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From the very first snap of the season, Pitt’s coaches have shown that they intend to do some interesting things with the offensive line in 2016.

Back in the season opener, Pitt’s offense took the field with not five but six offensive linemen, plus a seventh lineman wearing an eligible number to line up at fullback. And with that personnel grouping, the coaches showed that they had more than a few creative solutions to the question of depth on the line.

It’s not that Pitt lacks depth; on the contrary, the Panthers are quite solid up front - to the extent that there were some questions about who, exactly, the best five linemen were.

Through three games, though, the Panthers have shown that, while they have five linemen at the top of the depth chart, the next few in line are worthy of playing time as well, and they have found themselves on the field.

It started against Villanova, when Jaryd Jones-Smith lined up outside left tackle Adam Bisnowaty, essentially playing tight end to give the line an unbalanced look. Jones-Smith lined up that way - sometimes on the right side - 12 times against Villanova, and while the results weren’t always impressive, Pitt put a lot on film that day for future opponents to plan for.

Of course, that naturally meant the Panthers went away from it almost entirely the next week against Penn State. Jones-Smith played just one snap as an extra offensive linemen in that game, although he did get some work at right tackle in place of Brian O’Neill.

Then Pitt unveiled a totally new set of looks at Oklahoma State this past Saturday. Jones-Smith played a snap as a sixth lineman, but the coaches experimented more with the unbalanced look by moving O’Neill from right tackle to a spot outside Bisnowaty on the left side for five snaps. They also put O’Neill and Jones-Smith together next to Bisnowaty for a snap, slid Bisnowaty in between O’Neill and right guard Alex Bookser for one play, lined up Bisnowaty outside O'Neill and, in the most unbalanced look yet, put O’Neill, Jones-Smith and redshirt senior John Guy outside Bisnowaty for a couple snaps.

That last combination - seven offensive linemen with five to the left of the center - was the one the coaches called on for a crucial play late in the game. With the score tied 38-38, Pitt was facing a third-and-4 at its own 48. The coaches lined up in that personnel grouping and called a toss play for James Conner going to the left - right behind all of those linemen.

The play got blown up, Conner lost five yards and Pitt punted. Three plays later, Oklahoma State scored the game-winning touchdown.

“I think ‘finish’ for all of us,” O’Neill said about that third-and-4 play on Wednesday. “Everybody on the line, we just need to finish harder. Not necessarily (that) we weren’t giving effort, but in terms of our angles and how we wanted to block them, I think we needed to finish at the same angle we started at. I’m not sure how much that means to a blind eye, but just some little technique things that can be fixed up. We fixed them up this week and I feel very confident in anything the coaches put us in.”

That continued focus in practice will be important for the linemen if they’re going to continue using the unbalanced looks. The coaches have a finite amount of time to spend working on those combinations, and that could explain why the unbalanced lines haven’t always been most effective.

The unbalanced look has been used for 22 snaps (plus two that drew offsides penalties on the defense). 17 of those 22 were rushing attempts; those plays netted 99 yards and three touchdowns. That’s an impressive average of 5.8 yards per rushing attempt, but it includes Quadree Henderson’s two touchdowns - 50 yards and 10 yards - at Oklahoma State.

Absent those two plays, Pitt’s runs from the unbalanced lines have gained 39 yards on 15 attempts - a little more than two yards per carry.

“I think a lot of it is, it’s different looks, in terms of, if you’re on the outside, your angle’s a little bit different than what it is on the inside or what it is when you’re just in a balanced set,” O’Neill said. “So I would say, probably a little bit of (the issues stem from) just not as many reps at it, but we’ve been working it all offseason and we’ll fine-tune it and get it going full-stride pretty soon.”