TEMPE -- The Joe Moore Award has announced the Sun Devil Football offensive line in its annual selection of the semifinalists representing this year's Most Outstanding Offensive Line Units in college football. The Joe Moore Award has presented the unique award since 2015.
The ten semifinalists include #1 Alabama, Arizona State, #2 Clemson, #5 Georgia, Memphis, #3 Notre Dame, #6 Oklahoma, #24 Pittsburgh, #7 Washington State, and Wisconsin.
"As the 2018 college football season heads into the home stretch, the committee felt the semifinalists distinguished themselves by embodying the six award criteria in a way that really stood out on tape," said Cole Cubelic, SEC Network sideline analyst and Chairman of the Joe Moore Award Voting Committee. "In the end, consistency, technique and physicality will determine who ultimately earns this year's award."
The Sun Devil offense line has been pivotal to paving the way for sophomore running back Eno Benjamin, who is third nationally with 1,444 rushing yards and fourth nationally at 131.27 yards per game. Benjamin needs just 122 yards to break Woody Green's 46-year old school record of 1,565 yards in a single season.
Following the non-conference slate, ASU's run game efficiency from PFF was ranked 85th nationally (8th in Pac-12) with a play success rate of 32.9. During the Pac-12 slate, ASU is ranked 39th nationally (3rd in Pac-12) with a success rate of 36.5 (4 points above national avg).
ASU has allowed just 15 sacks this season, good for 24th fewest nationally. A year ago, ASU finished 124th in the nation with 41 sacks allowed and 119th in 2016 with 41 sacks allowed as well. ASU hasn't finished in Top-100 in fewest sacks allowed per game since 2011 (74th). In fact, since 2003 (as far back as easily accessible team rankings go), ASU has finished in the top-100 just 3 times, and never better than 70th. ASU is currently tied for 23rd in the FBS with 1.36 allowed per game
Twice this season, ASU has gone consecutive games without allowing a sack (Washington/Oregon State and USC/Utah) The last time ASU had consecutive games doing so even once in a season was 2005 (LSU and Northwestern). The Devils have 5 games without allowing a sack this year (UTSA, UW, OSU, USC and Utah). Since AT LEAST 2000, ASU had never had more than 2 games in a seasonwhere it didn't allow a sack.
Junior center Cohl Cabral is one of just 17 Power Five centers to not allow a sack on the year and is the 26th-highest graded center as a pass blocker in all of the FBS according to Pro Football Focus (81.2) and 3rd-highest graded center overall in the Pac-12 (69.2) and 38th-highest graded center in the FBS. Cabral has scored a positive run-blocking grade on 9.9 percent of his rushing snaps this season - the 21st-best percentage among FBS centers in the country and 2nd in the Pac-12.
Senior right tackle Quinn Bailey is tied for 15th among all offensive tackles in the FBS (with 50 percent of the play snaps) with just one sack allowed this season. Bailey's 11 pressures allowed are tied for 5th-fewest among Pac-12 tackles and 23rd-fewest among Power Five tackles. He is Pro Football Focus' 42nd-highest graded pass-blocking tackle among all tackles in the FBS this season (82.9) - 9th best among Pac-12 tackles.
What the committee is saying about the Sun Devil offensive line: "Scrappy unit. C moves very well in space when he's pulling. Their hands are where they are supposed to be. They all reset their hands in pass pro well, if they miss. RT is huge. They work to finish. You can see the effort."
The Joe Moore Award voting committee will announce its selection of finalists on Dec. 4, 2018, and the selection of the 2018 Joe Moore Award Winner will be made public after a surprise visit to the winning university's campus in late December.
"The committee strongly feels the common thread with this year's semifinalists is that the O-line's level of play has been integral to the success of their teams," said Aaron Taylor, CBS college football analyst and co-founder of the Joe Moore Award. Taylor played guard at the University of Notre Dame for the award's namesake, the legendary offensive line coach Joe Moore. "We'll expect to see more consistency moving forward, however, so these next couple of weeks should tell us all we need to know about which of these units is really ready to earn this year's distinction as the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in college football. The bar will be raised considerably moving forward."
