At the SMU Red/Blue game this spring, outgoing senior offensive tackle Tommy Poynter was watching his teammates wrap up their spring workouts with the team’s annual scrimmage. When asked which of his now-former teammates on the offensive line had improved the most over the course of the past year, he insisted that the most impressive improvement was how the unit had grown into a more cohesive unit. When pressed, he singled out sophomore-to-be left guard Josh LeRibeus.

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For LeRibeus, the 2008 spring workouts and the 2008 season were the football equivalent of being kicked into the deep end of the pool. When June Jones was hired as the Mustangs’ head coach, he brought with him a new offensive line coach, Dennis McKnight. Jones’ Run-and-Shoot offense called for the offensive linemen to eschew the three-point stance most blockers use, instead, starting every play in a two-point stand-up position. The stance allows blockers to see the opposing defense a little more easily, but also requires them to learn new ways to generate leverage and power, all while learning the plays and terminology of the new scheme.

“A year ago, I had no idea what was going on,” LeRibeus said. “There were like two plays I knew, and every other play, I was pretty much lost. Now I get the plays, after going through last season. I know what to do, but last spring was just mayhem for me.

“(The hardest part was) just reacting to the defense, and the stunts they’d give you. I’d see my guy, and I’d go with him and wouldn’t come off (to the next defensive lineman). I didn’t always recognize what I was looking at, but after this past season, I definitely recognize things much better.”

LeRibeus, who split time in 2008 with senior Sean Lobo, grew more comfortable as the season went along, despite having to get comfortable playing next to two different centers, with Mitch Enright opening the season in the starting lineup before giving way to freshman Blake McJunkin after breaking a finger. The switch in centers might seem trivial, but the offensive line, more than any other position group on the field, relies not only on talent, but also on timing and chemistry between the blockers who lead the way for the offense. Despite the midseason switch, LeRibeus said he and the rest of the line made a remarkably smooth transition when McJunkin took over for the injured Enright.

“They’re almost identical size,” he said of Enright, who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 275 pounds, and McJunkin, who is listed at 6-1, 263. “They both get the calls right, so as long as we have a center that knows what’s going on, the rest of the line is happy … and we’ve got two.”

Considering the adjustment to McKnight’s blocking scheme and the new offense, the 2008 offensive line — which featured three redshirt freshmen in LeRibeus, left tackle Kelvin Beachum, Jr., and Bryce Tennison, as well as true freshman McJunkin — had a relatively solid season. The Mustangs surrendered 27 sacks last seaosn, a drop of three from the year before … a deceptively impressive improvement, considering SMU quarterbacks passed the ball on 69 percent of the team’s offensive plays. LeRibeus said the improved protection over the course of the season was a result of the chemistry and cohesion the linemen developed with each other.

Left guard Josh LeRibeus said the 2008 season helped him, and the rest of the young SMU offensive line, in the adjustment to offensive line coach Dennis McKnight's blocking scheme (photo by Travis Johnston).

“It’s a lot better now, because we’ve had a year of experience with each other in this system,” he said. “Now I’m paired up on the left side with Beach (Beachum), and (we) make all the calls — it’s almost without thinking now, and that’s really where we need to be. The center makes the basic calls when he gets there, and then we can make calls based on what the defense does. The right side makes their calls, too, based on what happens with the defense on their side of the field.”

With Lobo’s graduation, LeRibeus heads toward the preseason as the presumed favorite to start at left guard. He has dropped his weight to about 325 — “when I got over 340 last year, I stopped getting on the scale,” he said, while acknowledging that Jones and McKnight have said they’d like him to get down to 315 — and said the work he has put in to shed pounds and learn the blocking scheme mirrors the work the offense put in during the spring.

“(The offense) looks good, definitely with the O-line being together for an entire year,” LeRibeus said. “That was a big deal last year, because if the O-line isn’t clicking, the rest of the offense isn’t going to click at all. I think the O-line did an OK job last year, but this spring it’s just felt different … probably because we had another 1-11 season — we’re just tired of it. All spring, people had a fire under (themselves) and really got after it. We got a lot better this spring, and it will show this season.”