Pitt's football team, already hit hard by the injury bug, has been bitten again.

Coach Dave Wannstedt announced yesterday that sophomore starting right tackle Jason Pinkston is out for the season because he needs to have surgery on his shoulder. Pinkston was injured in the Panthers' 17-13 loss to Michigan State and has not played since. He will be granted a medical redshirt for this season and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Coaches said they hoped Pinkston would be able to return at some point this season but his condition hasn't improved the past two weeks. It was determined that he would not get better without surgery.

The loss of Pinkston means the Panthers have had four key starters go down since the start of the season, three of them on offensive line. Pitt lost standout receiver Derek Kinder in training camp, starting quarterback Bill Stull in the opener and has since lost its best defensive tackle, Gus Mustakas. The Panthers also lost freshmen linemen Chris Jacobson and Dan Matha for the season.

Wannstedt said the loss of Pinkston comes at a bad time but surgery is the only option available that made sense.

"We need Jason, that is a position we are very thin at," Wannstedt said. "He's been trying to deal with this injury and we knew he'd need surgery, but we were hoping it could wait until after the season. And he was really trying to tough it out, but he was basically playing with one arm and that was a lot to ask of him and ultimately that would hurt us as a team and wouldn't be fair to him."

Pinkston's loss means Wannstedt will have to do even more shuffling on an offensive line that was touted as the team's strength yet has quickly turned into a liability. The line play was described by Wannstedt as "inconsistent" a few weeks ago. Penalties, missed assignments and poor pass protection have plagued the unit all season.

Now, without Pinkston, who is perhaps the team's most physically gifted lineman, Wannstedt is out of viable options in trying to find a combination that can at least give the offense a chance to be successful.

Fifth-year senior guard Mike McGlynn will step in to Pinkston's spot at right tackle and sophomore Joe Thomas, who has struggled this season to the point where he was benched in favor of McGlynn, will step back into his role as the starting right guard. If one of those two gets hurt, the leading candidate to step in would be redshirt sophomore John Bachman, who has played both tackle and guard this year.

Wannstedt said he might consider taking the redshirt off of one of the healthy true freshman linemen.

"If I have to put a Jordan Gibbs or a John Fieger in there, we will," Wannstedt said. "I see that having redshirt years has come in handy for guys like Pinkston and some others who got hurt, so I am not going to be as hung up about locking up a redshirt year for the freshman if they can help us. The immediate answer is that John Bachman will split time at both guard and tackle for us and we have some others, like a Chase Clowser, who will have to step up and play as well."

Wannstedt said there are reasons the offensive line hasn't played well and some of the problems are correctable -- like the unit's habit of taking penalties at the most inopportune of times -- and he vowed they will get corrected.

"I just think this has been a combination of a couple of things," Wannstedt said. "We have a veteran guy like Mike McGlynn who, because of injury, had no training camp and hasn't settled into any one position. We have a fifth-year senior at center who is starting for the first time. Jeff Otah at left tackle is only in his fifth year of playing football and we've had three quarterbacks, two of which are freshmen, play in five games and they are giving the snap counts.

"We've had penalties ... we just need to keep working and help these guys come together as a unit. I think if we can just settle in, we will be fine."

Pitt (2-3) is off Saturday but is practicing as if it is a normal week because the Panthers play host to Navy (3-2) Oct. 10.