First Call: Jerome Bettis' take on Ben Roethlisberger's issues; alumni support for new Steelers O-line coach

Tuesday’s “First Call” features Jerome Bettis’ take on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. At least one person is a fan of the team’s new offensive line coach.

An honor for Duquesne basketball as they get ready to open their new building. And Duquesne’s football team will have a 2020 season — in 2021 — after all.

Sorta.

Bus on Ben

Former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis thinks he has Ben Roethlisberger’s issues figured out.

Well, at least he thinks he knows what isn’t the problem — arm strength.

Speaking to USA Today Sports, Bettis says Big Ben’s arm is fine. But he’s got accuracy problems that are rooted in his “fundamentals.”

Mackenzie Salmon connects with Steelers legend Jerome Bettis to discuss the team and Ben Roethlisberger's future https://t.co/FrLv9dmRpa

— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) February 1, 2021

Bettis theorizes that too much concern was paid to how Roethlisberger’s elbow would handle the surgery, and so much attention was on his arm strength, that people may have been missing some other factors that went awry in his game.

“The big concern was arm strength. Can he throw it? And I think the focus was there as opposed to let’s get back to basics. You were out a full year. Get your fundamentals corrected. And I think that’s something that he needs to work on for next year,” Bettis said.

However, Bettis didn’t delve into exactly what those fundamentals were. Footwork? Release point? Arm slot? Hip rotation? Looking off defenders?

He did emphasize, though, that Roethlisberger can still be the answer “short term.” You can surf through Bettis’ response at 6:15 of the interview above.

Stamp of approval

Steelers Twitter was ablaze with people popping off with less than enthusiastic responses to the reported promotion of assistant offensive line coach Adrian Klemm.

Klemm promotion is a cheapskate move. Pure& simple. Steelers make money hand over fist, but have the smallest, lowest-paid coaching staff in the lg. Total cheapskate move. They needed somebody legit to coach that crap line. Are you finally starting to see what's going on?

— Mark Madden (@MarkMaddenX) February 1, 2021

Someone might want to tell them that their o-line is in a major state of flux, their quarterback can't get it done anymore, and they haven't won anything that matters - by their own standard - since SB XLIII.

— Chris Mueller (@ChrisMuellerPGH) February 1, 2021

Steelers offensive line logic:

Offensive line coach did a bad enough job to get fired.

Assistant offensive line coach did a good enough job to get promoted.

Does that make any friggin sense?

— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) February 1, 2021

Hank Fraley went back to Detroit. James Campen came and went. Seems like Mike Devlin turned them down for an interview.

Steelers just decided, "can't get top guy from the outside, let's stay in-house."

— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) February 1, 2021

But former Steelers offensive lineman Trai Essex is signing off on the hire.

The assistant OL coach often works closely with the rookies thru out the week while the OL coach gets the starters ready for the game. Dotson’s performance this year w/o training camp should give you confidence in Coach Klemm’s potential. #SteelerNation

— Trai Essex (@TraiDay79) February 1, 2021

Great, Trai. But are we talking about “rookies” or “backups”?

Because if we mean all the backups while the starters were being coached by Shaun Sarrett in 2019-20, was it Klemm working with Zach Banner and Chuks Okorafor prior to this year? Because I’m not sure either of those guys look like deserving 16-game starters in the time they’ve had with the Steelers the last two seasons. And does Sarrett get no credit for helping to develop Matt Feiler into being starting capable in 2018 at tackle and just blame for his regression at guard in 2020?

I’m confused as to how this sliding scale works.

Here’s a theory. Maybe Kevin Dotson is just advanced for being a rookie because he’s big, strong, smart and 24 years old already.

Marcus is the man

When Duquesne opens the new UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, they’ll do so with the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week.

Marcus Weathers totaled 19 points and 12 rebounds at Fordham in Wednesday’s 86-62 Duquesne win. The senior forward followed that effort with a season-high 24 points and 12 more rebounds in the 67-50 win over Saint Joseph’s.

For the week, Weathers shot .625 from the field. He made good on 4 of 9 3-point attempts (.444) and went 9 of 9 from the foul line.

Marcus Weathers with the putback #GoDukes | #A10MBB pic.twitter.com/FWHgHdhWlW

— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) January 31, 2021

Duquesne opens its new building at 9 p.m. Tuesday night against the defending regular-season Atlantic 10 Conference champions. The Flyers beat the Dukes 72-63 on Jan. 13. Weathers had 19 points and eight rebounds in that game.

Staying on the bluff

As for the Duquesne football team, it didn’t get to play in the fall, but the club is going to attempt a four-game Northeast Conference mini-season in the spring.

Duquesne's 2⃣0⃣2⃣1⃣ spring schedule has been released‼️

: https://t.co/X3NtuCat5S#GoDukes • #NECfb pic.twitter.com/fvTLVsSBMb

— Duquesne Football (@DuqFB) February 1, 2021

The Dukes will open the 2021 spring campaign at home. Sacred Heart comes to town on March 7 at Arthur J. Rooney Field. Jerry Schmitt’s team will then travel to Wagner on March 14. Duquesne comes back to Pittsburgh on March 21 against Long Island University. Then the regular season finale will be in Rhode Island at Bryant on March 28.

Merrimack is the sixth team competing. Central Connecticut and Saint Francis U have opted out of competition.

Each team is set to play a four-game conference slate followed by a conference championship game between the top two seeds. That will decide the league’s NCAA automatic qualifier. All games are scheduled to be played on Sundays.

The NEC Championship game will be played on a date yet to be determined in April. The FCS playoffs begin Saturday, April 24.