Rivals Rankings Week: Breaking down the 2025 OL

NEW POSITION RANKINGS: Pro-Style QB | Dual-Threat QB | All-Purpose RB | Running Back | Wide Receiver | Tight End | Offensive Tackle | Offensive Guard | Center

The updated 2025 Rivals250 has been released and now it’s time to break down each position. We continue with the offensive line by looking at four big storylines moving forward.

Both on and off the field, Michael Carroll has become his own storyline of late. On Friday nights, the dominating run-blocking and sheer physicality he puts on display was enough to go viral. Doing so at IMG, alongside and certainly against great competition week in, week out, showed more than a flash of power as he proved consistent all season long. While the position projection and technical side of pass protection could still be determined at the next level, the size, athleticism and proven power were too much to ignore relative to a five-star tab.

Off the field, Carroll has been committed to Alabama since the summer but has admitted his recruitment remains open anyway. He has maintained the status all season long, but it wasn’t until he spent last weekend at Colorado alongside several IMG teammates and IMG products that his recruitment began to track as its own storyline.

Will he stick with the Crimson Tide or bolt for Coach Prime? What about Georgia? Penn State? This five-star race will come down to the wire.

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Not only did Carroll get a major bump in earning five-star status, but two more committed to SEC programs were among the top 10 risers in the class of 2025 regardless of position in Alabama commitment Jackson Lloyd and Texas A&M pledge Marcus Garcia.

A California native, Lloyd was the biggest individual risers in the country in going from sneaking into the back end of the Rivals250 at No. 231 overall all the way up to the No. 60 spot. Lloyd is now a top 10 offensive tackle in a class known for strength at the position.

Garcia, out of Texas, wasn’t even in the previous Rivals250 and now checks in just outside of the top 100 overall. He is the highest-ranked offensive recruit to make that jump from outside to near the top. LSU commitment Tyler Miller also deserves a shout in his large rise, climbing from outside the top 100 to No. 67 overall, registering as the No. 11 offensive tackle in the rankings, sitting just behind Lloyd.

Even though dozens of offensive line projections in the senior class are already verbally committed to one program or the next, it certainly doesn’t mean other programs aren’t working to force a change of heart in two weeks.

Michael Fasusi, a longtime Oklahoma commitment, had been rumored to be close to considering Texas just as high in his recruitment before he confirmed plans to visit Austin for the first time since the Sooner pledge went down. That is now scheduled for this weekend and word is Texas A&M is looking to get him on campus before all is said and done, too, in a new-age SEC battle.

No. 2 guard and fellow five-star Solomon Thomas is one step ahead of the Texan, having already visited a possible top contender after visiting Florida for the upset win over LSU on Saturday. Since Florida State parted ways with multiple assistant coaches, including Alex Atkins, Thomas has been on flip watch to the Gators as well as South Carolina and LSU. At this point, Thomas is more likely to ink with a program not named Florida State.

It’s never too early to look at the best assembly of offensive line recruits relative to the college program, and it’s little surprising to see some of the best hauls coincide with programs ranked near the top of the 2025 team ranking on Rivals. There are some elite pound-for-pound groups with a trio onboard such as Oregon or even defending national champion Michigan, but the title of top haul has to push toward those with the volume and star power all in one class.

Florida State was in the thick of this hypothetical race until recently, and of course those mentioned on flip watch can flip the final list of top programs in the end.

As things currently stand, though, it looks like the contenders for the top haul will include Notre Dame, Alabama, Miami, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas. Of that group, only the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide hold each projected offensive linemen as a current blue-chip recruit on the network.

Somehow fittingly, Georgia’s group is led by former Alabama commitment Mason Short and Alabama’s group is led by an elite UGA is trying to flip late in Carroll. As the dust settles on Dec. 4, the race for the best offensive line class could become as close as the race for the top-ranked class overall.