Alabama's offensive line: Beef, brains and brotherhood

• Alabama's offensive line is best in the country but still operates in anonymity
• Barrett Jones, Chance Warmack, D.J. Fluker all could be first-round picks in NFL draft
• Warmack has dreams of competitive eating, a la "Man v. Food"

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The signature burger at Mugshots Grill and Bar is three all-beef patties, six strips of bacon, three slices of cheese — your choice, cheddar or American — along with tomatoes, pickles, lettuce and red onions, all layered on four bun slices, everything slathered in mayonnaise and mustard.

The challenge, should you choose to accept, is to devour the entire Mugshot — approximately 2½ pounds, post-cooked weight, and that's not counting the accompanying large order of fries, an onion ring and a fried pickle — in 12 minutes. Clearly, this is not a task for the faint of heartburn, but finish it and the food is free.

Chance Warmack ate two.

D.J. Fluker verifies the feat, which happened not long ago at the burger joint near the University of Alabama campus. Although Fluker knows his offensive linemate is an all-world eater, he still marvels. But Warmack just shrugs, says it's no big deal, and explains how he was able to accomplish it:

"Just take my time, cut it up in little bitty bits, get to work," he says.

Nick Saban probably would approve because it's somewhat similar to the method for preparing for Notre Dame's defensive line and the BCS National Championship. And the attention to detail helps explain why Warmack, the massive left guard who is expected to be an NFL first-round draft pick in April, is just one cog in a line that has earned a reputation as perhaps the nation's best. How good are Bama's big guys?

"Our offensive line has played really well for us this year," Saban says. "We have lots of guys that have a lot of experience. We've been fortunate that that unit has been able to stay intact for the whole season. They've played a lot together. They communicate well. They have a lot of confidence in each other. They understand what we're trying to do."

In other words: They're real good. But for a measurement, let's try to break down everything into bite-sized nuggets.

Alabama rushed for 2,920 yards and passed for 2,788. The Tide scored 500 points and produced 62 touchdowns, most in school history, and averaged 439.1 yards (224.6 rushing) and 6.92 yards per play. Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon each rushed for 1,000 yards, and A.J. McCarron threw a school-record 26 touchdown passes, but there's also the public consensus.

"Alabama's got definite talent at running back, and they've got a very good quarterback as well," CBS Sports NFL draft analyst Rob Rang says. "But if the average Joe Fan can watch a game and not know the names of the running backs or the quarterback and just think, 'Wow, they could put anybody back there and run for 100 (yards) or pass for 200' – that, to me, is the sign (of the offensive line's dominance)."

Combined, Alabama's offensive line has made 160 career starts. Warmack and senior center Barrett Jones are consensus All-Americans. Jones, who won the Outland Trophy as the nation's best lineman in 2011 while playing left tackle, was a finalist again this season and won the Rimington Award as the best center. Fluker, the junior right tackle, is a second-team All-American.

Fluker may come out early, and all three are potential first-round picks. Junior right guard Anthony Steen and sophomore left tackle Cyrus Kouandjio fill out the lineup, and according to Rang, all five are good bets to be NFL starters.

"If you watch each of them," Rang says, "probably four of every five plays, they're gonna beat their opponent. And (Alabama) marches right down the field."

Together, they form the biggest strength of Alabama program on the verge of winning its third BCS championship in four years. "This is a very special offensive line, I think," Warmack said. "We're expressing how special we are on the field, through the whole season."

Yet Jones says it took a long while to develop chemistry, that they're only now playing like they envisioned.

If it seems like a cliché — the offensive line as a close-knit bunch, almost a team within the team — they insist it's reality, and a big reason for their success. "We just mesh together so well," Jones says, explaining how they're able to mash defenses. They've routinely put in extra film work on Thursday and sometime Friday evenings, and they've spent plenty of time together away from football, as well.

"You've just got to see us interact with each other," Warmack says. "We've got five guys from different places and situations in life. You put them in one room and they can make good things happen. It's an amazing thing."

But for most casual fans — this is also a universal truth — the Alabama line remains a 1,571-pound anonymous mass. Who are these guys? Here's a quick primer, from, well, themselves:

Senior center Barrett Jones is the most experienced (he'll make his 50th start against Notre Dame, at his third position) and the most decorated, a graduate student and a devout Christian his teammates have never heard cuss, despite his makeup as a perfectionist. "There's not a dark side to him," Fluker says.

Junior right tackle D.J. Fluker is perhaps the most energetic and emotional, always ready with a one-liner but also with an encouraging word.

Sophomore left tackle Cyrus Kouandjio, the youngster, is quiet but a quick learner – and he's got enough freakish talent to move Jones to center.

Junior right guard Anthony Steen, the country boy, is the least-recognized — "underrated," Warmack says — but the strongest of the bunch. He also is the guy most prone to moments of goofy randomness. Warmack won't say which game it happened in, but he laughs recalling how between plays in a critical situation, Steen suddenly had a question: "Do your knee braces feel funny?"

Senior left guard Chance Warmack occasionally needs to be motivated — "Sometimes," Jones says, "you've got to cattle-prod him a little bit" — but he's been perhaps the Tide's most dominant lineman. He is also the self-described "best eater," and the guy most likely to one day have his own show on the Travel Channel or Food Network.

"You've seen Man v. Food, where you eat the food and talk about how good it is?" Warmack says. "That's what I want to do, travel the world and eat different foods and talk about how good it is. I could do that."

But first, there's the game with Notre Dame, and then the NFL. And if the food thing doesn't work out, he'll always have the Mugshot memory. Tyler Reed, the restaurant's manager, estimates maybe one in 10 attempts to eat the giant burger are successful. He wasn't working the night Warmack doubled down, but word quickly got around.

"That's six burgers!" Reed says. "I didn't know anyone could eat two Mugshots in one sitting."

But then, he doesn't know Warmack, or his linemates – their ability, or their method.