LSU wins Joe Moore Award for nation’s top offensive line

LSU has claimed yet another piece of major college football hardware, albeit this time as a group rather than individually.

One of four finalists for this year’s honor, LSU was announced Tuesday as the 2019 winner of the Joe Moore Award for the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in College Football, which is coached by James Cregg. The other three finalists were Alabama, Ohio State and Oregon.

The winner of the 2019 Joe Moore Award. The best collegiate football offensive line unit. #GeauxTigers pic.twitter.com/HDMq8K5KAu

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) December 19, 2019

The award’s website states that “[t]he voting committee is comprised of college football experts, especially people who played or coached the offensive line position, including all of the current offensive line coaches at the Division I/FBS level as well as former players, coaches, colleagues of Coach Moore and select media.” As for criteria, the award “annually recognizes the nation’s Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit that best displays toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique, and ‘finishing.’”

This year’s Tigers offense set school records for points (621), points per game (47.8), total offense (7,207), passing yards (5,209), 50-point games (6) and games with at least 40 points (10).

From the award’s release:

LSU’s offensive line featured eight different starters and only had two players that started all thirteen games at the same position all season. Further, the Tigers’ O-line unit persevered despite only twice starting the same lineup in back-to-back weeks. LSU’s starting line featured senior tackle Badara Traore (3 starts), junior tackle Saahdiq Charles (6 starts), freshman tackle Dare Rosenthal (3 starts), junior tackle Austin Deculus (10 starts), senior guard Adrian Magee (12 starts), sophomore guard Ed Ingraham (2 starts), senior guard Damien Lewis (12 starts), and center Lloyd Cushenberry III (12 starts).

The JMA is literally the biggest award in college football, weighing in at 800 pounds and standing nearly seven feet tall and six feet wide. Per the release, the trophy “will be displayed on the LSU campus until the conclusion of the 2020 college football season.”

Previous winners of the award, named in honor of the legendary line coach Joe Moore of Notre Dame and Pitt, are Oklahoma (2018), Notre Dame (2017), Iowa (2016) and Alabama (2015).