This is no great secret. As important as it will be for Chad Voytik to develop quickly at QB. As much as there are big questions about who will be the second and third WRs to take some of the coverage away from Tyler Boyd. As curious as I am to see how James Conner looks. It all starts on the O-line.
Chad Voytik isn’t going to have much success (or avoid injury) if the O-line isn’t giving him a chance. Conner or any of the other running backs can only do so much if the O-lines isn’t at least producing some sort of opening for them to hit.
Health is the concern for the offensive line — as it is throughout the team — but there is a reason to have optimism.
The size is back up front.
“We felt like we needed to get bigger, so you had to recruit bigger,” he said.
The reconstruction of the Pitt football program has taken many shapes, including attitudes and athleticism. There are those who have watched practice every day since Chryst arrived and believe the pad-popping gets louder every year.
One of the most important alterations is the basic look of the team.
When training camp opens next Sunday, Pitt’s offensive linemen will stand, on average, taller than 6-foot-5 and weigh 311.4 pounds. That’s not unlike how it was in 2011 when former coach Todd Graham’s line stood at 6-5 and 313 pounds. But it’s a half-inch taller and more than 16 pounds heavier than in Dave Wannstedt’s final season in 2010.
The four players this season who are 330 pounds or more are either starting (right guard Matt Rotheram) or showing promise as redshirt freshmen (Jaryd Jones-Smith, Carson Baker and Alex Officer). In fact, Jones-Smith (6-7, 335) played almost every first-team snap this spring at left tackle because Adam Bisnowaty was dealing with a bad back.
There were no players who weighed more than 330 pounds in 2010. In 2011, there were three, including Rotheram, who was 15 pounds heavier at 350. The other two were low-impact players Zenel Demhasaj and Arthur Doakes.
Asked whether recruiting big players is part of his coaching philosophy, Chryst admitted, “A little bit.”
It was very obvious from the moment Chryst arrived at Pitt that he was going to go with bigger players. He made it clear to many of the offensive line recruits when he took over after the 2011 season that size matters. Some decommitted. Some stayed. Only Center Artie Rowell managed to overcome the size bias (and he has bulked up quite a bit). Mainly because Pitt had no other options at center. Chryst was going to follow the blueprint set out at Wisconsin.
And don’t tell me, Coach Paul Chryst hasn’t learned a little something about playing to the local base.
But Chryst said Wisconsin didn’t invent the concept of mammoth linemen.
“People talk about (Pitt’s) offensive line, ‘Are you trying to build it like you had at Wisconsin?’ ” he said. “Yeah, but we tried to build Wisconsin like the one that was at Pitt in the ’80s (with All-Americans Jimbo Covert, Bill Fralic and Mark Stepnoski who went to the NFL at 277, 280 and 269 pounds, respectively).”
“We are trying to build that line (at Pitt).”
There’s just enough potential truth to the statement, given Barry Alvarez’s ties to the area for it to be true. But still. Nicely played.
But then size doesn’t matter so much if you are hurt or not very good.
One number trumps all for the Pitt football team’s center, junior Artie Rowell, and it’s not how many starters the Panthers have returning up front.
“The big number that sticks out is the 43 sacks we (allowed) last year,” Rowell said Wednesday at the team’s South Side practice facility. “Now are all 43 sacks the offensive line’s fault? No. But we don’t have numbers. We’re not running backs, quarterbacks and receivers. That’s our number. We’ll own up to it. But we have to cut that number down this year.”
Injuries and inconsistency plagued Pitt’s offensive line a season ago, but with four starters back — not to mention a much more mobile quarterback in first-year starter Chad Voytik — Rowell and others hope the unit will become one of the Panthers’ strengths.
“We looked over our mistakes and the things we did last year,” right tackle T.J. Clemmings said. “We’ve been working twice a week and sometimes three times a week to improve on those things that we did wrong last year so those mistakes won’t happen again.”
The 43 sacks Rowell mentioned ranked last in the 14-team ACC — and was seven more than No. 13 N.C. State. Pitt averaged 3.6 yards per carry on the ground and 125.7 rushing yards, both 12th. In rushing touchdowns, Pitt moved up to eighth.
As wonderful as James Conner’s performance was in the pizza bowl, those numbers also made the overall rushing numbers not look as bad as they really were for most of the year.
Pitt has to be able to run the ball this year. Not simply because James Conner can be a beast. Isaac Bennett is consistent and Chris James has potential. The offense cannot dump that much on Chad Voytik right away.
We already know that teams will look to blitz early and often against Pitt. You want to try and rattle a new QB. The offensive line was such a weakness last year, it has to be attacked. I have to believe that Chryst and OC Rudolph are expecting and preparing the offense to face a lot of blitzes.
JJ-Smith: 6’7, 290—>335
Alex Officer: 6’4, 285—>335
Aaron Reese: 6’6, 275—>310
Carson Baker: 6’5, 300—>330
Dorian Johnson: 6’5, 280—>300
Hopefully these kids can play.. depth and competition looking solid, finally.
