I am a long time friend of an ex college O-lineman and he stated to me the importance of have a strong bench press. There are many situations in the trenches that will require a lineman to hold off a defender with one hand while holding off another with the other. In this situation, your upper body almost takes a bench press look. If your upper body isn't strong, they will simply push your arm aside. Trust me when I say that a heavy bench press is very important in the trenches. Unless you've played on the line, you really won't know the importance.
Martin, Thanks for your analysis, interesting. Guess strength in all area's is important I would guess and technique is the most important factor. That is why we have great coaches and a great strength program. I am sure that is why we tend to redshirt most of our line prospects while a lot of the skill guys play earlier. Many of the great limeman can use their physical superiority over their opponents in high school and do not learn proper technique and aren't as inclined a lot of times to work very hard in the weight room as they are already much stronger than most other players. And I love the post about flexibilty and explosiveness, they are just as important also, especially staying away from injuries. we have the best of everything at LSU and when we get great recruits we tend to make them much better than when they came in.
I know that Luke Sanders benches around 400 and squats around 525. Of course, his dad is the strength coach at WMHS...
Good posts martin and I . Not denying strength is a factor in the least. Raw numbers in bench and squats is impessive on paper. But, just as important are things such as form, technique, and cardiovascular conditioning.
DD & Corndog are spot on about the long arms. I have an 83" armspan and at 6'3-307lbs (put on a few since X-mas) I can still bench 400 lbs for 3 reps. When I was in my twenties I could do 475 lbs. This kid is 6'8" with an armspan at about 100", can any of you even begin to imagine that, take a damn tape measure and measure it across your wall for scale ... LOL, and OL use of hands is LEGAL His number of 345 is a good one, especially considering the small texas school he comes from. This kid will be a two-year project and should play in 2005. LSU probably already has passed along a program to get him started to improve his strength in the offseason.
