Kansas State Football: Offensive line could be a strength, not weakness

A revamped offensive line might be light on experience, but will bring plenty of size to the line for Kansas State football in 2020.

After a 2019 season that saw the Kansas State Wildcats offense basically replace their entire offensive line, many questions have surrounded what the position group would look like with youth set to take the field in 2020.

While the talk all offseason and into the preseason has centered around their inexperience, their size could be the tipping point for the Kansas State offense.

First off, it needs to be point out, while the offensive line might not have many career starts, it’s not as if the linemen are new to the program.

Josh Rivas at left guard is a junior having played in 25 games thus far and played regular snaps as a junior. Ben Adler at right guard is another junior with four appearances to his credit. Walk on senior center Noah Johnson appeared in three games in 2019 after playing at Butler County. Sophomore tackles Kaitori Leveston and Christian Duffie are both entering their third years in the program, both having seen the field in reserve duty in 2019.

What could be the big impact will be their size. To put it simply, this offensive line is really big. Going left to right:

• Leveston is 6-4 and 345 pounds
• Rivas is 6-6 and 335 pounds
• Johnson is 6-1 and 287 pounds
• Adler is 6-4 and 332 pounds
• Duffie is 6-5 and 303 pounds

For those counting at home, the Kansas State offensive line averages 320 pounds. For an offensive line and an offense that will be looking to run the football, and to do so a lot, having the size up front certainly will help. With the limited experience on the perimeter of the offensive line, having good size should help the Wildcats keep linemen away, at least for a short while.

All offseason, the offensive line has been pointed at as the weakness of the Kansas State offense, and perhaps the roster. And why not right, replacing 5 starters at once can be a difficult task to take on, and with everything that has gone on this year, could it not make issues even worse?

I view the line as a strength. They have worked together all offseason, they all have experience playing at this level, and for Adler and especially Rivas, there is plenty of playing experience.

While I don’t want to sit and tell you this is the greatest offensive line, for a group that has been told all offseason how bad they are, I expect to see them move some defenders and create running lanes and clean pockets to pass from.