If West Virginia football’s first-year coaching staff has shown anything since they’ve arrived in Morgantown, it’s that everything they do and each approach they take are all part of a bigger plan for the future of the program.

Part of that plan of course includes recruiting and developing players who can produce on the field and part of that process also involves deciding which players to redshirt and which ones are ready to play.

However, with the new redshirt rule that went into effect last season, coaches can now play different players up to four games in a single season and still be able to earn a redshirt year. Head coach Neal Brown and company are taking full advantage of that rule this season with several position groups, but one of those groups could be the offensive line.

Overall, West Virginia’s offensive line has struggled this season with the Mountaineers averaging less than two yards per rush in four different games this season.

But the most consistent areas within the group have come at the two tackle positions with Colton McKivitz on the left side and Kelby Wickline on the right. These two slots though will become vacant after this season with the two in their final year with the program.

With the redshirt rule, true freshmen offensive tackles Brandon Yates and Parker Moorer both could see some playing time at some point during the final five games of the regular season which would allow the coaches to see where they’re at in terms of their development and physicality against an opposing team’s defense.

Following the game Missouri game earlier this season, co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Matt Moore praised their progress through practice and the Monday night football games for West Virginia’s reserves.

“I got Parker Moorer working some right tackle which I don’t really wanna play him right now, but he’s physically the next guy that can play that position,” Moore said during Iowa State week on Oct. 8. “So you know I still wanna redshirt him, but I’m using him to game plan.”

But according to Moore, Moorer won’t be used unless he is needed, but he’s someone who will eventually play thanks to the redshirt rule.

“He’s a guy that’s going to play down the road, so I’m teaching him how to game plan and how to learn,” Moore said.

“He’s an emergency role if we need him because he can physically do it, but he’s just young and just (gets) a little big-eyed right now, but I will play him. He will get his four games in. You don’t like to do it early because you don’t wanna all of the sudden need him at the end of the year and have to burn his redshirt on a fifth game.”

Through seven games, the Mountaineer coaches have made several decisions regarding personnel and redshirts and some of these decisions have been influenced by injuries and depth at certain positions.

Wide receivers Ali Jennings and Winston Wright are two players the staff decided to play this season and not redshirt since they were able to show they can make an impact as true freshmen during the first couple of games they played in this year.

Senior running back Martell Pettaway, who had his redshirt burned as a true freshman late in the 2016 season before the new rule went into effect, will redshirt this season due to his lackluster start to the year and the team’s depth at the running back position.

Another true freshman who will likely see playing time is Jared Bartlett at bandit, a position that has been depleted due to injuries to Quondarius Qualls and VanDarius Cowan.

“We’re running out of bodies,” Brown said. “This is probably going to be a game (Baylor) where Jared Bartlett can be a factor in.”

From an offensive lineman standpoint, the first year on campus is critical to future development and one way newcomers can take a step forward in that area is by getting in the weight room, according to McKivitz, who’s serving as Yates’s big brother in a new team building program this season.

“They’ve both been working hard in the weight room,” McKivitz said of Moorer and Yates. “That’s kind of the biggest key you can do as a freshman is get in the weight room and attack it. We have our Monday night football and they’ve both been playing very well. As a freshman, it’s kind of hard to gage how well you’re doing just because you don’t have that game experience or anything like that, so it’s just the practice film.”

But soon, both Yates and Moorer may be able to watch themselves on the game film during their debuts in the gold and blue and on that same tape, the coaches will evaluate it and have a better idea of where they stand in their development and just how much their hard work has paid off up to that point.

“Skill players I think it’s good for,” McKivitz said of the redshirt rule. “But as an offensive (lineman) point of it, I kind of look at it as that redshirt year as a grind and if you really wanna be great, then you’re going to attack it.”

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