The ten semifinalists include #1 Alabama, Arizona State, #2 Clemson, #5 Georgia, Memphis, #3 Notre Dame, #6 Oklahoma, #24 Pittsburgh, #7 Washington State, and Wisconsin.
"As the 2018 college football season heads into the home stretch, the committee felt the semifinalists distinguished themselves by embodying the six award criteria in a way that really stood out on tape," said Cole Cubelic, SEC Network sideline analyst and Chairman of the Joe Moore Award Voting Committee. "In the end, consistency, technique and physicality will determine who ultimately earns this year's award."
The Sun Devil offense line has been pivotal to paving the way for sophomore running back Eno Benjamin, who is third nationally with 1,444 rushing yards and fourth nationally at 131.27 yards per game. Benjamin needs just 122 yards to break Woody Green's 46-year old school record of 1,565 yards in a single season.
Following the non-conference slate, ASU's run game efficiency from PFF was ranked 85th nationally (8th in Pac-12) with a play success rate of 32.9. During the Pac-12 slate, ASU is ranked 39th nationally (3rd in Pac-12) with a success rate of 36.5 (4 points above national avg).
ASU has allowed just 15 sacks this season, good for 24th fewest nationally. A year ago, ASU finished 124th in the nation with 41 sacks allowed and 119th in 2016 with 41 sacks allowed as well. ASU hasn't finished in Top-100 in fewest sacks allowed per game since 2011 (74th). In fact, since 2003 (as far back as easily accessible team rankings go), ASU has finished in the top-100 just 3 times, and never better than 70th. ASU is currently tied for 23rd in the FBS with 1.36 allowed per game
Twice this season, ASU has gone consecutive games without allowing a sack (Washington/Oregon State and USC/Utah) The last time ASU had consecutive games doing so even once in a season was 2005 (LSU and Northwestern). The Devils have 5 games without allowing a sack this year (UTSA, UW, OSU, USC and Utah). Since AT LEAST 2000, ASU had never had more than 2 games in a seasonwhere it didn't allow a sack.
Junior center Cohl Cabral is one of just 17 Power Five centers to not allow a sack on the year and is the 26th-highest graded center as a pass blocker in all of the FBS according to Pro Football Focus (81.2) and 3rd-highest graded center overall in the Pac-12 (69.2) and 38th-highest graded center in the FBS. Cabral has scored a positive run-blocking grade on 9.9 percent of his rushing snaps this season - the 21st-best percentage among FBS centers in the country and 2nd in the Pac-12.
Senior right tackle Quinn Bailey is tied for 15th among all offensive tackles in the FBS (with 50 percent of the play snaps) with just one sack allowed this season. Bailey's 11 pressures allowed are tied for 5th-fewest among Pac-12 tackles and 23rd-fewest among Power Five tackles. He is Pro Football Focus' 42nd-highest graded pass-blocking tackle among all tackles in the FBS this season (82.9) - 9th best among Pac-12 tackles.
What the committee is saying about the Sun Devil offensive line: "Scrappy unit. C moves very well in space when he's pulling. Their hands are where they are supposed to be. They all reset their hands in pass pro well, if they miss. RT is huge. They work to finish. You can see the effort."
The Joe Moore Award voting committee will announce its selection of finalists on Dec. 4, 2018, and the selection of the 2018 Joe Moore Award Winner will be made public after a surprise visit to the winning university's campus in late December.
"The committee strongly feels the common thread with this year's semifinalists is that the O-line's level of play has been integral to the success of their teams," said Aaron Taylor, CBS college football analyst and co-founder of the Joe Moore Award. Taylor played guard at the University of Notre Dame for the award's namesake, the legendary offensive line coach Joe Moore. "We'll expect to see more consistency moving forward, however, so these next couple of weeks should tell us all we need to know about which of these units is really ready to earn this year's distinction as the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in college football. The bar will be raised considerably moving forward."