It's situation critical in the situation room at the Hatfield-Dowlin Center, one of the thorniest recruiting challenges Mario Cristobal has ever faced.

In 2019 the Ducks feature one of the best offensive lines in the country. They are massive and experienced. 153 starts. The two-deep includes six scholarship seniors and at least three future NFL draft picks. Right tackle Calvin Throckmorton is a projected first rounder. Pro Football Focus named center Jake Hanson its top pass blocker among centers.

The baby of the group, 6-6, 345 left tackle Penei Sewell, was a freshman All-American. Left guard Shane Lemieux is a three-year starter who played all 95 snaps at Wyoming in 2017. Imagine coming to work on a sunny Saturday, putting on a 100-pound weight vest and running around for three hours at 7200 feet while an employee from a rival company clubs you every 45 seconds with a baseball bat. Then on the ride home, your boss tells you, "Yeah, we're gonna need you to come in to-morrow. We lost a couple of people and we have to play catch up."

Things are still tough at the office, but Cristobal has amassed a juggernaut. They average 6-6 and 325 pounds. Last year they pounded out 4.4 yards a carry and allowed just 22 sacks all season. And this season, they are deeper, more solid, and better conditioned for the style their head coach wants to play. It will be a thing of beauty to watch it unfold, those drives that begin at the 7, the flawless pockets, the near-automatic first downs on third and two.

Trouble is, it all goes away at the end of the season.

The Ducks graduate 4 starters and 6 scholarship seniors total on the offensive line.

This is a crucial year for restocking the rotation. Oregon's returnees for 2020 are good, including Sewell, a stellar 2018 recruiting class and massive Juco transfer Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, but you have to have numbers on the offensive line. On every play there are collisions, big bodies and mayhem. Guys get dinged up over 12+ games.

Compounding the problem is that it's a down year for offensive line prospects on the West Coast. It's not like 2018 when CMC reeled in big bodies from all over the country, brought in Dawson Jaramillo, Sewell, Chris Randazzo, Steven Jones and Justin Johnson for Saturday Night Live and eventually signed them all.

This recruiting cycle, it's work. Finding o-line candidates of suitable size and agility is an absolute grind this season.

Five months into the 2020 recruiting calendar, Oregon doesn't have a single commitment at the position despite a wide-open depth chart for next year.

It isn't for lack of work. No one scouts harder than Cristobal, Mirabal and Big Joe (Salave'a is a defensive coach, but his contribution to recruiting big guys in general can't be ignored). It's a particular challenge of timing in a competitive market.

Somehow the Ducks have to close on five to six offensive linemen by February 5th, or the 2020 depth chart won't be pretty.

It will take a frenzy of text messages, phone calls and sleek edits to wrangle a solution. Cristobal and Mirabal will have to attack this problem like a blocking sled in August, fully mindful that they have to be on a blocking sled in August. There's only 93 days until they line up against the Auburn defensive line.

The Ducks top prospect for the 2020 o-line class is Roger Rosengarten, a 6-7, 275 offensive tackle from Valor Christian High in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

First team all-state and first team all-league, Rosengarten's high school coach is Ed McCaffrey, the former Stanford and Denver Broncos star and father of Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers.

Rosengarten, currently rated three stars in the Rivals data base, has power combined with impressive agility. He can block at the second level and finishes with ferocity. Recently he announced a final two of Oregon and Washington. At 6-7 he has room to add good weight without loss of mobility. You'd expect him to play in the PAC-12 around 320, an almost perfect size for a right tackle.

Three-star prospect Jaylan Jeffers visited Oregon for the spring game. He's 6-6, 256, from Saguaro High in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Jeffers took an official visit to Colorado in June. He's a mauler who puts opponents on the ground, but still has some growing to do to block at the PAC-12 level.

2020 prospect Andres Dewerk also visited for the spring game but doesn't yet have an Oregon offer, although there's mutual interest. He's 6-6 295, from Los Gatos High in Los Gatos, California.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2019/andres-dewerk-216263

The top offensive line high school senior in the Northwest is Caadyn Stephen of Camas High in Camas, Washington, but he doesn't appear to be high on Oregon's board.

At 6-8, 310, Andrew Gentry of Littleton, Colorado is one of the most sought after of prep offensive tackles with 34 offers. He has high interest in BYU, however, and is expected to complete an LDS mission, making him a 2022 prospect.

It helps the picture that Logan Sagapolu will join the Ducks in 2021 after completing his mission, but right now there's a talent deficit at offensive line in the future, not in ability, because some very promising big fellas are already in the fold, but in numbers. Cristobal and Mirabal will be working this problem all summer and beyond.