Colton McKivitz admittedly gave it some thought.

A three-year starter at tackle, who had also seen some time at guard, the redshirt junior had accomplished a lot at the college level after arriving as a lanky basketball player from Belmont, Ohio.

There were opportunities to forego his final season in favor of jumpstarting a potential NFL career and given the coaching change nobody would have blamed him for it.

But after mulling it over, McKivitz wasn’t quite ready to make the jump yet and the allure of being given the opportunity to play left tackle was convincing as well. He also realized that in order to play at the next level he still had some work to do at this one when it came to both his body and style of play.

“The biggest part that has improved the most is the physicality point of it. The biggest reason I wanted to come back was to get stronger and use that year in the weight room to be a more dominant player and in the games so far it’s showed,” he said.

McKivitz has been the highest graded offensive player this season according to Pro Football Focus at 76.9 comparing favorably to the 78.4 that left tackle Yodny Cajuste registered last season for the Mountaineers. He was eventually selected in the third round by the New England Patriots.

The West Virginia coaches believe that McKivitz has been even better highlighting his play at left tackle on an otherwise struggling offensive line with regular consistency. In fact, it’s fair to wonder where this group would be without McKivitz at this stage of the season.

“He’s definitely the best player on the field when you flip on our film offensively,” co-offensive coordinator and position coach Matt Moore said.

Now more than half way through his final year of eligibility, McKivitz wants to continue to improve on playing with better footwork and improving in his pass protection on the field but as a leader he has continued to blossom as well. Now more vocal and confident, the redshirt senior has become one of the true leaders to this football team and has garnered the respect of his teammates.

That’s been evident when challenging his teammates in difficult situations to raise their level of play or providing support such as in the case of Chase Behrndt when he lost his starting job at center.

“I think I’ve become more of a vocal guy this year because that was kind of asked of me from coach Brown and coach Moore but I’ve always came in with the idea of leading by example,” he said. “I think so far the younger guys are taking advantage of it.”

There’s no time for regrets in football, but even if there were McKivitz doesn’t have any regarding his decision to come back to Morgantown. It’s allowed him to further develop his game and put him in position to possibly hear his name called earlier than it would have been come draft night in April.

“He’s a lot more aggressive than he was in the past, plays a lot harder. He’s really developed some leadership skills. Technique wise I think he’s gotten better and gotten stronger. Every guy that comes in here to watch him from an NFL scout standpoint they’re pleased with what he’s doing so he’s got to keep it rolling,” Moore said.

For the program’s sake it’s also provided Moore and the coaching staff a blueprint to point to for the younger players on how to approach workouts, note taking and the preparation aspect of it all. That is invaluable when you are developing an offensive line comprised mostly of either newcomers or young players outside of the two tackle spots, one of course manned by McKivitz.

“You can explain it to people but when they see it first-hand it helps to have a guy in the room like that. Where they can see it in film, on the field and understand how it’s supposed to be done,” Moore said.

With the team’s struggles given that inexperience across the board, McKivitz isn’t having the season he envisioned when he elected to stick around this past winter but he is accomplishing his personal goals while putting a stamp on the future of the program in the process.

“He’s made himself a better player.” Moore said.

And that’s what it all was about.

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