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For Pitt offensive line coach John Peterson, finding the five best linemen is a lot easier when you don’t have to worry about labels.

While the Panthers lack experienced depth on the line entering the 2017 season, they have quite a bit of versatility, and nowhere is that more evident than at center, where Pitt could potentially start any one of four players.

There’s Alex Officer, a redshirt senior with two non-consecutive seasons of starting experience at center. Or Connor Dintino, a redshirt junior who was Officer’s backup in 2016 and moved onto the first team in the spring.

Or Jimmy Morrissey, a redshirt freshman walk-on who impressed the coaches so much in the spring that head coach Pat Narduzzi said he’d be a scholarship player sooner rather than later. Or even Alex Bookser, the redshirt junior who started 13 games at right guard last season after working at center the previous spring.

So while the focus has been on Dintino and Morrissey as the primary candidates to be the starting center this season, both Narduzzi and Peterson mentioned the two returning starters as options as well.

“Bookser has proven through, really, spring and summer practices that he can handle it, and even in this fall camp,” Peterson said Tuesday. “A.O., we know he’s proven it. So to have four high, high quality centers is just a tremendous thing to have on any team.”

And that’s just at center. Pitt has that kind of versatility throughout the top set of linemen. Brandon Hodges, for instance, came to Pitt as a grad transfer from Texas, where he started nine games last season at right tackle. And when he finally put the pads on for the Panthers, that’s where he practiced: right tackle.

But he also has experience at guard (he practiced there in the spring of 2016) and, as he has gotten comfortable with Pitt’s offensive system, Hodges has started working there as well. And if Hodges can play guard, then the coaches can realistically consider Bookser and Officer as options at center, which goes toward the goal of finding and using the best five linemen on the roster.

“That’s part of cross-training,” Peterson said. “That’s what we have to do to blend guys and to find guys that may be tackles, may be guards and then obviously, A.O. and Bookser are guys who can go center, guard and tackle even. And Connor being versatile also. So the key is to get guys that understand concepts and can fit into different pieces at any different time.”

Even behind the top line, Pitt has redshirt freshman Bryce Hargrove, who has gotten a lot of praise from the coaching staff this camp. Hargrove worked at guard in the spring but has been at tackle in August. So of the linemen who appear to roughly be the top eight - Bookser, Officer, Hodges, Dintino, Morrissey, Hargrove, Brian O’Neill and Jaryd Jones-Smith - only O’Neill, Jones-Smith and Morrissey seem to be locked into a position (O’Neill and Jones-Smith at tackle, Morrissey at center).

If O’Neill and Jones-Smith start at tackle, Peterson and Narduzzi can choose pretty much any combination of Bookser, Officer, Hodges, Dintino and Morrissey (and possibly Hargrove) for the three interior spots. So the coaches really do have the opportunity to find their five best linemen, although Peterson is shooting a little higher.

“I’d like to find seven or eight,” he said. “That’s what cross-training does is allow you to see guys and develop depth.”

Peterson did allow that the cross-training puts some extra pressure on the players as they shift around during camp.

“It’s difficult. You have to force yourself to put guys in uncomfortable situations and try to find the best matchup. That’s why you teach concepts and guys learn more than one position. They learn by concept so they can go from one position to another.”

At the same time, Peterson said he also thinks that all the cross-training can have a benefit for the players at whatever position they settle into.

“Any time you physically experience and understand what the tackle is doing or understand what the guards are doing or understand what the center is doing, it helps you when you’re at your place,” he said. “That’s the goal: to work from your little two-yard box to make it a four-yard box and see outside of your - the goal is to get clear lenses to where they can see clearly of what’s going on. That takes repetition, and when you put a guy at a different position, he sees from different eyes. And they continue to work on that.”