West Virginia football offense hits the ground running
West Virginia came into the road game against TCU looking to run the football.
And for good reason with the Horned Frogs bleeding a total of 210 yards per game over the first six games of the season in a completely uncharacteristic version of Gary Patterson’s defense.
The Mountaineers placed a lot of emphasis during the bye week on improving in that department over the bye week and the results were the single best performance against an FBS team under Neal Brown.
The 229 yards rolled up against the Horned Frogs was the second most productive game on the ground in any scenario with only the effort against FCS level Eastern Kentucky (329 yards) surpassing that. In fact, the Kansas game in 2020 is the only other output that eclipsed 200-yards with 226.
“We came into the game that we were going to be intentional about running the football,” head coach Neal Brown said. “We talked to our guys about that over the course of the week. I think you can’t just talk about it; you have to show it. You’ve got to be about actions.”
As part of that, the Mountaineers mixed up the presentation of how they’re running the football and even used some under center looks as well to exploit the matchup.
Senior running back Leddie Brown piled up 111 yards and scored three touchdowns, with 83 of that coming after contact. The bruising runner forced a total of five missed tackles and reeled off three runs over 10+ yards when he only had a total of 7 such runs coming into the game.
Even backup redshirt sophomore Tony Mathis got into the mix with 12 carries for 48 yards, looking like a confident fill in for Brown that ran the ball hard and effective with his opportunities.
“We knew coming into this game that both teams were going to run the ball and the team that ran the ball better was going to win. So, we knew we had to play more physical up front and in the backfield,” Brown said.
In the run game, it always starts up front though, and the Mountaineers used a combination of the same five offensive linemen across the 74 offensive snaps with left tackle Brandon Yates, left guard James Gmiter, center Zach Frazier, right guard Doug Nester and right tackle Wyatt Milum.
“We strained, too. I thought our footwork was the best it’s been all year and they took some of the heat they were getting personal,” Brown said. “That’s what you want, you want it to be important to the guys.”
One game doesn’t erase an entire season of work, but perhaps the Mountaineers have found the right combination moving forward with five games remaining and a bowl trip within reach. At 3-4, the program isn’t where it wanted to be but the second half of the season has opened opportunities.
Especially if the run game continues to be effective down the stretch.
“It’s just a testament to how hard that offensive line worked the past two weeks. They’re a tough, physical unit and I think they just cleaned up some details over the last two weeks and they’re going to be pretty good when they want to,” quarterback Jarret Doege said.
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