JONESBORO -- Glen Elarbee doesn't take long when it comes to describing the difference between playing offensive tackle and guard.
"It's kind of like moving to a foreign country," Arkansas State's offensive line coach said last week on the eve of fall camp.
That degree of difficulty didn't deter Elarbee from moving his most experienced player from what had been his home for two years. Elarbee's task of shuffling offensive linemen after spending most of last year looking for able bodies was more important than just being comfortable.
Junior Colton Jackson started fall practice last week at right guard after starting the past 26 games at right tackle. The move allows Elarbee to get Kyle Harris, a reserve last year who started his career at South Carolina, on the field at right tackle and Daniel Keith, a redshirt freshman, to slide into center. Those three join returning starters Jemar Clark at left tackle and Devin Mondie at left guard.
Elarbee and Coach Blake Anderson said last week every position remains fluid. Anderson mentioned Joseph Bacchus, a transfer from Itawamba (Miss.) Community College, as an option at tackle. Brandon Berg, who signed in December from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, could factor in at center. Austin Moreton, who tore a knee ligament last season, and Steven Stevens could make a push, too.
But the good news for ASU is that it has options, something it didn't toward the end of last year, and all of those were opened up by Jackson's move a few feet to his left.
"Huge," Anderson called it. "If he goes in there and doesn't handle it the right way, we've got problems. He's handled it perfectly. He was way more open to it than I expected he would be, and even better at it than I thought he might be."
Jackson shrugs off the importance of the move, saying he was just doing "whatever would be beneficial to the team." It came to mind after last season when so many injuries made any substitution a luxury in the final weeks.
Jackson met with Elarbee not long after ASU's GoDaddy Bowl loss to Toledo and said he would be behind doing whatever the line needed. Jackson said Elarbee asked him if he thought he would be comfortable playing guard.
"I told him straight up, 'Well, I've never played it before but I'll give it a shot,' " Jackson said. "I made the transition, and it's worked out well for us."
He first tried the move during spring practice not sure that it would be permanent. Elarbee said the transition went so smoothly that Jackson, who started as a double major in chemistry and biology, never moved back.
Jackson described playing tackle as more being "graceful" and described playing guard as more "bulldozer work," but he said he has no preference. And since making the move to right guard makes it easier on Anderson and Elarbee, he's fine staying there.
"I think you just have to buy into it," Jackson said. "I'm not just a right tackle, I'm not just a left tackle. I can play more than one position."
Mondie spent part of spring playing center before a concussion sent him to the sideline. That's when Keith, who sustained a high ankle sprain against Tennessee last season, stepped into that role. When fall practice started last week, Mondie was back at his familiar left guard spot.
It may seem like a lot of shuffling, but Elarbee prefers the current situation over what he faced toward the end of last season. Keith was lost for the season after the second game, Moreton tore a knee ligament in a loss to Appalachian State, which was the same game Mondie missed because of a foot injury.
Mondie was back the next week to play at Texas State, a game in which the line was so thin that neither Mondie nor Jackson remember coming off the field in 97 plays.
It became so rocky that Elarbee said they were working with "five guys and a prayer" by the time they arrived in Mobile, Ala., for the GoDaddy Bowl. Even more troubling, the injuries made it so that Mondie was practicing at guard and center during the week and Harris was practicing at both tackle spots and center.
"It's really hard to craft your position if you're constantly moving," Elarbee said.
They're in a better spot now.
"There are so many more bodies and depth," Elarbee said. "I'm probably more optimistic than I should be, but we have 10 guys. Competition is going to make us better. I feel good about that."
Sports on 08/12/2015