Dan Foy ’14 | Special Projects Manager

Players have thought that South’s offensive line has been the joke of the team for quite some time. This offseason, to change their image, each member of the group said they have worked incredibly hard to improve from last season.

“We decided that as a unit we don’t want to be the low point of the team this year and we thought that we should start working early and start getting on our game,” said team and offensive line captain Max Roeske ‘13.

This year’s offensive line consists of three returning starters including George Fishback, Phil Nauert and Roeske, all ’13, as well as the newcomers Pat Jackman ’14 and Michael Schneider ’15.

During this offseason, the linemen sat down with position coach Dennis Pascoe and came up with a plan they said.

“We’ve got a lot of great leaders. Roeske, Fishback and Nauert are great seniors and they’re returning from last year and I think they decided they wanted to be better,” said Pascoe. “We sat down and thought about it and came up with this plan about how we can be the best offensive line that South has seen.”

To try to be the best offensive line in South’s history, the lineman started to work on improving in early January and kept working, throughout the summer on into preseason football, Pascoe said.

“We’ve been working since January on Monday mornings at 6:45 a.m. and also during the school year we do drilling and mental reps and also techniques and then once summer broke out, we meet two times a week,” said Roeske. “During the summer, before the whole team’s workouts, we would meet as an offensive line for techniques and blocking drills.”

One goal for the team is to hopefully make it to the state playoffs, Nauert said.

“He (Pascoe) wanted us to be the best in the nation and that is big motivation for us,” said Schneider. “The offensive line is what drives the whole team and we just want to give that a thought and do as much as we can.”

Goals of working in the offseason are to learn the plays and master communication between the guys next to you on the line, Jackman said.

“Everyone has become stronger, faster and more fundamentally sound through working in the offseason,” said Fishback.

Roeske said the linemen weren’t gasping for air during a lot of their work in the offseason and that they got a lot of the technique mastered and each member of the line learned each other’s tendencies.

“It’s just all about being comfortable and how we know each other and what plays to call and just the more time the better in the offseason,” said Jackman. “It completely changes the whole perspective at playing O-Line when you can know the guy next to you and know that you’re on the same page at all times.”

Early in the offseason in late November, Pascoe gave the offensive lineman the name “Hell Hounds,” Nauert said. The meaning behind the name is to be mean and nasty, just like lineman have to be on the field.

“A hell hound is a fiery beast. They’re just ferocious and they’re not afraid to get down and dirty to get the job done,” said Roeske. “That’s going to be one of the things that will drive our offensive line.”

Pascoe said he gave the name to the line because offensive linemen don’t get a lot of glory a lot of the times and this can serve as something for them to be proud of.

“It all starts in the trenches on both sides of the ball, but specifically on offense,” said Brandon. “You’re not going to gain a yard rushing, you’re not going to complete a pass if you don’t have a good, solid offensive line that can protect, that can plow the road, open up holes and do the things that they do.”

As for the offensive line being ready for the 2012 football season, Roeske said no one will know for sure until they start playing. But, as far as he’s concerned, they’re as ready entering the season as any offensive line has been in the last five years at South