Offseason Redux- Offensive Line
By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Contributor/Analyst
February 22, 2022
I'm going to recap the season and give everyone a peek at the next season position by position this offseason and, since we've had the most immediate news on the offensive line lately, I thought I'd start there.
Illinois was blessed with a wealth of experience on the offensive line in 2021, as the Illini were able to lean on five fifth or sixth year seniors as well as a couple of experienced returning players in Alex Pihlstrom and Julian Pearl. However, Illinois will lose stalwarts Vederian Lowe and Doug Kramer as well as transfers Doug Jeresaty and Jack Badovinac in 2022, so there's bound to be a lot of shuffling in the five line positions. I'm sure experienced fans know that filling the offensive line positions is a unique problem because experience is so important for success. So, players with a lot of experience will surely be more effective, yet you also need to get younger players some experience somehow. Not only that, but the physical nature of the position usually requires new players to spend a year or two sitting on the sidelines before they're even ready to take their shot, so it's difficult to manage the window in which a staff can get a player ready and still take advantage of the time he has to play.
What happened last year?
