SLIPPERY ROCK - George Mihalik and Joe Walton must be good at jigsaw puzzles.

Slippery Rock University's head football coach and offensive line coach spent much of summer camp figuring out which piece to place where as they assembled The Rock's offensive front.

"We like to get our best athletes on the field," Walton said. "Whatever that takes, that's what we're going to do."

That's why senior Pat Oster is playing center instead of right tackle this year, junior Noah Richards is at left tackle instead of right guard and sophomore Ryan Travis is at right tackle instead of left tackle.

Right guard and Seneca Valley graduate Justin Burgh was a center when he last played college football at California (Pa.) two years ago.

The only returning offensive lineman to stay in the same spot, junior left guard Don Harbison, was suspended for two games earlier this season for disciplinary reasons. Freshman Bron Clouser filled his spot in the interim.

"We never thought we'd be shifting so many people," Mihalik said. "Moving three out of five linemen to new positions, having to worry about the health of another - I didn't like our odds."

Burgh re-injured his back lifting weights at SRU in March and required further surgery. It was back surgery that ended his playing career prematurely at California.

Burgh enrolled at Slippery Rock to finish his education. Because his back began to improve, he decided to join the football team.When a pulled hamstring sidelined right guard Richards during the first week of camp, Burgh had an opportunity to work with the first unit."He seized that opportunity," Mihalik said. "Justin was doing so well that we moved Noah to left tackle when he came back. Noah seemed better suited for left tackle once we moved him there."Everything just fell into place from there."And the chance for SRU's offensive line to perform well increased dramatically.At the end of last season, The Rock ranked 11th in the PSAC with 127.6 yards rushing per game and 13th in total offense with 240.6 yards per game.Through five games this year, SRU ranks third in rushing offense with 222.8 yards per game and sixth in total offense with 346.2 yards per game."Our line has simply been efficient this year," Burgh said. "I played right guard my first two years at Cal, so I feel at home there."I know how hard it is to play center when you haven't done it, and Pat Oster is having a tremendous year there. Hard work has made him a quality center," he added.The Rock is also near the top of the PSAC in another category linemen take pride in: time of possession. SRU's offense has controlled the football longer than its opponents in each of the first five games."If we hold the ball, the other team can't score points," Burgh said. "Time of possession is really important to us."With redshirt freshman Nate Crookshank taking over at quarterback, controlling the line of scrimmage became important to The Rock as well."We didn't want to put the pressure on his shoulders," Richards said. "With four returning starters up front, we want that pressure on our shoulders."We want to carry the team. That's the way it should be."Travis started at left tackle for The Rock as a freshman last year. He became only the fourth freshman offensive lineman to start at SRU in the past 17 years, joining Jeff Lang, Mark Ferguson and Oster."It's rare for a freshman to start up front because of the strength factor," Walton said. "A freshman usually needs time to build his strength before he can compete at this level."The opportunity has to be there, too. No matter how good a freshman lineman is on our team this year, there was no way he was gonna take a job away from one of these starters. That's how you like it to be," he added.At 5-feet-10, 285 pounds, Clouser might have started as a freshman for other Rock squads. He cracked the lineup only briefly this year because Harbison, a second team All-PSAC performer last season, was suspended."As many as three of our linemen could be all-conference this year," Mihalik said.Travis said the difference in the line this season is that it's established the line of scrimmage."We never established ourselves last year," he said. "This year, we're working as a unit. We're getting a total push at the line of scrimmage.""You have to be a unit. Everybody has to be on the same page," Richards said. "I thought that might be a problem this year with all of the moving around. It hasn't been. Everybody's in the right place."Jigsaw puzzle completed."I don't know where we'd be without the level of play our line has produced," Mihalik said. "I don't even want to think about it."