What is the smartest position in football?

offensive linemen are among the smartest players on the field. that happened, it got pretty complicated for offensive linemen." everybody across the offense." own calls to the tackles, one of whom then informs the tight end.

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Promotion

Last January, Will Lack, a 23-year-old former offensive guard for

the Iowa Hawkeyes, traveled to Boston to interview for admission

to Harvard Medical School. Lack, whose football career had ended

only 10 days before with a 38-17 loss to USC in the Orange Bowl,

was one of about 5,000 students to apply to the prestigious

institution, and he knew he needed to make a good impression if

he hoped to be one of the 240 or so accepted.

out of 45), and he graduated in December with a 3.76 grade point

average and a B.S. in biomedical engineering. Lack wasn't offered

a football scholarship to a Division I program coming out of high

school in Osage, Iowa, so he became a walk-on for the Hawkeyes

and spent four inglorious seasons on the scout team. Even though

he saw playing time in only three games, all of them as a senior, Lack worked as hard as any lineman on the team. He attended all

meetings and studied film on his own time. He worked out

relentlessly in the weight room and prepared himself for the

possibility that injuries to several other players would put him

on the field.

Last year Iowa had one of the best offensive lines in the nation.

But Lack was only 6'3" and weighed just 255 pounds. He wasn't

big, strong or fast enough to compete for a starting job. He did,

however, possess the one characteristic shared by many great

offensive linemen: He was smart.

In fact Lack was smart enough to list his college football

experience on his Harvard med school application. He interviewed

with two doctors there--both women--in separate sessions. In the

first meeting his interviewer told him she knew little about

football. Lack explained that he'd played guard, and the woman

asked him how he thought the experience would help him to be a

better doctor. "It helped my attention to detail and my focus,"

he replied.

She asked him to elaborate. Surprising even himself, Lack rose

and proceeded to give her a demonstration of basic offensive line

play. "Depending on where a defensive lineman lines up in front

of you, it determines the angle of your foot, how you place it, how far you drop it back, how far you move it over," Lack explained to the woman. "So if you're here, I told her, this is

what would happen. And if you're here, this would happen.

"I felt kind of weird doing it, but then I thought, I'm going to

be myself and show them what I learned playing football."

In late March, Lack heard he'd been accepted. Many would react to

such news by celebrating, but Lack considered the possibility

that a mistake had been made. "Maybe I'll get a letter that it

was all in error," he said. Will Lack was an offensive lineman,

after all. And, though he's smart enough for Harvard Medical

School, football had taught him a thing or two about humility.

Most spectators hardly pay them any mind, and those who do often

wonder how they ever got so big and fat. Offensive linemen, their

socks drooping down to their ankles, jerseys stretched tight over

their guts, waddle to the line of scrimmage and briefly get in

the way of the defense before falling to the ground and

struggling to get back up. They come walking off the field and

plop down on the bench, steam curling up around them like smoke

from a barbecue pit.

Too bad fans can't peer inside the players' heads, because then

they'd see complicated circuitry that operates without a kill

switch. The behemoths of the offensive line are thinking men,

forever processing defensive formations and alignments and

calculating how to attack them, while simultaneously obsessing

about things such as which foot to move first at the snap and how

to position the hips for optimum leverage.

It is widely believed by coaches and NFL executives that

offensive linemen are among the smartest players on the field.

This notion is supported by the Wonderlic test administered by

NFL teams to prospective draft picks. In his book The New

Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football Paul Zimmerman revealed that

over a five-year period offensive tackles (26) and centers (25)

scored the highest, and offensive guards (23) were fourth, behind

quarterbacks (24). The figures were similar in other instances in

which Wonderlic scores were made public. "Yeah, they're smarter,"

says Memphis defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn, who is in his

32nd season as a college football coach, "but they're smarter

because they have to be. On defense we teach recklessness,

whereas over on that side of the ball they're teaching things

like finesse and footwork. Thirty years ago most offenses ran the

I formation, and blocking was pretty straightforward. But these

days you've got spread offenses and calls being made from the

sideline. The passing game has taken over college offenses. When

that happened, it got pretty complicated for offensive linemen."

Army coach Todd Berry said he and his staff reviewed film from

last season and calculated that his offensive line had

encountered at least 400 distinct defensive fronts. "Week in and

week out you're facing a different system," he says. "It's not a

question of simply being able to react. You have to be able to

respond to any variance you see across the defensive front, and

then you have to be able to communicate that variance to

everybody across the offense."

By studying nuances that fail to register with most casual

observers, offensive linemen can see the future, and they can

hear it, as well. As he approaches the line of scrimmage, the

center usually begins by declaring the defense and the position

of the middle, or "mike", linebacker. For instance, a noseguard

playing straight over the center with two inside linebackers over

the guards indicates a basic 50 defense, but put a mike

linebacker over him and down linemen over the guards, and it's a

40 defense. Depending on the play that's been called in the

huddle, the center makes his read and shouts out blocking schemes

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Promotion

to both the playside and backside guards, who in turn make their

own calls to the tackles, one of whom then informs the tight end.

