BYU's OL still isn't good enough to win big games, and its bad enough to even struggle against teams like USF and SDSU. The OL performance against SDSU was one of the worst I've seen. So a loss of a talented OL recruit is big because we still don't have enough talent.
It helps that we are solid at OT. OG is where we are weak and need to upgrade, or having 5 solid OL. Right now, Empey and Christenson are really the only two that'd be good enough to start on most P5 programs. Saleapaga has potential and is improving. The Freeland kid from Herriman has potential but is a true freshman. The rest that we are starting have been quite mediocre. I personally thought Longson should have started over both Hoge and Herring, although its a moot point since both Longson and Hoge are out hurt.