Bookser's return means Pitt coaches have options

The first of Pitt’s suspended players will return on Saturday when redshirt junior Alex Bookser joins the team for the trip to State College, and that will create more than a few questions for the coaches as they find a way to work him back in.

Bookser was suspended for the season opener against Youngstown State after an offseason legal issue; having served his suspension, he will be on the sidelines Saturday when Pitt takes on No. 4 Penn State. But Bookser probably won’t stay on the sidelines, although Pat Narduzzi said Monday that there will be a process for returning him to the lineup.

“Well, obviously we're going to slowly get him back,” Narduzzi said at his weekly press conference. “When you don't have him for the opener, he doesn't get those reps with the ones, so we've lacked his work with the ones and getting that stuff. You have to move on to the next…

“We'll bring it back slowly, see what he knows, see how it goes.”

A redshirt junior from Mt. Lebanon, Bookser started every game last season at right guard and entered the offseason as one of Pitt’s key experienced returning players. In his absence, the Panthers started Texas grad transfer Brandon Hodges at right guard, with redshirt senior Jaryd Jones-Smith at right tackle, redshirt freshman Jimmy Morrissey at center, redshirt senior Alex Officer at left guard and redshirt junior Brian O’Neill at left tackle.

Of those five spots, O’Neill is fairly locked in at left tackle. But beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.

Hodges, for instance, started his Pitt career practicing at right tackle in training camp before moving to right guard. And Officer has played center in the past - he started all 13 games there last year and 10 in 2016. Even Bookser is something of a wild card, since he has practiced at guard, tackle and center during his time at Pitt.

So the question, as always, is one of finding the best five linemen to put on the field. And if Bookser is one of them, where does he fit?

Right guard is the most natural spot, it would seem, since he started there last season and has the most experience at that position. If he steps in there, though, what happens to Hodges? He probably didn’t make a last-minute decision to transfer to Pitt from Texas in order to be a backup, and he played well enough in camp to put himself in the starting lineup. Could he slide out to tackle and replace Jones-Smith if the coaches decide that he is ahead of Jones-Smith in that race for the top five?

Or would the line be best served by having Bookser move out to right tackle, leaving Hodges at right guard (again, if those two are ahead of Jones-Smith in the pecking order)?

Or, if the coaches decide that the top group of five does include Jones-Smith, Hodges and Bookser, could Bookser step in at center? The coaches said during training camp that he had been taking snaps there and that they considered it a viable option.

Officer is a viable option at center, too, and if the coaches moved him to that spot, they could use Bookser and Hodges as the guards and keep Jones-Smith at right tackle.

But either of those last two options - Bookser or Officer at center - would mean dropping Morrissey to the bench, and it’s not clear if that’s likely at this point. Morrissey went on scholarship during the last week of training camp, and Narduzzi has been effusive in his praise of the redshirt freshman from Huntingdon Valley.

“Jimmy Morrissey's an unbelievable kid, first of all,” Narduzzi said during the ACC coaches teleconference on Wednesday. “When you ask what type of kid he is, first thing, he's a guy that's very likeable by our football team. He's on our leadership council. He's a super young man and he's a leader. And besides all those character things, he's a great football player. Since his first day on campus, I think, really, he's really proven that he's got leadership skills and he's our starting offensive center.

“He's very smart when it comes to looking at protections and where people are aligned and getting our front lined up properly with all our O-line calls. So he's a super young man.”

Could a “great football player” and a “super young man” find his way to the bench in Week Two? It’s certainly possible.

Rotations are also possible. In Saturday’s opener against Youngstown State, the coaches subbed in redshirt junior Mike Herndon at right guard for three series; the final full drive of the first half, which ended with a touchdown; the second drive of the third quarter, which resulted in a punt; and the drive in overtime on which Pitt scored the game-winning touchdown.

With a seeming glut of linemen - or, at the very least, six or seven when they only need five - Pitt could look to move players in and out of the lineup, although that might not be ideal when playing on the road in what is expected to be a raucous environment at Beaver Stadium.

Whatever happens, Narduzzi said this week that the coaches will take advantage of the cross-training - teaching players different positions - that they used in training camp. Which means nothing is off the table.