It took longer than expected, but the West Virginia offensive line is playing by far its best football of the season over the past two weeks.

During that span, a pair of wins over TCU and Iowa State, the front has paved the way to 34 points and 176 rushing yards per contest. That’s while only allowing a single sack in pass protection.

Prior to those two games, the Mountaineers had only mustered around 20 points and 95 yards rushing over the five games against FBS competition and allowed 6 sacks against Baylor alone.

So, what changed?

“We’re playing the way it should be played as far as we’re being much more physical at the point of attack. We’re straining to finish blocks,” head coach Neal Brown said.

Run game wise, the Mountaineers have placed a greater emphasis on the correct footwork, hand placement and having their eyes in the right spot on a consistent play-to-play manner. The fact that the offense also settled on five linemen up front also was critical in the development of the position.

Over the bye week, the Mountaineers helped to clean some things up from a schematic standpoint in order to help the protection and the benefits are obvious.

For quarterback Jarret Doege that means better protection means more trust in the offense and being able to stand in the pocket and deliver the football down the field. Doege completed 5-8 for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns over 20+ yards against Iowa State.

“I stand back there really comfortable, confident with the way they’re playing,” he said.

The unit across the board is a combination of underclassmen and younger players with redshirt sophomore Brandon Yates, redshirt junior James Gmiter, redshirt sophomore Zach Frazier, redshirt junior Doug Nester and true freshman Wyatt Milum making up the group.

“There’s a lot of football left to be played with that group,” Brown said.

Gmiter said that the unit met during the open week in order to discuss the offense and make sure that everybody was on the same page and bought in toward improvement. It sounds cliché, but there was a sense of trust among the unit to get better even when they were struggling.

Keeping a positive outlook was key led by offensive line coach Matt Moore and aided by the relationships with each of the five-man team up front.

“It was difficult but what coach Moore kept reiterating to us is we can’t let it get to us. You can’t let it feed into the room and let the negativity seep in and keep spreading,” Gmiter said.

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