Hoya Staff Writer Friday, September 22, 2006 Lindsay Anderson/The Hoya
Practice has been over for almost half an hour, yet five men remain on the field at the Multi-Sport Facility, their giant frames casting long shadows on the turf as the sun sets. They laugh as and jeer each other, and good-natured insults fly back and forth with speed that such hulking bruisers can only dream of. The five – seniors Liam Grubb and Andrew Rehwinkel, junior Robert Browning, sophomore Jerry Batchelder, and freshman Dan Matheny – compose the Hoya offensive line, arguably the team’s most overachieving yet underappreciated component. It is Wednesday night, and the to-do list is endless: weights to lift, study hall to attend and most importantly, food to consume. But their time doesn’t seem rushed as the five take turns explaining how through a mixture of hard work, expert leadership, off-color humor and a whole lot of burritos, they have become a cohesive unit out to prove everyone wrong. Defying the Odds He can admit it now. Now that his team has three games under its belt and have paved the way for nearly 800 yards of total offense and only allowed three sacks on the season. Now Head Coach Kevin Kelly can admit that he had somewhat of a sinking feeling upon his arrival on the Hilltop last January when he saw what remained of the offensive line. “I’ll be honest with you, that was a concern area for us,” Kelly says. “They have done a lot better job than I thought they would at this point.” The outlook for the 2006 Hoya offensive line did indeed seem bleak after they lost three starters to graduation and faced the uphill battle of learning Kelly’s complex spread option offense. Even the team media guide, which tends to paint a team’s most glaring weakness as strengths, labels the offensive-line as “a unit in transition.” So far, the five men up front have proven that they can hold their own against stiff competition. Both Kelly and Offensive Line Coach Brad Dunlay have been impressed with how steadfast the five have been in their work habits. “We don’t necessarily have the most talent, so you have to compensate that with hard work and hustle,” Dunlay says. “The line as a whole is just so hard-working. One thing Coach Kelly and our coaching staff have preached since the beginning is tempo, and that’s what these guys do-they work through everything.” The group’s dedication has just begun to pay off in the eyes of the head coach. “They improve every week,” Kelly says. “I have been very pleased with their progress.” Both coaches agreed that the leadership of senior captain Liam Grubb has been instrumental to the group’s early success. “`Grubber’ is our leader. He does a great job of rallying the troops together,” Kelly says as he watches the 6-foot-7 senior lead his charges through extra conditioning work. “I am really proud of the way he handles that job description.” Dunlay knows that being an offensive lineman can be tough – linemen endure some of the most grueling physical rigors with little hope of ever scoring a touchdown or even touching the ball. The only times linemen find themselves in the spotlight is in failure – after a quarterback is sacked, a running back is dropped for a loss, or when they jump off sides. Thus, Dunlay has found ways to keep things light through the day-to-day drudgery of life in the trenches. “We work hard, but we play hard too,” Dunlay says, a smirk creeping across his face. “We’ll throw a little zinger in there every once in a while, and these guys are real good in balancing working and razzing each other.” Like Five Peas in a Really Big Pod Grubb might be the stoic ruler of the line on the field, but he also serves as its comical jester off of it. When asked after practice who the biggest character was, all five quickly point to Grubb, who adds, “The same guy who is the best looking too.” While the captain may be Georgetown’s next stand-up comic, Browning insists that he is in fact the most successful with the ladies. “Definitely Robert Browning,” Browning says, referring to himself in the third person. “I’m pretty sure, wait, yeah, I’m sure-Robert Browning gets all the girls.” Aside from when Browning is sweet-talking the co-eds and when Rehwinkel entertains his steady girlfriend, the five linemen spend most of their leisure time together. Another reason why, despite their disparity in age and experience, the group has meshed so perfectly. “We’ve bonded really well. We all get along really good together, despite how much we hate Rehwinkel,” Grubb says, again displaying his sarcastic side. “We keep our composure real well.” Camaraderie along the front line has been fostered through competition – from the all-in-good-fun ribbing to all-you-can-eat contests at Chipotle on M Street. In the most epic eating clash this side of Takeru Kobayashi’s hot dogs, Rehwinkel recently outlasted Browning, scarfing down three mega-sized burritos in fifteen minutes. It was sweet revenge for Rehwinkel, a Texan, who had to live with Ohio native Browning’s taunts after the Buckeyes embarrassed the Longhorns 24-7 on Sept. 9. Browning, who played with Ohio State Heisman Trophy hopefuls Troy Smith and Ted Ginn, Jr., in high school, also has a little brother on the Buckeye squad and is planning on flying to Columbus to visit on the Hoyas’ bye week. While Browning plans to get away for a bit, Rehwinkel is perfectly happy to stay in D.C. and eat burritos with his boys. Not only is the 260-pound former rugby player the king of the kitchen, all five point to Rehwinkel as the strongest of the five. But when it comes to foot-speed, the decision was unanimous: “Matheny’s the fastest,” the four upperclassmen say in almost-perfect unison with one another. “He is the best athlete.” Perhaps that is why the true freshman was called upon this season by his coaches to start at center, arguably the hardest position on the offensive line. Matheny, who this time last year was voted Athlete of the Year at Paul VI High School in Fairfax, Va., claims he could not have made the transition with out the help of his line mates. “These guys have helped me out a lot,” Matheny says. “My first game, I was pretty nervous, but it’s really been these other four guys on the line that have helped me keep it all straight.” It has been a challenge, even for the most grizzled veterans, to master the option offense that Kelly brought with him from Navy. Batchelder, the most calm and collected of the bunch, quietly explains how pleased he has been with the new scheme. “This offense is a lot better than last year’s,” the left guard says. “I came in as a freshman last year, and that offense was insane. I feel like this year’s offense has been really working for us.” Thick as Thieves The sun has nearly vanished behind the Hilltop, and even Dunlay and Kelly have headed to the locker room. Thus another day in obscurity passes for the men of the Hoyas’ offensive line. As they finally exit the practice field and head for the showers, deep, bellowing laughter can be heard echoing off the walls of the Southwest Quad, the result of another Grubb wisecrack. Later, they will make the staff at Leo’s earn their pay, or possibly do their best to put Chipotle out of business. Wherever they go, they will stick together – Grubb, Rehwinkel, Browning, Batchelder, and Matheny – a unit in transition well on their way to domination.