8/24/2023 football Edit

West Virginia gets bigger up front at nose

The West Virginia Mountaineers football program are bigger up front at nose.

Keenan Cummings • WVSports

Managing Editor

West Virginia is going to be bigger at the nose guard spot.

That was by design as well, as the Mountaineers have been targeting bigger options there both in recruiting and the transfer portal to get a different style of player up front.

Mike Lockhart tips the scales at 6-foot-3, 308-pounds, Fatorma Mulbah stands 6-foot-3, 305-pounds, and Hammond Russell comes in at 6-foot-3, 303-pounds giving the defensive line some massive size up front. Lesley even specifically highlighted what Mulbah and Russel bring to the table.

“I think we got some really, really different type of nose guards,” Lesley said. “We’ve had some explosion and power there I don’t know if we’ve ever had the strength and size that those two guys have. Really impressed with them so far.”

In the past, West Virginia has used players at the nose spot such as Darius and Dante Stills to be explosive, really good on the run and create issues for guys in the run game and protection. The entire defense was essentially built around that type of skill set.

This was a concentrated effort to change that by getting bigger, longer and building a defense to go along with their overall skill set as well.

Zach Frazier, who lines up across the position at center, has become accustomed to a lot of movement up front at that position but has noticed more bull rushes from the current group. That accompanies the fact that with the size there is more strength giving the Mountaineers some options.

That is going to be interesting to trade off that quickness and speed, for size and what it will mean for the West Virginia defense this fall with a very different makeup.

“They’re bigger guys, bull rush guys so you have to set them a little different,” he said.

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