What Grubb feels Alabama’s offensive line has to do at elite level vs. Oklahoma

Oklahoma is one of the best teams in college football at getting after opposing quarterbacks with 34 sacks on the season as a team.

Alabama football will have its hands full going up against the talented Oklahoma defensive front Saturday in Tuscaloosa. The Tide’s offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb feels the first step in Alabama having success against Oklahoma starts with communication upfront.

“I know our communication has to be elite,” Grubb said. “That’s the one thing that we probably don’t talk about enough. Characteristics of good offensive linemen, all the things that physically you want to have. but the number one thing is communication. When you have problems in the interior gaps and you don’t take care of the interior gaps, whether it’s pass protection or run blocking, those problems happen quick. And when we have problems on the inside, that’s where the TFLs and the sacks come from. Quarterbacks eyes will drop from pressure and people being in his face when it’s in between the tackles. If stuff happens outside the edge, you know, typically you can deal with that. But interior issues are where all the, you get behind the chains, whether it’s a four-yard loss on the inside zone run or it’s a sack, a guy stepping right up the B-gap, those are all your problems happening. To me, our guys we gotta have a great week of communicating with the line of scrimmage.”

Grubb thinks Alabama’s offensive linemen will attack in this push to have elite communication this week with the Tide’s starting center and captain Parker Brailsford leading the way.

“Definitely communication, I’ll say,” Brailsford said Tuesday when asked what the Tide’s offensive line has to do ‘really good’ against the Sooners. “Just being able to hone in on certain things that they might give away. Being able to talk to the guys, somebody seeing something, just alerting the rest of the line that something might be coming or really just the communication piece and the technique piece.”

Simpson has been sacked 15 times this season, and Alabama is struggling to be productive on the ground at the moment. These two developments are not positive trends for Alabama heading into this matchup.