Juantez Hollins tries to regain job with first team

Last week in Pitt's first spring practice, converted defensive lineman T.J. Clemmings was taking first team reps according to the Post-Gazette's Sam Werner. Werner said that in Thursday's practice, though, Juantez Hollins was working with the first team in Clemmings' place (link below).

That's not a huge surprise in my mind. As I said in my roundup last week after the first practice, I questioned whether Clemmings would really be able to compete for a starting job. The fact is that Hollins was expected to be a starter last season before his year-long suspension, so he's got a great chance to be a starting tackle for 2013.

One interesting nugget in Werner's report was that offensive line coach Jim Hueber thought that despite Clemmings' switch from the defensive line to offensive line, that he's a bit behind:

"Honestly, I thought maybe with the time that we spent getting ready for the [bowl] game, we would have been a little further along than we are," Hueber said.

If I'm being honest, I'm just not surprised Clemmings is still a bit away. Hueber's the one with decades of exerience, so he would know better than I, but Clemmings hasn't had a ton of time at offensive line. He just made the move back in December and the team hasn't had many practices since then. I'm not sure how he's expected to be all that ready right now.

Clemmings is probably going to need the better part of the spring to really get comfortable there. He played on the offensive line in high school, but that's an entirely different level and it's also been a few years since then.

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