Last season the strength of WVU came from their offensive line. This year they are looking for similar production as they are confident in more than just their starting five.
Depth is always great to have for football teams but depth on the offensive line is crucial. Last year for the Mountaineers and offensive line coach Matt Moore, there never seemed to be a weak link no matter who was in the game.
"I’m closer than I've ever been," Moore said on being able to rotate his depth. "If you went out there today and watched us play you’d have no idea who the starting five was. Every period had different guys, it's not just going one's and two's, it's going three of the starters, two of the second team guys, then three of the second team guys and two starters," Moore said. "The hard part about it is you’re going against the defense and you want to win you want your best five in there, but you have to make yourself realize this is going to help us down the road."
Part of this figuring out process for Moore is him putting guys he considers to be backups currently with guys he feels are starters and see how they perform at practice.
"You have to put them in those situations. On a Saturday night in the stadium in fall camp, I got to put Landen Livingston in the starting group and see what he can do. I have to put Nick Krahe with the starting group, see what he can do. I got to put Johnny Williams with the best crew, see what he can do. Thats where you want to find out if the bright lights are going to get to them. You want to find that out in the stadium in August before you find that out in September," Moore said.
While no offensive line wants to go deep into their rotations, almost all end up having to throughout the course of a season. Moore said he felt really good about where his position group is at top to bottom.
"I feel better about those guys than I have since I've been here," Moore said of his second unit.
"Johnny Williams is playing really well. He's got to continue to get stronger but he's playing really well. [Sullivan] Weidman is playing better than he's played since he’s been here. He's had a better camp, he's cleaner, he's playing with better fundamentals. Landen Livingston is really making a run, he finally got his weight up. He's a really athletic kid, really smart, does a really good job of communicating. Nick Krahe is a guy who weighed 240 pounds his senor year of high school, he’s 303-pounds and very little fat on him. His body has really developed. And Xavier Baulsey at right tackle, he’s completely changed his body since he got here in January of last year and continuing to come along."
Moore is going to continue to work his group to try and. get them in a place where they can play multiple positions, but is comfortable with many in his room right now.
"I could have nine guys that could play. I don't know if it'd be realistic to say, I'm going to roll these nine guys in. I hope I got it where I'm like, it doesn't matter who's in there, let's go play. That's what I'm shooting for is to get to that point," Moore said.
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