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Moving on down the line, week after week

Be it ejections, suspensions or injuries, Gulf has substituting players in and out of the O-line down to an artform.

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published August 31, 2006

Gulf's starting right guard, Josh Paiva, expected to return this week after being ejected in the preseason classic, may miss Friday's game after suffering a concussion at practice Monday.

Starting right tackle Jene McGinnis won't play after being ejected in Friday's 15-14 loss to Wesley Chapel.

And Jacob Kinn, the starting tight end, is out for three more weeks with a broken arm suffered in the preseason.

It's business as usual at Gulf, where coach Jay Fulmer is dealing with the Bucs' perpetually oscillating offensive line. "It runs in streaks," he said.

"It seems like sometimes, when one goes down, you lose three to four."

In the past two weeks, Fulmer has lost one player to injury and another to an ejection, then replaced them with players he lost to injury, and, well, another ejection.

Even Joan Rivers is jealous of the number of facelifts the offensive line has had in two years under Fulmer.

Eventually, Fulmer promises the offensive line will start to look younger, fresher and healthier.

"The good thing is, we developed a lot of linemen this summer and felt we went 10 deep," Fulmer said. "When we had our spring game and afterwards were looking at all our linemen, I though, my gosh, we have three to four guys that could start for a lot of people. I don't know if they could go to Lakeland and start, but they could start for some people."

Last season, Fulmer had to gut his junior varsity team to keep then-sophomores McGinnis and Paiva on varsity.

The JV went winless, but Fulmer has the kind of talent and experience on varsity that makes the recent rash of sidelined blockers just a minor nuisance instead of the devastating train wreck it had the potential to be.

He had hoped to load up his right side with Paiva (5-10, 250), McGinnis (6-4, 260) and Kinn (6-4, 220), but hasn't even been able to get two of them on the field at the same time.

Against Wesley Chapel, two of quarterback Alton Voss' best runs - 19 yards and a 41-yard scoring run on consecutive plays - were off the left side of the line.

This week, Fulmer will move the pieces around again, with left tackle J.D. Ramirez and center John Palasky the only guys starting at the same position.

Left guard Forrest Smith with move to right tackle (with Matt Phillips stepping in for him), Jesse Jecusco will start at right guard if Paiva isn't cleared by doctors and Shawn Williamson will start at tight end for Kinn.

"It's been like ever since I've been at Gulf," Fulmer said, chuckling. "I don't know if we've ever made it through three straight weeks with the same offensive line."

That streak looks safe for the foreseeable future.

[Last modified August 31, 2006, 05:58:42]