I hope you are right about being able to run up the middle but based on the last 2 seasons I don't expect much in that area. Maybe the addition of Hannon and Tovi get us some improvement there.
I think our problem of running up the middle the last 2 years comes down to 2 main things, lack of depth/experience(that roster thing I keep bringing up with certain posters) on OL and the other was predictability. We just didn't have enough OL guys over the past 2 years to have an effective run blocking OL. Hell, we barely had enough guys to have 5 starters in 2015 and barely had enough for a 2 deep last year.We also had little to no experience to speak of and a lot of the experience was with guys who wouldn't have been in our 2 deep had we had a full roster.
We also ran a lot of our running plays at predictable times over the past 2 years IMHO. Yeah, we ran them out of multiple formations, but we ran them in predictable circumstances a lot of the time too. The D's clued in to that tendency and were ready for those run plays despite the formation being different. To be fair though, even then we had the play working sometimes until someone missed an assignment they were in position to make. Most often it was only 1 guy who'd missed his assignment and it would blpw the play up. Not the same 1 guy, but different guys on different plays and that goes back to lack of depth and experience.
As for guys I think who'll step up at the OG positions, I expect Tovi to have a very positive impact here. He may even win a starting spot. Not sure about Hannon. He could add quality depth, but if he wins a starting spot that could be a bad sign for the rest of our OG's. I also expect Bragg to make a step forward this year. A few of the other guys are question marks who typically at this point in their college careers either make noticeable improvement from last year and become solid to good OL, or they reveal they are who they are and won't typically make much improvement from where they were last year.
I think the coaches are worried about that latter scenario possibly being the case with a few who seemed to take steps backward last year after showing signs of promise in their 1st year. Then again, these guys would have never been playing in their 1st year here if we hadn't had such a depleted roster and were desperate to field an OL of any kind. so it's hard to say how they'll do this year.