Football: Offensive line protects their quarterback, but not their hair

There are many ways for a team to establish unity.

When Pitt’s offensive line decided it… There are many ways for a team to establish unity.

When Pitt’s offensive line decided it was time to do so, it took a trip to a hair salon during a bye week.

Pitt’s five starting offensive linemen — seniors Joe Thomas, Robb Houser, John Malecki, redshirt junior Jason Pinkston and sophomore Lucas Nix — wanted to look like a single unit. Their method was to get mohawks.

Malecki takes credit for the idea, as he said it worked for him in the past. He won a Pennsylvania AAA state championship with Franklin Regional High School in 2005.

“I rocked the mohawk in high school, and it worked then,” he said.

Not to mention his mother owns a hair salon and would cut the boys’ hair for free.

As a former offensive lineman at Pitt, coach Dave Wannstedt said, “That sounds like offensive linemen. They all did it together, and they got it for free.”

Offensive linemen understand their jobs often go unnoticed — except, of course, if they have mohawks or play extremely poorly during games.

It says something, then, that the Pitt offensive line has gone virtually unnoticed all year.

The motto for the offensive line is something New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick preaches to his team: “Do your job.” Malecki said it’s that mentality that keeps the line together.

“In the offensive line room, that quote is hanging there,” Malecki said. “We’ve kind of implemented that and other little things into our mindset for every day at practice and games.”

Malecki said he knew replacing starters center C.J. Davis and left guard Dominic Williams on the line was going to be a challenge during the off-season. Add to it losing running back LeSean McCoy to the NFL Draft, and the team had to worry about maintaining a rushing attack vital to the offense’s success.

“It’s always a challenge when it’s a freshman back there to give him less to think about,” Pinkston said of running back Dion Lewis.

But Pitt’s rushing attack hasn’t slipped at all with Lewis as the running back. Pitt has already surpassed last year’s mark of 1,808 total rushing yards this year, amassing 2,022 before its last regular-season game.

Part of the credit goes to the offensive line.

“We had to step up with the loss of Shady,” Malecki said. “But being blessed with Dion really helped.”

Behind Lewis’ 1,488 yards and 13 touchdowns is the offensive line drilling the holes for him to run through.

“It’s a two-way street. He makes us look good sometimes, and other times we do our job and he looks good,” Houser said.

While the offensive line might be hidden under Pitt’s running stars, its contributions shouldn’t go unnoticed in the passing game.

Behind senior quarterback Bill Stull’s 19 touchdowns and the 10 times he’s been sacked all year, there’s Pitt’s offensive line giving him time to throw against pass rushes.

“That’s all stuff we’re proud of, the rushing yards and sacks given up,” Malecki said.

It was all the result of extra work in the offseason and unbreakable bonds between the teammates.

During the offseason, Malecki said the offensive linemen spent at least an extra three hours per week working on technique and watching film of last year’s games.

Personally, Malecki looks at the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive line to help him improve.

“You look at Peyton Manning. He’s on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He’s up there because he puts up big numbers,” Malecki said. “He rarely gets sacked or hit.”

But about those mohawks. Houser said every lineman was all for it as soon as the idea came up.

“We wanted to do it earlier, before the season, but we didn’t have the time,” he said.

The bye week before Pitt’s game against Syracuse came and went with no mohawks.

Then, one day the idea came into fruition.

“It was just five fat guys sitting in one room just talking, and we just did it,” Pinkston said.

The starting five linemen got them first, and then some of the younger players joined in.

It worked for Malecki in high school, and Pinkston hopes the same charm works this year.

“I haven’t won a championship since youth football,” Pinkston said. “It would mean a lot for this team and this recruiting class.”