Calls along the offensive front can change in a heartbeat if the

defense shifts or the quarterback audibles. The defensive front

is trained to attack a spot and then the ball, while the

offensive front usually attacks the defense according to how the

O-linemen interpret what they see. Dullards need not apply.

"If you've got a big kid who can really play, but he's not a

great thinker," says South Florida coach Jim Leavitt, "you're

better off putting him on the defensive side of the ball and

telling him to just beat his guy off the line of scrimmage."

At most schools offensive linemen devote more hours to studying

film and scouting reports than anyone else on the team, including

the quarterbacks. "Quarterbacks are only concerned with their own

position," says Kyle Young, a former Clemson center and

three-time Academic All-America who is now a Tigers graduate

assistant. "They get in the film room and hit it quick and

they're done. But with the offensive line you have five different

positions, and you end up studying film over and over for each

one of them. All that time together builds a strong work ethic,

so you kind of become a team within the team. You feel connected

to each other, and you want to pull your weight."

Last year Utah linebacker Brooks Bahr was named second-team

Academic All-America after making 59 tackles and carrying a 3.95

GPA as a biology major. There were few college players as bright

as Bahr, who received an MBA in May and will attend Utah's

medical school this fall. Yet even Bahr acknowledges that when it

comes to football intelligence, his teammates on the offensive

line put him to shame. "Their playbooks had to be four or five

times larger than mine," says Bahr. "The sets they had to

memorize, all the plays, it was an astronomical amount, way more

than we had to learn on defense."

Not to say that defensive schemes are crude. The multiple

defenses teams throw at offenses today make an offensive

lineman's job that much more difficult. They not only have to

read the down linemen and linebackers but also account for

coverages in the secondary, a task that's not easy to accomplish

from a three-point stance or when the play has been called to

start on a quick count. "You have to see the whole field, and

that means everybody," says LSU senior tackle Rodney Reed, who

carries a 3.94 GPA in accounting and was an Academic All-America

in 2002. "If the safety's closed down on the line of scrimmage,

you can see where the blitz is going to come from. And so you

call out his number and say, 'Visitor number 24,' or something

like that, to alert everybody. If it's man coverage, you'll have

a greater chance of a blitz. If it's zone coverage, you know the

safeties are already going to be involved [in defending against

the pass]. And then by their positioning you can tell if the

linebackers are going to be covering the backs coming out of the

backfield.

"You have to be able to read all these things and then read the

defensive lineman in front of you. In the very last second I'll

look at his stance and see if his right or left hand is down. By where he places his hand you have a sense of where he's going to go. Is he leaning one way? Looking one way? Those guys don't vary

their tendencies much, and you learn about their tendencies by

studying."

During the season LSU players meet as a team on Mondays at 6:45

a.m. and watch film of the previous Saturday's game. If anyone

regards college players as pampered prima donnas, he hasn't sat

in on a review of game film, an experience most players greet

with as much enthusiasm as conditioning drills after practice.

The session lasts about an hour, and "you can always count on

getting yelled at for something," Reed says. In the afternoon he

and his teammates spend as much as an hour and a half studying

video of their upcoming opponent. Because the NCAA has a rule

that limits coach-supervised instruction of players to 20 hours a

week, Reed studies film on his own until group meetings begin at

1:45, with coaches then on hand to implement that week's game

plan.

The hours of self-examination can be exhausting and demoralizing

for players at all positions, but none has it tougher than an

offensive lineman, who will be given a negative grade if he fails

at simple mechanics. At LSU and scores of other programs around

the country, practice typically begins at around 3:30 p.m., and

when it's over, two hours later, players return to the locker

room to find individual video tapes in their lockers. "There's a

video guy on staff who has several games cut up for you," Reed says. "So when you go home you can watch more film after you

finish studying for classes. The video guy has it broken down to

where you can watch straight game film or situational things such

as down-and-distance. He also has all the blitzes broken down.

Anything you want or need to see, it's on that video."

Smart and well-prepared as they most often are, offensive linemen

still screw up as much as any other players on the field. "If I

mess up, the coaches always say, 'God, Travis, what are you doing

there?'" says Ball State senior guard Travis Barclay, an Academic

All-America who is working on a degree in physics. "They never

fail to point out that I'm a 4.0 student. Because I do well academically, they give me a really hard time when I mess up. But it's inevitable that I'll blow a play or make a bad read. I mean,

we're smart, but we're human too."

