A bye week, and the Thursday night game looming. The questions are still on the O-line, at DE and linebackers. To say nothing of the health of DeCicco and Taglianetti at safety.

There’s a decent amount of confidence at DE where Brandon Lindsay will get the start, and it is expected that there will be a lot more rotation of players to help. In the secondary, Jason Hendricks has shown improvement after being forced into a starting role at safety.

The newcomers already are making an impact. Lindsey, a redshirt junior starting for Romeus, had two sacks against New Hampshire, while Hendricks, a redshirt freshman starting for DeCicco, had five tackles and continues to draw praise from his coaches.

The 6-foot-2, 250-pound Lindsey will start again in place of Romeus, who is out at least six weeks after having back surgery Thursday. Clemmings (6-6, 280), one of the top recruits of the Wannstedt era, will learn on the fly rather than being redshirted.

DeCicco and Taglinetti both returned to practice last week and could be available for the Miami game. Their absence allowed Hendricks to flourish and gave a glimpse of Gray, the converted former standout Texas prep quarterback.

The safeties will be tested in the Miami game, as Miami QB Jacory Harris does like to throw in the middle of the field. That will also test the linebackers in pass coverage.

A test they have not passed this season.

Pitt linebackers coach Bernard Clark said Friday that the group hasn’t played as well as he had hoped in the first two games, but he believes the players will get better with more experience.

His main concern is production and big plays. The linebackers have yet to produce a sack or a tackle for loss.

“I’ve been their worst critic, probably harder on them than they are on themselves,” Clark said. “We have a lot more to go, they’ve played good, I’ll say, but not to the level we think they should play at but each week they are getting better. I thought from the Utah game to the New Hampshire game, they got better.”

I’m not sure LB Coach Clark has been their worst critic. Some Pitt fans have been brutal. Unfortunately, with good reason.

Dan Mason’s been demoted to second team at the moment, we will see how long that lasts. If Miami is passing a lot, then Mason will probably spend a lot of time out of the game.

Then there’s the O-line. Offensive Coordinator Frank Cignetti made an attempt to deflect some of the blame onto his playcalling and the rest of the offense.

While noting that the run-blocking has been inconsistent, Cignetti also noted that Pitt has not passed the ball efficiently enough to make teams respect it. He also said the running backs have not made the right reads and cut into the right holes at all times.

“It takes all 11 guys to function as one to be successful,” Cignetti said. “There have been running plays that have been well-blocked where we’re not getting good run reads. There have been plays where we’re not getting [it] blocked as well as we would like and we’re getting good runs reads.

“The quarterback and the tailback are decision-makers,” Cignetti continued. “They have to trust what they see with their eyes. The offensive line will give you an opportunity to be successful for only a short period of time. You have to be decisive. We have to be decisive decision-makers and take what our offensive line is allowing us to have.”

Offensive Line Coach Tony Wise, though, is a little more critical of the line.

“[The line’s progress] has been slow,” Wise said. “Jason Pinkston and Lucas Nix have done a nice job [as tackles]. They’ve played well. Alex is exactly what we thought, maybe even better [because of] his experience and football sense. He sees things that you try to encourage other guys to see.

“Obviously, the two guards … Lumpy [Jacobson], physically, is just wonderful, but there are things that I’ve talked about forever that as games go on you have to see things and things happen differently. Greg [Gaskins] lacks a little bit of the explosion and power Lumpy has.

“The other [younger] guys are slower to respond. We don’t have anyone. Jordan Gibbs has done very, very well. Alex [Karabin] has been hurt. Jack [Lippert] has been taking all the center work during practice.”

Karabin won’t miss the Miami game, but with being banged up, that means Lippert is not getting any practice time at guard. That, however, strikes me as something for next year. For this year, he just needs to be practicing at center and be ready to play there. Either because Karabin is hurt or ineffectiveness.

If there’s one thing to be hopeful with the O-line is that the Miami D-line has injury issues on the inside of their line that has their depth limited and weakened overall.

On the injury front, the Canes will likely be without sophomore defensive tackle Curtis Porter for a while. Porter got leg whipped in the Ohio State game and could be out for several weeks, according to Shannon. The exact time table for his return hasn’t been determined yet but it’s possible he could be done for the season. With junior Jeremy Lewis already out for the season, depth at defensive tackle is getting thin. Look for 290-pound defensive end Allen Bailey to see more reps at tackle for the Canes in coming weeks.