OU Football: Bobby Evans Pushing For Starting Spot at Right Tackle

With three returning starters on the offensive line, it's expected the Sooners' will have a pretty good offensive line heading into the 2016 campaign, but with the OU coaches' continual praise of redshirt freshman Bobby Evans, Oklahoma's offensive front may be better than advertised.   

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"He's (Evans) has shown me a lot more, he's pushing to start right now," offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh said. "I feel really good about him. He's still young, and he was hurt when he first got here, but he's done some really, really good things and is still a young guy, makes young mistakes, but he's really competitive and he wants to start."

Evans tore his ACL during his senior year playing in Allen, TX and was able to recover enough during his redshirt freshman season to compete for a starting job just one year later. 

Sophomore Orlando Brown will line up at left tackle in Lincoln Riley's offense, while junior Jonathan Alvarez is making the shift from guard to center. But seeing Evans' emergence at the tackle position, sophomore Dru Samia could be bumped inside to the right guard spot. 

“If Bobby keeps moving along at tackle, that leaves some options for Dru inside, because Bobby is quite a bit bigger overall, longer and heavier than Dru was, so just overall it gives us some options," said head coach Bob Stoops. 

Regardless if Evans' success translates into a starting role, it appears Coach Bedenbaugh wants to have at least eight guys he can depend on throughout the season. 

"What you like to have is eight guys, a starting five and then a tackle who can play both positions and a backup center but I don't know how it's going to work out," Bedenbaugh said. "We're still young and inexperienced, so we'll see how it shakes out, but Ideally you'd like to have a two-deep."