Jerry DiPaola of the Trib put up a nice article about the difference in coaching styles between our old OL coach Jim Hueber and the current coach John Peterson.  What steps out is the aggressive approach of the former and the passive nature of teaching of the latter.

One good point in comparison is this:

“Coach Hueber got after you a little bit,” left tackle Adam Bisnowaty said. “Coach Pete is not like that. (He) rolls slow with you and makes sure you get the techniques down and understand everything we are doing.”

The landscape has changed on the Pitt offensive line — for the players and their coach.  Peterson’s patience can be traced to the experienced players under him. When Hueber arrived three years ago, he didn’t have that luxury. He needed to push.”

I find it kind of hard to judge the actual play of the OL during practices because being at ground level the only thing you can really see is what is right in front of you on your side of the play.  So I have to take other’s words for it then and that makes me less interested in research and commenting on that unit.  Apparently, at this point in the practices, the starting five OL shakes out like this:

“The starters include Bisnowaty, left guard Dorian Johnson, center Alex Officer, right guard Alex Bookser and right tackle Jaryd Jones-Smith.”

Lots of pressure as always on that left tackle being that Voytik is a righty passer. But the whole OL can’t ever sleep on any plays because the may be tasked with hanging from pass protection to run blocking in the middle of the action when Voytik takes off on the ground.

As the camps progress and the season goes on I find that I take the OL for granted unless big problems happen.  I can see the “Big Picture” of success or failure with the players OK but as far as how each kid played I’m at a loss.

But the coach’s job is to recognize the good and bad and also the beat writer is charged with that role also.  With that DiPaola points out some interesting facts:

“Recent history indicates the line can succeed.  For example:  Running back James Conner ran for 1,765 yards last season. It’s not a stretch to assume his blockers were more than adequate.  Tyler Boyd became a 1,000-yard (plus) receiver for the second consecutive season.

Quarterback Chad Voytik was sacked only 20 times in 13 games compared to the 63 sacks recorded by opponents in 2011, the year before Hueber arrived.  Even when he was dropped for a loss, Voytik didn’t complain.    “I tried to make plays on some of those (sacks),” he said. “It’s not like they were just letting guys through.”

Even as the offense is always a hot topic among PITT fans this year the interest level is sky high because of two things.  First, we return some excellent skill players in Tyler Boyd at WR and James Conner, along with his cadre of talented RB friends.  Those two principals Conner and Boyd are record setting Panthers and have been recognized in the conference with Conner being the ACC Player of the Year and nationally by virtue of the talents they have shown the know how to use (some talented players don’t get that last part).

Secondly we have a new Offensive Coordinator, Jim Cheney, late of Tennessee, who has taken the reins over from a highly successful OC Joe Rudolph of the last staff.

Looking at things that way Sam Werner of the Post-Gazette has written a piece that makes it easier for us to understand Cheney’s background:

“Led by quarterback Drew Brees, Purdue employed a pass-heavy spread offense known as “basketball on grass,” developed by coach Joe Tiller and his offensive coordinator, Jim Chaney.  Brees ranked in the top five in passing yards, completions and touchdowns and was a Heisman Trophy finalist. The Boilermakers averaged 31.8 points per game, 23rd in Division I-A.  Despite all the success, there was something that stuck in Chaney’s craw.

“We still couldn’t win, couldn’t compete in those tight games against the more physical football teams,” Chaney said. “I knew that it would be good, I could keep my job and make money. But I don’t know if you can win a championship that way.”

It is good that he got production out of Brees because Voytik is cut from pretty much the same mold as that successful player. However, the whole ‘BB on grass’ thing is what worries some of us at this point, specifically because we have a fantastic running game that is built with a strong as hell runner, an effective blocking FB and an OL that is built for the power-game.

But, later in the piece Cheney mentions two aspects of an offense that sounds like music to PITT fan’s ears:

The pro game is also where Chaney began to develop a new appreciation for situational football.  Things like third-down success, red-zone conversion rate were what separated the best teams at any level of football.  And, usually, those situations come down to physicality.  “I think you can find a way to move the ball in between the 20s in near any style of offense,” he said.

“But, in the game of football, you can’t hide from the toughness factor.”

 Yes, and that is why we want to make sure we can still use that strength to execute scoring drives.  Last season PITT did very well in both 3^rd down conversions and in red zone scoring.

We had 170 3^rd down plays and converted 79 of them to post a success average of 46% which was good for 21^st in the nation.  In the opponent’s Red Zone we were even more impressive as we reached it 59 times and of those 59 visits we converted 31 rushing TDs (thanks James!) and 13 passing TDs along with nine field goals. That tallies up to 53 scores out of 59 opportunities for a 90% success rate and landed us at the nation’s 19^th ranking.  Just for fun that also gave us 5.7 points per red zone visit.

Finally Werner has an interesting quote from Cheney discussing what he feel makes up a successful QB:

“Everybody looks for the big arm strength,” he said. “Hell, I don’t even know if Drew can throw it 50 yards anymore. It doesn’t really matter, he’s still good.”

Chaney said Voytik has the intelligence and athleticism down, but the accuracy is a work in progress. The benefit, though, is that Voytik is much more mobile than the quarterbacks Chaney has worked with in the past, an advantage he’s looking to exploit this fall.

That is pretty much Voytik measures up to a “T”. His arm strength is lacking and he’s somewhat inaccurate on the longer intermediate & deep passes but has a better short passing game and the ability to escape that is such a good weapon if needed.

This will be a very interesting issue in the progression of PITT football to watch over the next eight months.  In the recent past we have seen some QBs asked to play differently with a new OC that has led to poor performances in that first season.  Dave Wannstedt and Tyler Palko’s 2005 season come to mind here.

In 2004 under Walt Harris Palko had 3067 passing yards, 24 TDs and a QB ranking of 135.2 which was superb for a first year starter; then he gets the new staff in for the 2005 season and his numbers drop to 2392 yards with 17 TDs and a ranking of 126.7.  Palko bounced back strongly in his second year, 2006, under DW but that first year was a setback.

With Todd Graham in as HC Tino Sunseri went from a decent season in his first year as a starter under DW when he had 2572 passing yards with 16 TDs and a positive QB rating of a 137.4 which was 42^nd nationally.  Under the Host of All Evils in 2011 Sunseri had about the same yardage with 2616 yards but dropped to 10 TDs and a QB rating of 124.1 which put him at 82nd nationally.  A pure bad example of trying to force a different offense on a QB without the skill set needed to run it.

The point of this is to remember that it isn’t always good things that happen with a QB when you have staff changes. We’ll hope that Cheney see what he has around Voytik in the other skill guys and doesn’t try to make Voytik the centerpiece when all Voytik really has to be is a productive complement to the offense.

NOTE: Here is the latest Pantherlair podcast from Chris Peak that was recorded last Thursday… enjoy!