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Promotion

At around the same time Will Lack learned about his acceptance to

Harvard Medical School, his former Hawkeyes teammate Andrew

Lightfoot, a starting guard on the 2002 team, got good news of

his own: He had earned entrance to Iowa's medical school. Lack

landed at the more prestigious postgraduate institution, but

Lightfoot, a Des Plaines, Ill., native happy to stay in the

Midwest, had the more impressive football career. A four-year

letterman, Lightfoot was named co-MVP of the Hawkeyes' offense

last year. Teammates called him "Doctor."

When they were preparing to take the MCAT, Lack and Lightfoot

studied together, just as they had when they prepared for

defenses during the season. Since their careers ended last

January, both Lightfoot and Lack have lost so much weight that

neither looks like an offensive lineman anymore. Lightfoot is

down from 284 pounds to 240, Lack from 255 to 225. While the

common denominator between the two men is a fierce intelligence,

loyalty is another trait that helps define them. The social life

of an offensive lineman tends to be populated with fellow

offensive linemen. When a center goes out on the town, he usually

brings at least one guard and a tackle along. That's one more

intelligent trait that offensive linemen everywhere share:

They're smart enough to recognize that their devotion to each

other doesn't end on the field.

"Two of my roommates in college and I, we played together on the

line for three years," says Clemson's Young. "I was in both of

their weddings. And both of them were in my wedding. I've been

out of football two years now, and we still talk to each other every day and see each other almost once a week. We always could rely on each other, and when we went into a game, we were always

confident that the guys on the line wouldn't let the team down.

"I always knew the correct steps I'd have to take and the correct person to block on a given play. And that's 75 percent of the

battle for an offensive linemen right there--knowing whom to

block and what technique to use. You work and study hard enough,

and you get to the point where, when you walk up to the line, you

really don't have to say anything. You know exactly what you're

looking at, and the guys next to you know it too. All that's left is to get the job done. Still, you go ahead and make those calls.

Because that's how you were taught to do it."

Rodney Reed

T, LSU, Senior

Major: Accounting GPA: 3.94

ON THE FIELD: A starter in 34 consecutive games, the 6'4",

280-pound Reed was whistled for only four penalties last season,

despite being in for a team-high 889 plays.

OFF THE FIELD: Reed graduated in May and has already begun work

toward a master's degree in accounting, taking six credit hours

this summer. He plans to finish graduate school in the spring.

"For the last two summers I've done an internship in Baton Rouge

with Postlethwaite & Netterville. I do individual and corporate

tax returns and also a little audit work. You can understand the

whole shape of a company from its books."

Dave Costlow

C, Penn State, Senior

Major: Information Sciences and Technology GPA: 3.65

ON THE FIELD: The 6'3", 280-pound Costlow began his career in

Happy Valley as a defensive end but was moved to center as a

redshirt freshman. A reserve for the past three years, he'll

start this fall.

OFF THE FIELD: Costlow, who received his bachelor's degree on

Aug. 8, spent his summer on an internship with Minitab Inc., a

State College software company. He'll begin graduate school at

Penn State in the fall.

"I started in engineering, but I really didn't think it was for

me. Once I got in this program, though, I just found I really had a passion for it. We try to combine or modify technology to

meet people's needs."

Robert Gallery

T, Iowa, Senior

Major: Elementary Education GPA: 3.22

ON THE FIELD: An All-Big Ten selection last fall, the 6'7",

317-pound Gallery has started 31 straight games for the Hawkeyes.

OFF THE FIELD: An Eagle Scout from Masonville, Iowa, Gallery

spent last spring as a student-teacher.

"FOR FOUR weeks I was teaching a class all by myself. The kids

were a little taken aback by my size, but they really responded

well. I did a lot of hands-on instruction. We did a unit on

microscopes, where they got to observe and explore things they

see every day."

Antonio Hall

T, Kentucky, Senior

Major: Music Education GPA: 2.75

ON THE FIELD: All-SEC in '02, the 6'5", 302-pound Hall has

started every game (34) in his collegiate career.

OFF THE FIELD: Hall is a gifted piano player as well as a

talented singer, with a repertoire that ranges from show tunes to

opera. He plans to teach music to inner-city middle schoolers

when he's finished playing football.

"I've been singing since I was three, starting with the church

choir, but I used to wear the Michael Jackson jacket and sing in front of pretty much anyone who came over to the house. Right now

I'm being trained as a baritone-bass for the opera, but I'd love

to be on Broadway or singing at the Met."

Travis Barclay

G, Ball State, Senior

Major: Physics GPA: 3.99

ON THE FIELD: Barclay, who redshirted as a walk-on in 1999, has

started all 23 games for the Cardinals over the last two years.

OFF THE FIELD: A 6'3", 291-pound math geek, Barclay has received

all A's except for one A-, which came during the first semester

of his sophomore year in Calculus II.

"I like the mechanical aspects of physics. I recently toured the

Guide Corporation, just northeast of Indianapolis [which makes

automobile lights]. I'd like to find a career at a place like

that, but I'd be happy doing anything physics-related."

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