obviously I love the game and I love hitting. Nobody really understands it but I like blocking, it’s fun. It’s really about the team you know?”