Bravehearts: CdM O-Line -- No more Mr. Nice Guys

- If you ran into these guys in a dark alley, they’d probably hand

you a flashlight and dole out directions.

“They’re pretty much the nicest guys in the world,” Corona del Mar

High football coach Dick Freeman said of his starting offensive linemen.

“And that was probably part of the problem.”

The “problem” had been an anemic Sea King ground game, which produced

just 167 rushing yards during the team’s 0-3 start.

And while the right-to-left alliance of senior tackle Dave Richardson,

senior guard Matt Marston, junior center Adam Dunn, sophomore guard John

Daley and junior tackle Steven Russell hasn’t lost its congeniality, it

now boasts some much-needed confidence.

The latter came courtesy of 320 ground yards in CdM’s 38-35 nonleague

win over Saddleback Thursday.

Sea King tailbacks averaged 7.6 yards on 39 attempts, as many of which

resulted in double-digit pickups as gains of less than 3 yards (10

apiece).

“They didn’t have much experience as a group (aside from Marston, just

one combined varsity start), so they needed time to learn how to make

adjustments in game situations,” said Freeman, who noted blocks by junior

tight end Tyler McClellan were also responsible for much of the rushing

windfall. “There’s only so much you can learn in practice, because you

can’t prepare them for every defense against every play that anyone can

ever imagine. But they were picking things up the other night. They are

finally working together and, more and more, are becoming an offensive

line.”

Averaging a now-modest 6-foot-2, 231 pounds, topped by Richardson

(6-5, 300), Freeman and Offensive Coordinator Lyle Lansdell changed

things up in the offseason, knowing they couldn’t ask their line to pound

away at bigger opponents.

They altered blocking schemes to emphasize quick-hitting plays, so

their smaller linemen needed only an initial screen to spring running

backs into the secondary.

But, until the CdM linemen learned whose progress they were supposed

to impede, the only thing being hit quickly were CdM ballcarriers.

That all changed, however, against Saddleback and Freeman, who played

guard collegiately at Colorado and Long Beach State, believes the

experience could lead to future success.

“As a lineman, all you have to go on is confidence. Getting more than

300 yards rushing is a pretty good deal and I’m sure they feel a little

better about themselves than they might have before.”

-- by Barry Faulkner