September 16, 2024

The Beef Index: How Alabama and Auburn stack up with the SEC’s heaviest offensive lines

In 2023, Alabama football had the heaviest offensive line, based on average weight of starters, in the SEC. It wasn’t even close, the Crimson Tide weighed in at 339.4 pounds, with Vanderbilt in second place at 325.

Fast forward to 2024 and the Crimson Tide dropped to 13th, according to Beef Index data, released Thursday by AL.com. So what happened?

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First of all, the Beef Index numbers take into account only Week 1 starters. For Alabama, that means losing the heaviest member of its offensive line unit, Kadyn Proctor, who was hurt in pregame warmups before the Tide faced Western Kentucky.

Had the 369-pound Proctor taken the field, Alabama’s average would have climbed to 323.6 pounds. That wouldn’t have placed the Tide back to the top of the list, but would have put it up to seventh.

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Alabama moved significantly year-over-year in another metric as well. The Tide climbed from 12th in the SEC in offensive line total weight to first, counting every player on the online roster.
There’s an extremely simple reason for that. Alabama went from carrying 18 to 23 offensive linemen, and thus jumped from 5,534 pounds to 7,025.

When averaging out the weights of every offensive linemen on the roster, Alabama slipped several spots from 2023. The Crimson Tide weighed in at 307.4 pounds via that metric last season, 12th in the 14-team conference, but dropped to 305.43 pounds in 2024, last in the 12-team league.

Auburn

The Tigers took a huge drop down the standings in terms of starter average weight. While AU checked in third, at 321.4 pounds last season, the 2024 first five weighed an average of 311.8 pounds, dead last in the league.

The big loss there was Kam Stutts, whose 343 pounds topped out the group by a large margin. This year, Jeremiah Wright is the heaviest starter, at 333 pounds, with other weight drops around him.

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