Harrell: OL has chance to be 'really really good'

AUBURN | Marquel Harrell is confident.

And why shouldn’t he be? He’s one of five seniors returning as starters on Auburn’s offensive line. It was a unit that struggled early last season but showed improvement down the stretch.

Going into the offseason, the group is convinced they can be even better in 2019.

“If you go back and you watch those four—those last four or five games as an offensive line, even though some of the games didn’t turn out in our favor, you just seen the offensive line take steps each and every game, and I was proud of that, especially after the bowl game. I was like, OK, we really have a chance to be, like, really really good,” left guard Marquel Harrell said.

How good? Well, Harrell’s not the only returning offensive lineman bursting with confidence.

“I feel like now we’re all ready and we’ve really got a chance right now. I feel like that’s one of the reasons I came back too,” said left tackle Prince Tega Wanogho, who like Harrell passed up on an opportunity to enter the 2019 NFL Draft. “We’ve got all five starters back and now we can fight for something and that’s the championship. I feel like being able to return all the starters, all seniors, we really have a chance.”

Also returning is center Kaleb Kim, right guard Mike Horton and right tackle Jack Driscoll, along with top backup Bailey Sharp, another senior. The last time the Tigers had close to this much experience returning on the offensive line was 2010 as four seniors and one junior led the way to an undefeated season and national championship.

“We’re just going to try to go get it. Every time,” Wanogho said. “Play the way we did late last year, finish plays, finish blocks, and, you know, just play as a team, a whole unit. And I feel lime we’ll be able to do that because we were able to do that in the bowl game. We already know we can do it. So we just have to go do it every time, every game. That’s the expectation as the whole unit.”

The group also looks upon a second-straight year with offensive line coach as another big reason for confidence.

“It’s going to be a huge difference. It’s just a huge difference, especially having Coach Grimes back,” Harrell said. “Because again, like I say, he’s one of the best coaches in college football, especially working on offensive line. He knows what he’s doing, and if we just working with him, and we just keep working to get better with Coach (Ryan) Russell and his training staff and everybody, we’ll be OK. We’ll be good—like really good.”

Spring practice begins March 18.