The SMU Mustangs’ new offensive line coach is anything but new. Wes Suan worked with the offensive line for seven seasons at his alma mater, Linfield (Ore.) College, and for a year under head coach June Jones at the University of Hawaii before they came to SMU in 2009, and he filled in as offensive line coach before the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., and helped lead the Mustangs to their 28-6 rout of Pittsburgh.

Wes Suan coached the SMU offensive line prior to the BBVA Compass Bowl after the 2011 season (photo by SMU athletics).

Even in his role for the last five years as the Ponies’ running backs coach, Suan has been tied closely with the offensive line. Since his arrival on the Hilltop, Jones has said the top priority for his running backs was not running the ball or catching passes out of the backfield, but protection. Shawnbrey McNeal had to learn to block before Jones fully trusted him. Zach Line proved so adept as a blocker that many NFL analysts have him ranked as the top fullback prospect in the 2013 draft. In most SMU practices, the running backs and offensive line work together in position drills. Jones’ offense can not work if the quarterback has no time to throw, and Suan has been deeply immersed in the protection schemes since he arrived in Dallas

Now his role has changed, as Suan has moved this offseason from running backs coach to offensive line coach.

“I love it,” he said. “I’ve done it before. I felt like I really understood the schemes for the running backs, the blocking schemes, the protection schemes. Nobody can do his job without proper protection, so what we do up front is as important as what anybody else does.”

Suan takes over a line that is decidedly younger than in recent seasons. The 2011 unit lost all five starters to graduation, including two to the NFL in Josh LeRibeus of the Washington Redskins and Kelvin Beachum, Jr., of the Pittsburgh Steelers. But three of those vacated positions were filled in 2012 by seniors who already had practiced and played a lot in the Mustangs’ system: Blake McJunkin and Jordan Free at guard, and Bryan Collins, who slid outside from guard to tackle.

The group with which Suan works every day has some players with size and strength and talent, but is short on experience. The only two returning starters are left tackle Ben Gottschalk and center Taylor Lasecki. Gottschalk is the greybeard of the bunch, going in to his senior season; Lasecki will be just a sophomore. The rest of the positions have been pretty fluid in spring workouts: former tackle Kris Weeks has been working at guard, as has former Ben Hughes, who has played tackle and was recruited as a center. Several redshirt freshmen, including Seaver Myers, Chewy Chamagua, Chauncey Briggs and Sam Rice, are in the mix for playing time and perhaps starting roles, but how the personnel will shake out remains unclear.

“Everything I’m teaching is exactly the same,” Suan said. “I’ve got a nice young group of guys to work with, and they’re going to be good — they just have work to do. But this is Coach Jones’ protection. I’m not changing anything that we’ve had success with before.”

Suan said he was impressed with the job turned in last year by Lasecki, who was thrust into a starting role when numbers dictated that McJunkin would slide from center, where he had played for four seasons, to guard. As a redshirt freshman, Lasecki found himself making the calls for a veteran line.

“Whether he liked it or not, he had to take on a leadership role with a group of guys who are older and more experienced than he is,” Suan said. “That’s a very hard thing to do for some people. He had his back against the wall, in a way, but he did a great job recognizing defenses and verbalizing everything and making the correct calls.”

Coaches are not allowed to work in drills with players before the start of spring workouts, but Gottschalk and Lasecki took it upon themselves to run offseason tutorial sessions with their young teammates.

“That was a very mature thing they did, and we’ll be better because of it,” Suan said. “Those guys really took on a kind of nurturing role. The thing there is they can’t spend so much time teaching the other guys that they don’t continue to work on their own technique, but as they teach, they also learn. When you can explain something to someone else, it sometimes helps sharpen your own understanding of what you’re doing, so the more the group learns, the better we’ll be able to execute next year.”

One of the pleasant surprises this spring has been the emergence of tackle Chauncey Briggs, who will be a redshirt freshman in the fall, whose dedication to conditioning has helped him lose ample weight and put him firmly in the tackle rotation, either as a backup to Gottschalk on the left side or as a starter or backup on the right.

“Chauncey has taken his conditioning seriously, and it shows,” Suan said. “He has really gotten involved in the college weightlifting environment, and has dropped a lot of … baby fat, I guess. He’s stronger and leaner, and has gotten faster and quicker. His body is really maturing, which will allow him to become a much better lineman.”

One player who arrived at SMU amid significant scrutiny is former LSU signee Stavion Lowe, who is in the mix at multiple positions after sitting out in 2012 after transferring from a junior college.

“Stavion has got a lot of ability,” Suan said, “and he has a lot of value to us because he can play tackle or guard. He has been out of football for a while, so he’s catching up, but he can do a lot of things and can help us in a lot of ways.

“I don’t know yet where he’ll play, guard or tackle, but it’s a nice problem to have, because he can play either one. We’re still trying to find the right combination of players at the right positions, but we have some guys who can play.”