Continuing a series that's been going since February, I've finally come to the final position to break down -- the overlooked folks up front whose stats include "pancakes" and "grade", otherwise known as the offensive linemen.
I've tinkered with a list compiled by Greg Riddle of The Dallas Morning News and Rivals.com's Barton Simmons a while back and there's been some changes, but here goes nothing. There are nine players here, we'll do two or three a day for the remainder of the week.
Denton Ryan's Garrett Gramling and Pilot Point's Cam Feldt were Nos. 9 and 8, respectively.
Moving on...
7. Josh Allen, Cedar Hill HS - The 6 foot 2, 256-pound guard was a key force in the Longhorns' run to the state semifinals and the success of running back Ben Malena, who recently committed to Texas A&M after rushing for more than 2,200 yards on the season. Allen has interest in Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and SMU, but his only standing offer is from Minnesota -- not that that's anything to sneeze at. There's no doubt that Allen will have to put on some pounds if he expects to be a guard at the college level, and he does project as a college guard. But college guards are usually well over 300 pounds.
6. Daryl Williams, Lake Dallas HS - The 6 foot 5, 269-pound tackle is the real deal. He got a good compliment from Denton Guyer head coach John Walsh -- a District 5-4A foe. Walsh had two Division I tackles starting for him last season on the Wildcats' way to the state semifinals in Kyle Clark and Jesse Coffey, who signed letters of intent with Texas Tech and Nebraska, respectively, in February. And Walsh told me Williams is right up at their level. The softspoken tackle took part in the U.S. Army All-American combine and the offers started pouring in soon after, in fact, he received two more last week. He's now up to seven offers: Baylor, Houston, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas Tech and TCU. He has interest from Texas, Oklahoma and LSU, just to name a few.
Adam Boedeker is a sports writer/blogger for the Denton Record-Chronicle. His girlfriend got tickets to Fenway!
