Going into fall practice, the biggest question facing the Texas Tech football program was what the offensive line would look like. Now, with just over a week to go before the season begins, the coaching staff doesn’t appear to have made any final decisions.

“We’re still playing around with the positions of all the players,” McGuire admitted Tuesday. “There have been times when Caleb (Rogers) has been left tackle, right guard and right tackle. I definitely feel like Caleb feels better on the right side…

It appears that finding a home for Rogers is the reason for the entire process. The senior is considered the most versatile lineman on the roster and has played both tackle positions in his career with the Red Raiders. However, he has largely worked on the interior of the line during the offseason, primarily as a right guard.

Still, unforeseen factors have forced coaches to use Rogers in other spots. For example, an injury to Middle Tennessee transfer Sterling Porcher early in training camp made it necessary to move Rogers back to left tackle for parts of fall practice.

“Sterling (Porcher) missed the first part of training camp, so he’s playing his way back into shape,” McGuire said. “He had a pulled hamstring and you see him getting better and better in shape. So it was a mix of Sterling at left tackle, Vinny (Sciury) at left guard, (Sheridan Wilson) at center, (Davion) ​​Carter at right guard and Caleb at right tackle. Whenever Caleb was left tackle, Ty Buchanan was right tackle.”

On one hand, it’s great to have a player with Roger’s experience and skill level who can play up to four positions on the offensive line, especially in the event of an injury. However, Tech is now reaching the point where it needs to find a home for Rogers and allow him to be comfortable there. Speaking of comfort, McGuire seems comfortable with the depth of his offensive line.

“We feel really good about our top six, seven and then maybe eight right now and nine could get us out of a game. But we feel really good about having six guys where you can kind of put Caleb anywhere and the other guys fit in really well.”

McGuire was then asked who the eighth and ninth offensive lineman were. His answer included some names that had not been mentioned as much during fall camp.

“Danny Sill,” McGuire said. “We actually replaced one of them. Jaxson Hughes is one of them. With Jaxson Hughes being a tackle, we were able to move Danny Sills to the guard position. That’s probably going to be his more natural position. So he’s developing in a really good direction.”

“Dylan Shaw had a good training camp for a young guy. And you know, I don’t expect him to play, but with a guy like Holton Hendirx, you can really expect something.

“So Jaxson Hughes and Danny Sills are number eight and nine. Dalton Merryman would be number seven. And those six guys are the ones who have played a lot of football, except for Sheridan of course, but he had a really good training camp.”

It’s interesting that Merryman is specifically mentioned by McGuire as the No. 7 offensive lineman. That would mean he’s no longer in the running for the left tackle position, where McGuire said he was pressuring Porcher (and possibly Rogers) for the starting spot earlier in fall camp.

Regardless of how the combination pans out, Tech will need to finalize a starting lineup in the next few days. In fact, it’s a little concerning that the starting lineup hasn’t developed naturally yet, because that could mean that no one has really stepped forward and claimed some of the starting positions yet.

It looks like Sciury and Wilson are locked in at left guard and center, respectively. However, the other three starting positions are still undecided, and that’s less than ideal with just nine days until kickoff against Abilene Christian.