Strength over girth

Brian Hilderbrand

Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006 | 7:27 a.m.

By Brian Hilderbrand

Who: UNLV vs. TCU

Where: Sam Boyd Stadium

When: Noon today

Tickets: $13 and up; 739-3267, online at unlvtickets.com and at UNLV ticket outlets at all Station and Fiesta casinos and the Galleria at Sunset mall

Where have all the behemoths gone?

Once upon a time, football linemen in general, and offensive linemen in particular, actually resembled athletes - big athletes, but athletes nonetheless. Art Plunkett, a four-year letterman at UNLV in the late 1970s who played offensive tackle for six seasons in the NFL, was listed at 6 feet 7 inches and 260 pounds.

Gradually, 260-pound linemen became a thing of the past as coaches developed a "the bigger, the better" theory when it came to the five players responsible for protecting the quarterback.

The Green Bay Packers won the first AFL-NFL World Championship game in 1967 with an offensive line that averaged 244 pounds. Two decades later, the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX with a line that averaged 274 pounds, and the Pittsburgh Steelers won this year's Super Bowl with a line that averaged a whopping 316.8 pounds .

Longer hours in the weight room and, in some cases, the proliferation of steroids in the latter part of the 20th century have been blamed for svelte linemen giving way to giants with guts hanging over their uniform pants. Resulting problems have included players dying of heat stroke and obesity-related heart problems.

Sure, American adults have gotten bigger during the past 40 years but not at the same pace as some collegiate and professional football players. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adult men (and women) are about an inch taller than they were in 1960 and are nearly 25 pounds heavier. The average weight for men aged 20-74 years rose from 166.3 pounds in 1960 to 191 pounds in 2002. Today, it is not uncommon to see 300-pound players on high school football rosters.

At some colleges, however, the trend is to recruit a more "athletic" player - one closer to the mold of Plunkett - as opposed to those who merely take up space and are hard to move.

UNLV head coach Mike Sanford and Rebels interior offensive line coach Keith Uperesa said the trend is as much a matter of the team's offensive philosophy as its place in the recruiting pecking order.

"There are a lot of big guys in college football, but we're not just trying to recruit big guys," Sanford said. "The perception is that you need to have these big behemoths, but I think you want to have athletic ability now. Even if a guy is really big, he's got to have good feet and good athletic ability.

"I think you'd like a combination of both; you want to have a guy who is big enough to be able to move somebody out of there of equal girth and size, but you also want somebody that's athletic enough to be nimble in there."

That point was driven home for Sanford this summer when assistants Noah Brindise and Kris Cinkovich paid a visit to the Denver Broncos' training camp.

"The biggest thing that struck them is that all of their offensive linemen were great athletes; they're tall, thin, athletic and I think only one guy was over 300 pounds," Sanford said.

"The perception is that you need to have these big behemoths, but I think you want to have the guys who can do what you want done offensively. The Denver Broncos' offense is a lot of lateral zone blocking, and they need guys that can run."

UNLV's starting offensive line averages 302 pounds. The Rebels' opponent two weeks ago, BYU, started five up front that averaged nearly 317 pounds.

Perennial national power USC, on the other hand, is living proof that bigger is not always better when it comes to the offensive line. The Trojans' remarkable run during the past four years - which includes a 38-game regular-season winning streak, four conference championships and two national championships - came behind an offensive front that averaged between 295 and 299 pounds.

Although a 6-foot-7-inch, 335-pound recruit still would be desirable, Uperesa said that those types of athletes usually are snapped up long before UNLV's recruiters come calling.

"We know right now, as the pecking order goes, it'll be the Pac-10, the Big 12, those conferences first," Uperesa said. "In the Mountain West, overall, our chances of getting that kind of kid are very slim."

The Rebels got one big recruit when Art Plunkett's son Richie transferred this summer from Colorado State. The offensive lineman, who is sitting out this season because of NCAA rules, checks in at 6-6 and 330 pounds.