Buccigrossi, Jones competing for starting center spot

With West Virginia’s annual spring practice now in the books there are still multiple position battles ongoing.

One of those battles is taking place on the offensive line at the center position between redshirt junior Matt Jones and redshirt sophomore Jacob Buccigrossi. Although the starter likely will not be determined until the end of summer camp, the battle is taking shape and bringing out the best in both players.

“I think it’s a good battle, it’s a healthy battle,” West Virginia offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said. “I think competition brings the best out of everybody it does. I think the play of both them have elevated.”

Jones served as the team’s starter for all 13 games last season, replacing Tyler Orlosky, who was a three-year starter for the Mountaineers at the same position on his way to earning All-Big 12 honors. He was also a finalist for the Rimington Trophy in 2016, which is awarded to college football’s best center.

Orlosky, who is now working as a Graduate Assistant Coach on offense, will be one of many to witness the position battle first hand.

The challenge for Jones now is to overcome injuries he suffered last season while trying to win the starting spot for the second straight season.

“Matt’s been hurt,” Spavital said. “He was hurt from last year, but he’s still getting quality reps.”

Buccigrossi on the other hand, did not see the field at all for West Virginia last season.

After working his way to the second team last spring, the Pennsylvania native suffered a torn ACL and sat out the remainder of both spring and fall camps, but later returned to practice during the season.

Since the start of spring practice, Buccigrossi has mainly been seen taking reps with the first team offense with Jones playing on the second team, but both players have seen action within both offensive units.

“We move them in and out with the ones and the twos,” Spavital said. “We just keep repping it.”

Buccigrossi and Jones are very similar in size, but Jones has the edge as far as experience goes having started all 13 games for West Virginia last season, but according to Spavital, both players are making progress in practices in terms of communication within the unit.

“They’re both awesome kids that put a lot on their plate in terms of identifications and making sure we get into the right call,” Spavital said. “They’re handling it well.”

West Virginia’s offense features a lot of size up front, but depth is a concern for now and most of the backups are inexperienced.

According to Spavital through, the team will have two junior college transfers coming in the fall, but for now, it’s important to get the offensive line up to speed and have more guys ready to play. Both Buccigrossi and Jones will be at the center of that.

“We got a big (offensive line). We’re getting the size that we want,” Spavital said. “It’s all part of them now getting on the same page.”