Jimbo Covert: Move to offense changed career

Jackie Sherrill doesn’t remember what he said to convince Jimbo Covert and his father that everything would work out. But Wednesday afternoon, as Pitt’s former head coach looked back on a 1980 meeting with his then-newly minted offensive lineman, it didn’t matter. Only that Sherrill, a sense of pride emanating from each and every word that left his lips, didn’t lose a kid who turned out to be a Pro Football Hall of Fame left tackle.

Covert almost left Pitt. At least that’s how Sherrill remembers it.

“He was going to find some other place,” Sherrill said when discussing the lineman’s move from defense to

offense. Covert, a Conway native and former Freedom High School standout, was recruited to Pitt as an interior pass rusher. And while Covert told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2003 that he “wanted” to move to offensive tackle, his old coach and teammates don’t recall it happening that way.

Turns out that switch, welcomed or not, is one that not only shaped the history of Pitt football, but also the bust gallery in Canton, Ohio.

Covert, a legendary Pitt offensive tackle who guided the Chicago Bears’ dominant rushing game in the 1980s, was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The news was announced Wednesday morning that Covert was named to the special 20-member Centennial Class of 2020, commemorating the NFL’s 100th season.

Covert is the ninth former Panther to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining Joe Schmidt (1973), Mike Ditka (1988), Tony Dorsett (1994), Dan Marino (2005), Russ Grimm (2010), Rickey Jackson (2010), Curtis Martin (2012) and Chris Doleman (2012). Pitt’s nine inductees rank fourth among colleges, behind only USC, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

In a statement, Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke said the university is “roaring with pride” at the news. Current Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi added that he is “absolutely thrilled” that Covert — a College Football Hall of Fame inductee in 2003 — was recognized in the same way at the pro level. Narduzzi’s not alone, either.

Former teammate and fellow Pitt number retiree Hugh Green called Covert’s honor “totally deserved.” Mark May, who started at right tackle opposite Covert in 1980, agreed wholeheartedly. And Mike Ditka — a decorated Pitt tight end before coaching Covert and the Bears from 1982-92, winning Super Bowl VI — said the tackle’s induction was “long overdue.”

“I’ve been in football for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of good left tackles. But I never saw a guy you could put out there against anybody, I’m talking about the best, and you didn’t have to give him help,” Ditka said. “Just a great guy, great football player. You couldn’t ask for it to happen to a better guy. Very deserving. I’m just so proud that people opened their eyes and saw how good he was.”

Ditka said perhaps Chicago’s dominant defenses of the 1980s, most notably the “Monsters of the Midway” in 1985, attracted too much of the credit, allowing folks to overlook the Bears’ top-tier ground game. Walter Payton’s brilliance had a lot to do with Chicago leading the NFL in rushing in 1983-86. But, as Ditka pointed out, so did Covert’s presence at left tackle.

Covert was selected sixth overall in the ’83 NFL draft and started right away. He was an All-Rookie honoree before being named firstteam All-Pro in 1985 and ’86. The 6-foot-4 stalwart later was recognized on the NFL 1980s All-Decade team for his reliability, nimbleness and tenacity, the kind that kept 10-time Pro Bowl linebacker Lawrence Taylor from recording a sack in their three meetings during the decade.

Sure, Taylor was a unique challenge. But preventing sacks was something of an art mastered by Covert at Pitt. In three seasons starting at left tackle for the Panthers, he allowed three sacks. As a senior, protecting Dan Marino’s blindside, he didn’t give up one.

That’s astonishing — but believe or not, it’s what Covert’s Pitt teammates

expected out of him early in his transition from defensive tackle to the offensive side of the ball.

“You could tell he was going to be exceptional. He didn’t realize it at the time. But we kind of knew after the first couple practices,” said May, reminiscing on the spring of 1980. “You could just tell right off the bat. It was sort of like Dan Marino. When you saw Dan Marino throw the ball, I mean, we loved Rick Trocano. He was our guy. But the first practice when you saw Dan Marino it was like, ‘OK, we love you Rick. But he’s the guy.’ ”

Covert became the guy at left tackle thanks to a little convincing — and maybe the best sparring partner he could have hoped for.

In addition to Sherrill’s meeting with Covert and the lineman’s father, May and Grimm helped persuade the former WPIAL star with “a couple of pizzas and a quarter-keg of beer,” the former said. May said he and the center dragged Covert to their dorm room and held him hostage for a weekend in spring 1980 because they knew how good he could be, the value he could provide Pitt’s line.

When Covert came around to the idea, he took to the mentorship of offensive line guru Joe Moore and worked out incessantly with Green that summer. Green recalls speed rushing Covert in Trees Hall, running drills at Pitt Stadium, doing whatever he could to prepare the learning offensive tackle for what was to come.

“By the time we came back to camp, you could see how he flourished,” Green said. “And he played mad. He played pissed. Because he wanted to play defense. … But he became one of the best ever to play the position.”

Covert — who Green nicknamed, “Cat,” for his quick feet and reaction time — protected Marino and Trocano and blocked for Randy McMillan and Joe McCall in 1980, helping Pitt to an 11-1 record and No. 2 finish in the Associated Press and coaches polls. The Panthers finished 11-1 and No. 2 in the coaches poll again in ’81, bookending the program’s best two-year stretch in the last 40 years.

Pitt won nine games in Covert’s fifth and final season in ’82, bringing his record as a starter to 31-5 and cementing his legacy as one of the greatest players in program history.

“If that dumb head coach would’ve been smarter, we would’ve won two national championships,” Sherrill said in self-deprecating fashion. “I don’t know who in the hell he was, but he wasn’t very smart.”