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Eric Olson, Northwestern Wildcats football, No. 76

Eric Olson is a 6'6, 285 pound offensive tackle who had an offer from Michigan and a silky touch from beyond the three-point arc. (Sign him up, Chris Collins.)

By Rodger Sherman
Mike Stobe

The backup offensive lineman road rolls on, but this guy coulda gone to Michigan. (Yeah, that Michigan!) Eric Olson is 6'6, 285 pounds and could be factoring in at a tackle position near you come September, and although he probs isn't gonna start this year, he might sometime down the road, so get used to his name. (It's pretty boring, it shouldn't be THAT hard.)

Anyway, here goes Eric Olson.

Origin myth

Olson is from the Boston area -- YOU'RE NOT A STATIE, KID, YOU'RE AN ASTRONAUT (no idea why I exclusively say this when I have to think about people from Boston) -- where he attended Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols in Cambridge, where one of our illustrious co-writers may or may not live. Because he's 6'6, his original sport was basketball, and -- what, you want to watch a ten-minute highlight video of him playing basketball? Okay:

Something you wouldn't expect from an offensive lineman? Kid is DRAINING threes. He'd score 1,000 points for BB&N. But anyway, it turns out he's also huge, so offensive lineman came sorta naturally. Olson dominated in non-high school football-heavy Massachusetts, going all-Boston, all-Conference, and all-New England twice. A three-star recruit ranked as the No. 6 player in the state per 247's composite and the top lineman, as well as the No. 70 offensive tackle overall. At first, he'd just get offers from the Northeast -- BC, UMass, UConn -- but eventually, ACC schools like Virginia and Wake Forest got in, and eventually, he picked up an offer from Michigan. (Yeah, that Michigan!) But he picked Northwestern the June before his senior year.

We also have football highlights:

At Northwestern

HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THESE PLAYERS REDSHIRTED. JESUS.

Anagram of choice

Discovering the Wildcats' true inner selves through spelling

Eric Olson, anagrammed, is

CORE LOINS

He's an offensive lineman, so his loins are core to this team. Simple. (Rejected options: Loser Icon (emo musicians), Cooler sin (cooler sins: throwing ragers on the Sabbath, theft of trendy items, adultery), Colon rise (ewwwwwwwwwwww), Nicer solo (nicer solos: Jimmy Page on "Heartbreaker", Jimi Hendrix doing the national anthem), and Croons lie (true statement about dudes serenading people))

Tweetin'

Olson tweets at @EOls76, mainly about Boston sports:

Dude. Did you not read the scouting report?

#Gosling

Relevant musical selection

Chance the Rapper, "Na Na" I genuinely couldn't think of anything relevant to Olson, so this is just a reminder that you should be listening to Chance the Rapper, who was of course my musical selection for Chance Carter. Every listen I like Acid Rap more, and this track with Action Bronson -- sampling Red Clay, like that ATCQ song with a word I can't use, AND P.S.A. by Jay-Z -- is just so fun. It helps that Bronson ends the track by yelling "ITS THE YOUNG RANDY VELARDE", which might be my favorite thing anybody's ever yelled.

How he can help

Olson's big -- 6'6, 285 -- and that basketball highlight reel makes him seem like he's got the athleticism to survive as a Big Ten tackle.

Depth chart projection

So the left tackle spot is Jack Konopka's, the right tackle spot is going to be either Paul Jorgensen, who has playing experience, or Shane Mertz, who is just enormous. Of everybody else in the potential tackle lineup, Olson had the best profile coming out of high school and is the guy we've heard the most about since he's at college, so we consider him the fourth guy in that race. He'll be a backup at one of the tackle spots and should factor for snaps. Just because it's easier, we have him listed as the backup at left tackle, but a more accurate assessment is that whoever loses the right tackle battle will probably back up Konopka while Olson becomes the right tackle backup.

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