Texas A&M lost its two starting offensive tackles from last season to the NFL but, all offseason, head coach Kevin Sumlin pointed out the Aggies' line this year actually had more combined starts than the one a year ago.

All offseason, junior Koda Martin started at left tackle. Erik McCoy, a freshman All-American from a year ago, moved from center to guard. Colton Prater moved from guard to center.

Then, when the team took the field for the first game, Martin was nowhere to be found, McCoy was back at center and Prater was inexplicably at left tackle. Prater was thrown into the fire as a true freshman starter a year ago and Sumlin said he wasn't big enough to play guard, hence the move to center, but he still had the lowest grade of any guard in all of college football in 2016.

After the team failed to generate any offense in the second half of the opener against UCLA, Prater was moved to right tackle for the Nicholls State game. Eventually, he took over for an injured Connor Lanfear at guard and Martin, who was one of A&M's three representatives at SEC Media Days, came in at right tackle.

The Aggies have given up 10 sacks through two games and the offense has been stagnant for all but three quarters of the season. While the quarterbacks have rightly taken criticism, Sumlin deflected some of that to the line on his radio show Monday evening.

"Basically we've got to be better on the offensive line – we have to," Sumlin said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "When people talk about quarterbacks, it's not always on the quarterback.

"Protection was an issue. I thought Kellen (Mond) played very well the first couple of series. They changed (their defensive scheme) and we couldn't ... for whatever reason. Not whatever reason, I know what reason. Our protection didn't adjust and then we weren't able to run it as effectively as we've been able to.

"Everything starts up front. It starts with our offensive and defensive lines."

It will be interesting to see what the unit looks like when the Aggies kick off against Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday. While the line deserves criticism, the questionable personnel decisions certainly do as well.

RELATED: Which A&M true freshmen have seen playing time already?

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