Sept. 27, 2005
By Greg Knowlden
Assistant Sports Information Director
To the casual observer, the workload assigned to an offensive lineman is as simple as it gets. Line up, knock the man across from you backwards, repeat. Do it well enough and meet your teammates in the end zone for some well-deserved congratulations.
In reality, the advanced mathematics courses at Lafayette may be easier to understand than a meeting with Bob Heffner, the Leopards' Associate Head Coach and Offensive Line Coach.
"Our schemes are pretty complicated compared to most of those that are run in college football today," says senior Drew Buetter, who has lined up at every position along the offensive front in his career. "It takes at least a year to learn it, if not more, so it's hard for a freshman to come in and play, no matter how physically talented they are.
"The offensive line is the second-hardest spot to play in our system behind the quarterback. You have to understand the blocking scheme and know the assignments for every position, and then be able to change on the run."
Once a lineman adapts to the speed and complexity of the college game, he must be able to withstand the pounding that is doled out between the hash marks for three or more hours on Saturday afternoon.
Lafayette's three senior offensive linemen - Buettner, Joel Miner and Robert Stroble - know that all too well.
Buettner, a fifth-year senior, suffered a knee injury during the second week of practice of 2002, his sophomore year, and was lost for the season. He sat out last spring to complete an internship that was required to rejoin the team as part of the medical redshirt process.
"It was frustrating since I wasn't a normal student and I wasn't really part of the team," Buettner explained. "But that's the process you have to go through at Lafayette since we don't have a graduate program. With the success that we had last year, winning the Patriot League championship, I wasn't ready to let my career come to a close. I had the option to earn a medical redshirt and I felt that I couldn't pass that up."
Miner and Stroble, both fourth-year seniors, have also had their difficulties with physical ailments. Aside from shoulder and knee problems that have plagued him, Stroble suffered a concussion in the second offensive series of last week's game with Princeton and is expected to be held out of today's contest. Miner tore his lateral meniscus a year ago and missed two games before coming back, and then underwent knee surgery following the season.
With Stroble out of action, Miner will play center today, with Buettner moving from his regular spot at right tackle to left guard. The complexity of Lafayette's blocking schemes, along with the injury factor that leads to near-constant shuffling along the offensive line, only makes Heffner's job tougher, but he's up to the challenge.
"Bob Heffner is as good an offensive line coach as there is anywhere in the business, at any level," said sixth-year head coach Frank Tavani, who is in his 19th season on the coaching staff at Lafayette. "That's evident by the number of coaches who want Bob to work for them."
Heffner is in his fifth year back on College Hill and his third stint at Lafayette overall. In between, he spent time at Northern Illinois and Maryland, as well as the Arena League and the CFL.
"We're long time friends," Tavani said. "We shared an office back in 1988 (Heffner's first year on the staff) and it's just gone from there. Philosophically, we come from the same mold of wanting a strong, physical offensive line with a great tailback running behind them. He does a great job molding our group and he gets results."
The 2004 group featured four senior starters, along with Stroble at center. Guard Stephen Bono and tackle Joe Ungrady, both four-year starters, were named to the All-Patriot League first team, with Buettner earning a spot on the second team. Heffner has mentored five All-Patriot League linemen in all in the last five years.
Tavani had endured a pair of two-win seasons before the current class of seniors matriculated at Lafayette. Since then, the Leopards are 22-16, and the increased depth in the program has meant that fewer freshmen are pressed into action.
"Although they started as freshmen, Steve and Joe weren't as dominant in their first couple seasons as they were in their fourth year," Miner said. "Bob (Stroble) got thrown in early since there were some injuries at center, while Drew and I were able to mature, learn and get stronger. We waited our time and had a chance to evolve, and now we're contributing."
Lafayette's offense has also evolved in the last four years, going from a passing game centered around record-setting quarterback Marko Glavic, to a run game that set a school record with 577 rushing attempts a year ago, to a more balanced offense through the first three games this season.
Stroble has had the opportunity to snap the ball to both Glavic and junior Brad Maurer, who established himself as the starter last season. But that experience isn't as valuable as one might think.
"I don't think I've taught Brad anything," Stroble said. "He's a Marquis Scholar. He figures a lot out on his own."
Usually, Maurer is smart enough to know when nothing's available downfield. That's when he takes off.
"A pass play can easily become a run. I always assume that Brad's going to go," Miner laughed. "You have to hold your block as long as your able to, and then use your football presence to figure out where he is and get in front of somebody."
Maurer threw for 1,313 yards and ran for 643 more last season, and senior Pat Davis is also able to create something positive when a play breaks down. Still, the intelligence of the offensive front usually dictates a play's success or failure.
"The center makes the first call to read the linebackers and the actual front, and then the guards call the position of the defensive tackles," Buettner explained. "At tackle, you're almost like a computer. You use the inputs from the center and the guard to make the final call and keep everybody on the same page.
"If somebody makes the wrong call but we're all in the same scheme, we still have a chance to block it correctly. It's when we're running two different schemes that everything blows up."
Fortunately for Tavani and his medical professionals, that doesn't happen very often, and he has nothing but good things to say about his veterans in the trenches.
"Bob Stroble is a home grown kid from Easton who really wanted to come to Lafayette," Tavani said. "He stepped right in and stabilized our center position. He's the epitome of a blue collar worker and he just keeps on grinding."
"I liked the tradition of Lafayette-Lehigh," Stroble mentioned. "It reminded me of Easton-Phillipsburg when I was in high school, and when I came in with my dad and met Coach Heffner, I remember thinking `that's the coach for me.' My recruiting dinner was right after hunting season and we had deer bologna all laid out, and both of them (Tavani and Heffner) loved it. Every winter, they want to know when the deer bologna is coming in."
"The best I've ever had," Tavani said.
While Sheri Stroble's home cooking helped Bob grow into his 6-5, 290 pound frame, Buettner has dropped a considerable amount of weight since sustaining his season-ending knee injury as a sophomore.
"Drew is somewhat undersized for his position but he has a lean, muscular body and gets great leverage to overcome that," Tavani said.
"I've been at 300 pounds but I haven't played at that weight for three years," explained Buettner, who is listed at 270. "I feel a difference in mobility and quickness, and being faster off the ball means I might get through the hole a step quicker and beat the linebacker to the spot."
"Drew's done everything we wanted him to do and that's been rewarded with the opportunity to start his final two years," Tavani mentioned. "He can play at either guard or tackle, and that helps us get our best five players on the field."
Miner, who came to Lafayette from Rochester Hills, Michigan, was moved from center to left guard before the week two match-up with Richmond.
"Playing both center and guard has definitely helped me learn the offense, since if you're at one position, you have to know the other," Miner said. "As a center, the only difference is snapping the ball, since I've been in this system for so long."
"Joel has hung in there, weathered the storm with his knee injury, and now he's an integral part of that group up front. He's waited his turn and earned a starting spot, and that's typical of this year's seniors that have really developed into an outstanding group of football players," Tavani said.
While the position that they play is mentally and physically demanding, and every Sunday brings bumps, bruises and a new defense to prepare for, Miner boils Lafayette's offensive line play down to one simple concept.
"The signature of our offense has always been working together to beat the guy across from you. It's a a mental one-on-one. It's like saying, `let's see who's going to win this play'."
Then win every play, 65 or 70 times in an afternoon. That qualifies as a full day's work for the guys up front.
