The West Virginia offensive line was an exercise in adjusting on the fly during the week of Baylor.

The Mountaineers had practiced with one group leading up to the game with redshirt senior Chase Behrndt operating at guard and tackle, but around 11:30 a.m. Friday had to make alterations. That’s because starting left guard James Gmiter tested positive for COVID-19 and wasn’t able to suit up.

That meant a reshuffling of the deck on the fly and scrapping those original ideas up front. Behrndt was slid back into his spot at center, while true freshman Zach Frazier was moved from center to left guard to fill the vacancy left behind with the absence of Gmiter.

“We were going into the game with a different look. We had to switch,” head coach Neal Brown said.

The rest of the front remained relatively unchanged with Brandon Yates playing left tackle, Mike Brown at right guard and then a combination of John Hughes and Briason Mays at right tackle. It wasn’t a perfect effort, but some of that could be chalked up to piecing the unit together last minute.

Because of that, the Mountaineers weren’t able to practice the group that they played in the game. That led to some issues in pass protection at time especially when it came to switching off twists and recognizing blitzes that needs to be ironed out but time on the field will help there.

“The twisting and stuff, those guys haven’t worked together and when you’re dealing with what we had to deal with on Friday that’s going to happen some,” Brown said.

Overall, Brown saw positives out of the group. Behrndt earned player of the game honors on the offensive line as he played all 85 snaps at center. The head man has seen him play with better pad level, strength and improving his overall communication up front. Despite the experimentation earlier in the week, the plan is to now lock Behrndt into the interior of the line. Senior Mike Brown continued his strong play as well seeing every snap and grading out as the top player on offense according to PFF.

Frazier made his second start but at a different position where he hadn’t practiced much leading into the game, seeing most of his reps at center. While he made some mistakes in some of the areas listed above with switching and blitz pick up, he was very good in the run game. He too played all 85 snaps.

Yates supplanted Junior Uzebu in the starting lineup and was used for every snap as well. The redshirt freshman started the opener with Uzebu suspended but was only used for 29 snaps the following week. That wasn’t the case against Baylor and he responded well.

“Played his best game. Really physical and I’m really excited about what he’s done,” he said.

Even when Gmiter returns to the lineup, which could be as soon as the Kansas game Oct. 17, the biggest question comes at right tackle where the position was split between Hughes (61 snaps) and Mays (24 snaps). Overall the position was better than it was against Oklahoma State, but there is still improvement that has to be made at that spot.

It's a unit that is slowly, but surely coming together and while there is clearly work to be done Brown is starting to see the unit make strides in key areas. It wasn’t an ideal, but the forced adjustment could end up being a turning point for this unit moving into the rest of the season.

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