Battle up front key for West Virginia football and Oklahoma State
If you ask Neal Brown one of the most, if not the most, important matchups when West Virginia takes the field against Oklahoma State will happen in the trenches.
The Oklahoma State offensive line struggled against Tulsa allowing a total of 6 sacks and 14 tackles for loss as the Cowboys were primarily a run-based team after the injury to starting quarterback Spencer Sanders. What was believed to be a strength was anything but against the Golden Hurricanes.
Some of that can be explained as the Cowboys lost one starter in senior right tackle Dylan Galloway to an injury retirement as well as another starter in redshirt sophomore Bryce Bray and primary backup in redshirt sophomore Jacob Farrell both of which transferred out after a violation of team rules.
Finally starting right guard Cole Birmingham was injured and had to leave the game against Tulsa. That is difficult for any team to overcome but left the Cowboys with essentially only one player that started on the offensive line a year ago in senior Teven Jenkins.
“Offensive line wise they had some injuries in the game too which makes it really difficult because of the communication,” Brown said. “The offensive line piece is so important from a communication standpoint to make sure you’re all on the same page.”
Brown expects the unit to play much better going from week one to week two but understands that the matchup of the two lines will be a significant factor in the outcome.
“That’s going to be as important of a matchup as there is the game,” Brown said.
By contrast, West Virginia returns plenty of experience on its defensive front led by Big 12 Conference Defensive Preseason Player of the Year Darius Stills. The unit didn’t perform up to standards in the opener against Eastern Kentucky but will be tasked with attacking one of the weaknesses, at least coming out of the opener, of the Cowboys vaunted offensive attack.
Redshirt senior defensive lineman Jeffery Pooler realizes that the unit didn’t produce as much as they were expected in the opener and admits that the idea of going against the Cowboys will be a good baseline for where the group is as a whole.
“It gets you hyped. Gets your blood boiling because last week we didn’t produce as much so it’s a big challenge this week,” Pooler said.
Even more incentive is that Pooler will get to square off against a former teammate in Oklahoma State offensive lineman Josh Sills, who started two years for the Mountaineers. Sills left the program in the off-season as a graduate transfer and started his first game for the Cowboys playing all 74 snaps.
“Josh has been really good for us,” Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said. “He’s come in and competed.”
The two players were part of the same 2016 recruiting class and squared off in practice settings over the years but will now do it on the field on opposite sidelines.
“It will be fun to compete against each other,” Pooler said.
It will be one of the most interesting dynamics of the game considering the obvious ties as well as how each unit is perceived after the first game of the season and will go a long way toward deciding things. Both will have the spotlight on them looking for a much better showing.
“We’ve got some guys that are going to get some people’s attention and the guys around them have to do something to buffer that a little bit. And then those guys are going to have to figure out how to deal with the attention they’re going to get. That’s part of being a good player,” line coach Jordan Lesley said.
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