You don't need 5 "maulers" to play Michigan's style.
Good Lord, when Dion Lewis was our tailback we ran the ball extremely well, had a great play action there wasn't really a mauler on that OL. They were fairly athletic guys who had good football IQ who understood leverage.
In the heyday of smashmouth football, Mike Shannahan had the smallest OL in the league at times and had the #1 rushing attack for many years with a revolving door at tailback.
Even Cowher's best running teams weren't littered with maulers. Sure - Faneca was a war daddy. But, Marvel Smith wasn't known as a mauler. Neither was Max Starks. Kendal Simmons was an athletic technician. Hartings was tough and sound but he could be exposed with a good NT. His 90's teams with Dirt Dawson, John Jackson, Leon Searcy, Stai, and Stryzlick weren't really maulers. Stai and Searcy were probably the 2 best pure road graders. The rest of those guys, Dirt included won with athleticism and intelligence.
The biggest key in running the ball is retaining and developing OL.
PITT needs to think out of the box and start recruiting the 6'4-6'6 guy who might only weigh 250lbs and develop him over 4-5 years, instead of recruiting the 6'5 315lb guy who is nowhere near the athlete the lighter guy is.
I always said Wanny didn't recruit the OL particularly well, meaning he wasn't pulling in high end pure OL types. He knew this and that's why he moved the Pinkston's, Malecki's, and Clemmons, etc and instantly created athleticism on his OL. You gotta have patience and a guy that can develop them though.