Oregon Football OL Preview: Penei Sewell For Heisman

The current status of College Football be damned, I’m writing previews at every single position for the 2020-21 Oregon Ducks. I’ve talked quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends so far. Let’s finish up the offense with 2020’s new-look offensive line.

The big boys up front are a unit reborn this season. Guards Shane Lemieux, Dallas Warmack, and Brady Aiello; tackle Calvin Throckmorton; and center Jake Hanson, are all OUT, and a brand new generation of Cristobal-coached beef boys are IN.

There’s no doubt that those graduating Seniors might have been the most accomplished group at the position in Oregon history. Lemieux, Throck, and Hanson all received individual awards throughout 2019 from Pro Football Focus, Aiello caught a touchdown pass, and the entire group was recognized by PFF as the best offensive line in all of college football.

That means that four out of the five starters, and five out of six core lineman are out of Eugene.

Any other program would tremble at the idea of breaking in a new quarterback while only returning a single starter on the line that is tasked with protecting him.

But Mario Cristobal doesn’t just run “any other program.”

If there was ever a positive version of the whole, “lose five-out-of-the-six core offensive line starters” scenario—and there are so precious few—it would be the scenario in which your one returning lineman happens to be Left Tackle Penei Sewell. The 2019 (and 2020, presumptively) Outland Trophy winner, Heisman Trophy mega-darkhorse, and future top NFL Draft pick will anchor a new-look line and almost certainly elevate the game of everyone who lines up next to him.

Sitting right behind The Best Player on the 2020 Oregon Football Team is redshirt freshman Jonah Tauanu’u. At 6’5”, 305 lbs, he’s smaller than the 6’6”-330 Sewell, but given that Penei ran into some injury issues during 2018, Jonah will have to be prepared to step in at Left Tackle, god forbid a nightmare should occur.

At Left Guard, all signs point to former JC transfer, Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu. After two prolific seasons at Navarro College in Texas (of Netflix’s Cheer fame), M.A.L. gets to step in as an ultra-experienced veteran. As you’ll see with a handful of other names throughout this depth chart, just because some of these guys haven’t played serious ball at Oregon yet, doesn’t mean these boys haven’t played some serious ball.

Senior Sam Poutasi will most probably land behind Aumavae-Laulu, but it sure as hell won’t be for a lack of dedication to this team, or to his time at the U of O. Some of you might remember Sam from his and some other former Oregon players’ lawsuit against Willie Taggart and the UO that claimed negligence during a workout that lead to Poutasi’s hospitalization. I won’t drudge through the details of all this, but for someone to have received such a tough blow so early in his college career, and to stick it out the way he has, I’d say that Sam deserves some recognition as a teammate, and as a Duck.

Speaking of movement between interior linemen good number of projections put Junior Alex Forsyth at the Center position this year. I’m not sure if my perspective is skewed because I’ve been familiar with Forsyth as a product of West Linn, but of the guys not named Sewell, he’s definitely the name I am most familiar with among the new guard.

He is one of the most seasoned players in the position room, no doubt, and I should logically be comfortable with him in the first/second-most important slot of the offensive line, but I also know that he was ESPN’s 24th-ranked guard as a four-star recruit, and has taken the majority of his college snaps at Left and Right Guard.

Does his strength at Guard automatically disqualify him from getting the Center job? Not at all.

But if he turns out to be a better fit on the inside, would that be the right move? I’d think yes.

Junior Ryan Walk could also certainly throw his hat into the ring for Center, but Sophomore Dawson Jaramillo has also been eyed by many for the position since he came into the program. If he can overcome an injury from 2019, and if Forsyth and/or Walk get shuffled around to the other interior spots based on injury or need, I think Mario Cristobal would LOVE to get a young buck like “The Mullet” Jaramillo significant time.

There are few things that can get any real football guy’s blood pumping like the idea of a three-year starter at Center.

Guard T.J. Bass transfers in as the top-ranked JUCO offensive guard in the nation, and with an abridged offseason of sorts, Bass’ experience could be invaluable for the unit as a whole. I think it’s reasonable to expect him to start at either Guard spot right away.

Sophomore Devin Lewis stands at 5’11”-334, and while he’s an absolute human fire hydrant (a term of endearment), he looks like he’s falling in line with some other young talent around him, like Freshman four-star Jonathan Denis.

Denis has a lot of excitement behind him, but at 279 lbs., and still plenty young, this year looks to be one of growth and scout team work at the guard/center positions.

Redshirt Sophomore Steven Jones is one of the biggest overall lineman on the roster at 6’7”-349, and is expected to fall in at Right Tackle. Interestingly, he played in five games back in 2018, and so Cristobal & Co. opted to hold Jones to just four games last year, maintaining a redshirt season while the Ducks were loaded on the o-line, and now we get three more years of eligibility for the towering tackle.

Sophomore Chris Randazzo battled injury last year, but looks to be healthy coming into 2020, and will be right behind Jones, along with redshirt Freshman Cole Young.

So, just to sum it all up, the 2020 offensive line will start out looking like:

Sewell/Aumavae-Laulu/Forsyth/Bass/Jones + Walk as this season’s “Brady Aiello”

But don’t you dare sleep on the kind of growth that Cristobal and Mirabal might be able to pull out of young Dawson Jaramillo. Just because the Ducks have solid JC experience at Guard in M.A.L. & Bass, doesn’t discount the idea that a young, mullet-sporting hero can’t emerge and shock the Pac.

Consider that my first “hot take” of these previews.

Jaramillo will end up among the top six linemen when 2020-21 is all said an done.

Go Ducks.