Rebuilding West Virginia OL has been a process

The growth of the West Virginia offensive line can best be described as a process.

When head coach Neal Brown inherited the Mountaineers roster in 2019 there were issues with the overall depth and experience outside of starting left tackle Colton McKivitz. That was agitated even further by a season-ending surgery decision by the other linemen with experience in Josh Sills.

Sills would later transfer to Oklahoma State at season’s end and the overall numbers at the position were thinned out even further up front.

“Our numbers were low and very few guys that had really played,” Brown said.

During the 2020 season, the Mountaineers coaching staff made the conscious decision to play some of the younger players on the roster despite some of them not truly being ready to make the jump. That led to some overall progress, but there were still plenty of struggles.

Among the players that were mixed in included center Zach Frazier and guard James Gmiter, as offensive line coach Matt Moore looked for more consistency.

The following season brought in pieces such as offensive tackle Wyatt Milum and Virginia Tech transfer Doug Nester to help round out the unit. They were certainly high moments, but other times the offensive line really struggled to generate much against the better defenses on the schedule.

“I thought that we ran the ball against the teams we should have ran against and we struggled versus really good defenses,” Brown said.

That was the message all off-season by the coaching staff in order to improve that aspect. The offensive line is now four years into the Brown era with the same coach and it was time for the unit to take a step forward. Thus far that has certainly come to fruition with the Mountaineers rushing for 217 yards per game through the first four which includes matchups against stiff Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech front sevens.

“We’re older, mature and we’ve got a bunch of guys that have played a lot of snaps. We need to run the ball against good people. We proved we can do that week one, now we’ve got to continue,” he said.

Frazier is a big piece of that as he is playing some of the best football of his career and is coming off his second consecutive offensive lineman of the week award with a perfect grade in his assignments. The coaching staff is putting a lot of responsibility on Frazier when it comes from identification in both the run game and the pass game.

"What he does is we’re getting hats on the right people and what he does is he’s really strong so we can man some things with him that some other teams can’t. That allows us some opportunities with guards and tackles to double that’s in the pass protection and the run game. and he wins a lot of one-on-ones. He wins his," Brown said.

West Virginia has around seven players that they feel comfortable using at different times up front and feel good about the future of the line with the development of freshman Tomas Rimac and the young players that will spend this season redshirting. But quality depth this year is going to be necessary with all of the challenges that lie ahead on the schedule this year.

“I don’t think we’re a finished product although I’m pleased with how they’ve played through three weeks. We have to continue to build the depth in that room,” Brown said.

Even at right tackle where Ja'Quay Hubbard and Brandon Yates have both seen time, Brown believes that there is improvement.

"Have you noticed them? That's how you know they're getting better," he said. "They're both solid in the run game, they're getting better in pass protection."

The Mountaineers are putting a lot on their offensive line this season and the group is being counted on to be the engine of the offense given their overall experience.

It’s what several coaches have referred to as the heart of the offense. A long trip it’s been when it comes to trying to find consistent and improved play up front.

“Guys have played a whole lot of reps together. We’re going to need them to continue. They have to play at a high level for our offense to go,” offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said. “If you want to have success offensively, you have to be decent up front.”

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