West Virginia’s season is approaching slowly but surely and WVSports.com takes a look at the pick for the most concerning and comforting position on the roster heading into fall camp.

Which position gives the most cause for concern while which one do you put the most faith in as the off-season marches on. And we break down our reasoning why for each choice on both sides of the ball.

So which position gets the nod?

Today the most comforting on each side.

Most comforting offense: If there is a position that West Virginia should feel comfortable about above all others heading into this coming season it’s at running back. The Mountaineers have a pair of seniors in Martell Pettaway (473 career snaps) and Kennedy McKoy (990 career snaps) that have played a lot of football for the program and had success doing so. Those two are just the top of a pyramid that is a combination of talent and experience for the Mountaineers at the running back spot.

The program returns all 1,940 of the yards amassed by the running back position last season spread out across four different players. While McKoy and Pettaway shared the two biggest workloads with 145 and 98 carries, West Virginia also had room for Leddie Brown (90 carries) and Alec Sinkfield (19 carries) to get work as well and each of those players are returning.

The collection of backs is a unique blend of skill sets that features tough runners, pass catchers and a mix of all the above as new running back coach Chad Scott will have some interesting decisions to make. Made even more interesting by the fact that the program will welcome yet another talented running back to the roster for this fall in true freshman Tony Mathis giving five capable options.

The only real concern here is if the offensive line is going to be able to hold up their end of the bargain in order to allow the Mountaineers to effectively deploy the stable of running backs. But as long as things are clean up front this choice should come as no surprise given what is returning and what the program lost in practically all other areas on the offensive side of the ball.

Most comforting defense: This is going to come as a surprise to some people but my pick here is the defensive line. To me it was incredibly telling that West Virginia made a number of additions to the 2019 class down the stretch and none of them came on the defensive line adding to the comments at the end of the spring that the position was the biggest positive surprise on defense.

The Mountaineers only have 10 scholarship defensive lineman, two of which will be true freshmen, as well as several players filling in at the hybrid BANDIT spot which merges defensive line and linebacker but there is some reason to feel good about the group in 2019.

West Virginia returns a wealth of experience up font despite losing several key pieces including Kenny Bigelow, Jabril Robinson and Ezekiel Rose. Just last year alone the Mountaineers return 477 snaps from Reese Donahue, 310 snaps from Darius Stills, 219 snaps from Dante Stills, 153 snaps from Jeffery Pooler and some others that saw action during the course of the season. The program also has added defensive end Taijh Alston, who was one of the standouts of the spring as a pass rusher.

Pooler put together one of his best off-seasons since he has been with the program and took some major strides at defensive end as well while Brenon Thrift started to emerge at the back up.

West Virginia also will have two freshmen but defensive line coach Jordan Lesley has made it clear that he intends to play both especially tackle Jordan Jefferson, who is physically ready to step in and contribute from the start of his career.

The numbers need to get better with those that can help and injuries could cause issues here but it’s hard not to believe that the defensive line could be a strength this fall especially when you throw in the pass rushing linebackers on the roster such as Vandarius Cowan.

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