Offensive line is a tough group of players to project. All individual linemen have talent, yes, and each has to win their own battle in the trench, but the offensive line always operates as a unit, and that unit works best when it has five guys who can work together as a group, know the calls and tendencies of their partners, and win their battles while also knowing how to cover for their battery-mates to the right and left.
Missouri’s track record with 4-star offensive linemen is scattershot at best. Here’s all the blue-chip linemen they’ve recruited in 20 years:
- A.J. Harris (2015)
- Andy Bauer (2014)
- Evan Boehm (2012)
- Nick Demien (2010)
- Dan Hoch (2008)
- Kyle Riggs (2004)
- Tyler Luellen (2003)
- Howard Brissette (2002)
That’s it. Two starters, a spot-starter, and a slew of backups.
Missouri, as it does with almost every player it gets, has to do more from the developmental aspect of coaching and take their 2- and 3-stars and turn them into 4- and 5-star performers.
Barry Odom and his staff weren’t good at coaxing out that higher-level performance, but they were absolutely excellent at identifying players who were much better than their rating. And Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms firts that mold perfectly.
The 3-star out of East St. Louis High School served primarily as a special teamer during his freshman season but made the jump to full-time starter in 2017 and started every game of his career. At 6’5” 330 he’s an absolute mountain and graded out to one of the best pass-blocking guards in the SEC from Pro Football Focus with a 99.4 efficiency rating.
His 2018 campaign earned him first-team all-american status, the first Missouri lineman to do so since Justin Britt in 2013. But his 2019 season didn’t match the 2018 output, something the entire 2019 offensive line can admit to. It just seemed like... he always ended up on the ground on every play that he tried to run block. And maybe that’s just me noticing the bad and ignoring the good but the entire line struggled in run blocking and Wallace-Simms was certainly part of that.
Whatever team gets him will have a quick blocker who can play both guard and tackle. He was unable to perform at the pro-day, and seeing as he was given a 6th-round projection after the 2018 campaign and then didn’t match that performance in 2019, it might be tough to see him getting drafted any earlier than that.