BATON ROUGE – LSU’s offensive line – the group that has helped pave the way for the most explosive and productive offense in college football this year – has been named as one of four finalists for the Joe Moore Award, the Foundation for Teamwork announced on Wednesday.
The Joe Moore has been presented annually to the top offensive line in college football. LSU won the award in 2019. Joining the Tigers as finalist are Georgia, Oregon and Washington.
“Each season seems to have a theme when it comes to O-line play, and each of this year’s finalists embody the toughness, physicality, effort, and strain that historically defines our position,” said Cole Cubelic, lead SEC Network sideline analyst, and Chairman of the Voting Committee. “These dudes are a bunch of cavemen that consistently ‘look for work’, enforce instead of watch, strain to finish, and work to eliminate their man on every play.”
Coached by Brad Davis, the performance of LSU’s offensive line has been crucial to the Tigers leading the nation in several categories, including points per game (46.4) and total yards (547.8). LSU is the only team in the FBS to average 200 rushing yards (213.5) and 300 passing yards (334.3) per game.
LSU leads the nation in rushing yards per attempt with a 6.33 average, which is on pace to break the school record of 6.1 set in 2015.
LSU has started the same combination on the offensive line in 11 of 12 games and the unit is led by a pair of All-SEC tackles in sophomores Will Campbell and Emery Jones. Charles Turner, the Outland Trophy National Player of the Week in the win over Auburn, has started all 12 games at center, while Miles Frazier and Garrett Dellinger are the Tigers guards.
Campbell leads all offensive line in snaps, playing 731 snaps without allowing a sack. He’s followed by Dellinger (723 snaps), Frazier (711), Turner (689) and Jones (634). Lance Heard, who started against Army, has 195 snaps, while fellow true freshman center DJ Chester has played 81 snaps.
The unit has been instrumental in providing protection and support for quarterback Jayden Daniels and his record-setting season. Daniels, the SEC Offensive Player of the Year and Heisman Trophy finalist, leads the nation in total offense (412.2), passing TDs (40), total TDs (50) and rushing yards by a quarterback (1,134).
The Tigers have scored 40 points or more nine times, including six of their eight SEC games, and have topped the 500-yard mark on nine occasions. LSU racked up 701 yards in the 52-35 win over Florida, the most ever given up by the Gators.
For the first time in school history, LSU’s offense cracked the 500-yard mark in seven straight games, doing so against Grambling State (622), Mississippi State (530), Arkansas (509), Ole Miss (637), Missouri (533), Auburn (563) and Army (569).
LSU also reached the 300-yard mark in both rushing and passing yards in wins over Grambling and Florida. LSU tallied 302 rushing yards and 320 passing yards against Grambling and followed that with 329 yards on the ground and 372 yards through the air in the win over Florida. Prior to this year, LSU had only five games in its history with 300 rushing and passing yards.
The winner of the Joe Moore Award will be announced in mid-December when the awards committee comes to campus to present the trophy to the winning unit.