The quarterback is often considered the most important position on the field. However, as Rich Alercio points out, there’s only one quarterback on the field at any given time, but five offensive linemen.

“The quarterback may be the most important,” Alercio said, “but there’s only one of those guys out there.

Alercio, the head coach at St. Johnsbury Academy (Vt.), is a huge proponent of the importance of the offensive line, so much so that he’s coached the offensive line himself, even as a head coach at the college level.

“A close second (to quarterback in importance) are the offensive linemen,” Alercio said, on a recent episode of the USA Football Coach and the Coordinator podcast. “There’s five of them. I don’t know that I would trust that to anyone else, to coach those guys.”

Alercio believes line play lays the groundwork for everything else that an offense attempts to accomplish.

“If those guys can block, we can run, we can pass, we can have success,” Alercio said.

To hear Alercio dive deeper on offensive line play—including how he has an offensive line screen play—listen to the USA Football Coach and Coordinator show below: