Good thing Andrew Tiller isn’t a stats guy. If the 6-foot-5, 338-pound right guard were a stats guy, the nerves — nerves he swears he and the Syracuse offensive line won’t have heading into its matchup against South Florida’s defensive line Saturday — might just emerge.

‘I haven’t even looked at the stats, to tell you the truth,’ Tiller said.

The stats for USF: a school-record seven sacks in its 31-3 win over Florida Atlantic Saturday. Three forced turnovers versus the Owls last week. The No. 1 ranked pass defense in the Big East (161.5 yards allowed per game). An average score for their opposition through four games of just 17 points per game. Daunting.

And beyond the stats, there are the words of Tiller’s head coach and offensive line coach. Monday, Doug Marrone said this USF defensive line, in its first year under new head coach Skip Holtz and defensive tackles coach Kevin Patrick, is better than last year’s version. It is better than the line that had current New York Giant Jason Pierre-Paul and former Big East Defensive Player of the Year George Selvie.

It is better than the line that entered the Carrier Dome last year, held the Orange to 2.5 yards per rush, forced five Greg Paulus interceptions, sacked Paulus three times and pulled away for the 34-20 win, capped off by an 18-yard interception return for a touchdown by Pierre-Paul himself.

Yes, they are better than that team. Quicker. More polished. But for Tiller and Marrone, the SU offensive line group feels it can stick with, and maybe even dominate, the USF defensive line Saturday in Tampa, Fla., (noon, Big East Network) in what will probably be the most important matchup determining the outcome of the game.

‘This group of defensive linemen really step it up from a standpoint of athleticism,’ Marrone said. ‘I give them a lot of credit. They go 110 percent the whole time.’

This year’s group is a much different group from the NFL-talent led line that dominated the SU offensive line for most stretches in the Dome last year. It starts with the two replacement defensive ends, seniors Craig Marshall and David Bedford, who Marrone said were better than Pierre-Paul and Selvie. Working toward the inside, there is Cory Grissom at defensive tackle. And then there is ‘No. 97.’ Tiller’s ‘No. 97:’ nose tackle Terrell McClain. Every SU lineman has a specific matchup.

‘For me, it is No. 97,’ Tiller said. ‘But we still need to look at them as a whole. It’s not just one person. But 97, he is a pretty good player.’

Tiller’s words on McClain sum up just how the Orange will need to confront the USF line, and also how Marrone himself has been preparing. Facing so much talent, but more importantly, so much speed, each SU offensive lineman will need to keep his head on somewhat of a swivel, matching up against their assignments while trying to keep the USF front four contained as a whole.

With his own words, Marrone swiveled back and forth between what exactly his unit needs to do. Yes, there are the individual assignments SU needs to win at each offensive line position. But he added his line is one which plays its best together as a whole, when everyone is clicking and communicating together.

‘We’re going to have to win those one-on-one battles,’ Marrone said. ‘In the run game, we’ll need to make sure we stay on the blocks and keep our feet going in front of them and just cover those players up to give us some opportunities to create some holes.’

Added Marrone: ‘The combination of all five who play well. It is the combination. Offensive line goes hand-in-hand — all five have to play well for there to be production. If one of them doesn’t play well and is getting beat in a one-on-one battle, then that causes a lot of problems for the whole game.’

Simulating a Marshall or Bedford off the end this week for the Orange has been defensive end Brandon Sharpe. Sharpe, a backup at the defensive end position who has made eight tackles and had one sack on the year, has been called upon on the scout team to enact the particular play of the two USF ends Marrone speaks so highly of.

His assignment: To attack with a ‘speed to power’ playing style the Bulls defensive ends have played with through the first four games of the season. That is the way Tiller and Sharpe described it. When watching the Bulls on tape, the front four is constantly looking to bat down hands. And they use moves, a lot of moves — and different ones at that.

So Sharpe has had to remain creative. And he said the main two linemen he frequented as the USF dummy this week, Tiller and right tackle Michael Hay, performed well. The reason for it is the improvement in technique stemming from the better communication Marrone harped on. With better communication comes less thinking and more reaction time for the technique. Calls are crisp. And less reaction is always good.

But at that, it is an even more familiar communication for the duo on SU’s right side, thanks to the fact that they played at Nassau Community College.

‘Their communication is really tight,’ Sharpe said. ‘Their communication is just crazy. The way they are bonding, I’m like, ‘Wow.”

Any kind of a ‘wow’ factor Sharpe is seeing in practice is much different than a ‘wow’ coming in SU’s game in Tampa versus this D-line Saturday. Tiller’s ‘No. 97’ is not from NCC. Marshall and Bedford are not Sharpe. They have each registered six more tackles on the season than Sharpe.

Tiller might say he expects dominance every week from his unit, but this is still an offensive line with four new starters. This is still an offensive line that failed to supply Delone Carter with regular gaping holes against second-tier opponents like Akron, Maine and Colgate until the second half versus the Raiders.

This is the same offensive line that allowed three sacks and constant Ryan Nassib rushes out of the pocket, versus Washington.

South Florida isn’t the same as UW. Tiller thinks they are better. At least on film, he said they look better than UW.

On the USF-Florida Atlantic tape, he came to that conclusion. He briefed himself on the look of the front four. Even if he didn’t familiarize himself with the stats.

And when envisioning how he wants to dominate USF Saturday, Tiller pictured two minutes versus the Huskies. The 2:19 to start the game in which everything seemed to be clicking. Even if the SU protection broke down and Nassib scrambled 28 yards to the end zone.

It was two minutes of drilling the Washington defensive line. But this USF front four will be drilling with that ‘speed to power’ right back.

Tiller and the line know they need to provide not a two-minute drill, but a 60-minute plow for the Orange to win.

Said Tiller: ‘It always comes down to the defensive line and offensive line.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on October 6, 2010 at 12:00 pm