I have to say I am a little disappointed to hear that our line is not even as big as Fraud’s!
Have doubts about Bisonwaty. Granted he had back issues last year. Even factoring that in, he looked REALLY SLOW and susceptible to the Outside Rush.
No doubts about TJ Clemmings. Jerry DiPaola of the Trib says he struggled last year. WHAT?
Clemmings was absolutely the MOST CONSISTENT Member of the O-Line a year ago.
Predicted last year that he would hear his name called in the 2015 Draft. Based on the raves he’s gotten from Coaches this Spring… nothing has happened to change my mind.
Reed, don’t think you need to worry about James pulling a McCoy and starring from the start.
LeSean McCoy (prior to his ankle break) was the No. 1 H.S. Back in the NATION according to most recruiting sites.
A better comparison is Dion Lewis. Although to me, Lewis’ High School tape highlights looked a bit better than James.
On paper, James is faster than Lewis. But on tape, Lewis has the slight edge as a Runner.
See James as a TOUGH Kid who will get the TOUGH yards when given the opportunity. But don’t see him running away from people on a consistent basis.
See more of that coming from Ollison. Although again on paper… James is slightly faster in the Forty.
Artie Rowell getting some Pre-Season accolades. But that guy really struggles last year against the Bull Rush by BIGGER Lineman.
Hopefully he’s gotten BIGGER and STRONGER with the New Strength Coach.
But if not… a change will be made.
Already on the record saying Dorian Johnson… while MUCH BETTER at GUARD than Tackle… his BEST POSITION would be CENTER.
Guess we’ll find out.
I like DiPaola but I agree with you that Clemmings was solid last year and everyone seems to think he will continue to make strides this year.
If you click on the list of Pitt articles it’s all bad or we can’t do this or we are picked last.
I like the article that drove the last two topics on this website on size and rebuilding recruiting from the Trib.
We, Pitt, IMO doesn’t have the budget nor is inclined to be Alabama, Texas or Ohio State, powerhouses in football recruiting, so lets not compare ourselves to them. You can always write Pitt isn’t good but it takes some thought and insight to measure this team from it’s real competition.
Will Biz play up to his billing or will changes (alias Jones & Smith) have to be made ?
I think the rest of the line should be ok, if not maybe things have passed Hueber by.
Last year they were even more pathetic, of course maybe Ray Graham’s brilliance made them look a tad better in the previous 2 seasons.
Far too many chinese fire drills last year, as Savage took his knocks and lumps. And let’s face it a lot of the rushing yardage was piled up against the likes of Old Dominion, New Mexico, Bowling Green, Navy & Duke. Not exactly ‘murderers row’.
So yes they indeed have a lot to prove. As does whether or not Hueber can still motivate/teach college kids.
This year, in relative terms, feels better. Whether we consistently blow open holes for Connor/Bennett/Ibrahim/James….I don’t know. But I’m less worried than years prior….and that is progress.
Fully agree that Ibrahhim will be someone to watch.
Too early to disagree on Voytik vs the name we should not speak of. But Voytik appears to be able to hit receivers in the flat, something that – ahem – was never able to do.
Joe – I really wasn’t comparing Voytik and ‘He Who Shall Remain Italian’… I was pointing out that fans love stats and tend to look back over the last few year at a skill position player’s production. Beside, I believe Voytik is a different QB than our last two starters both physically and in his skill sets. I’m looking forward to seeing him as QB1 in practice next week.
Overall I’m cautiously optimistic that he’ll have the 1st time starting jitters behind him as we go into the ACC portion of the schedule. That’s five games with two being pretty good competition in Boston College and Iowa. If he can get us three or four winds without making too many damaging mistakes then I think he’ll begin to get pretty productive over the last seven games.
Regarding the below average play level of the OL last year; if they repeat themselves then it makes even more sense to me to keep Conner at RB. He can bullrush for yards and break arm tackles at or behind the LOS. As a matter of fact I can’t remember him getting minus yardage on any play last year. I think we’ll see less sacks with a QB who can tuck and run better than anyone we’ve had since Pat Bostick.
Note: I’m working up a Defense post along the lines of the one I posted yesterday. It’s harder for me because I don’t follow the individual players much like I do on the Offense.
What’s his name is the backup QB for the Teddy Roosevelt Roughriders.
Really !!!
All remaining starters should be improved. I think Dorian will be a stud by years end.
All this chatter is exciting. Can’t wait for the season to start. Hopefully the biggest change comes between the ears for these fellas. It’s all mindset. Beat your man for 4-6 seconds every time!
So why not James all of a sudden?
My take is that we have some pretty talented returning RBs in front of him to preclude that from happening. But you are correct – it very well could happen, I just don’t bank on it doing so.
If Conner et al can’t pick up yardage behind Clemmings, Rotherham, and Rowell we are in trouble.
Bisno and Johnson have to be better as well.
Of course it is doubtful that everyone stays healthy all year so hopefully the back-ups are ready as well.