From the time Nick Malone arrived at West Virginia, he just wanted to carve out a role. At the start, any role would do as long as he was contributing to his football team.
The Morgantown High product arrived on campus as a 260-pound walk-on offensive lineman after earning second-team all-state honors as a senior.
“That doesn’t get you very far at the Division One level,” he said.
That meant working in the weight room to gain weight and muscle mass when it came to his physical profile as well as refining his technique with hand and pad leverage.
But instead of waiting for his time to come on the offensive line, Malone bought into the narrative that as many reps as he could get anywhere on the field the better.
That started on special teams where he went from the tight end spot on field goal and then branched into other areas such as shield on punt team to back up tight end in heavy packages to eventually earning a bigger role at offensive tackle during the 2023 campaign.
“If they need somebody to go in you’re right there, you’re ready to step in. I took that role and created value anywhere I could be,” Malone said.
The punt shield role is a perfect example of that considering it isn’t the most glamorous role, but Malone embraced it from the start. As long as he could find a way to help the team, the local product was happy.
“I went in, and did they tell me,” he said.
Malone would earn a scholarship offer due to his efforts and saw a total of 418 snaps split between the right and left offensive tackle spots a season ago. And now with the departure of Doug Nester, Malone is competing to become the starter on the right side in his final season with the program.
That growth can be attributed to the work that he’s put in during his time with the Mountaineers as well as the guidance from offensive line coach Matt Moore and head coach Neal Brown. While Malone is a former walk-on, nobody in the room ever treated him any differently which mattered to him.
But his background certainly inspired him to put his best foot forward.
“Every football athlete has that low point but giving up was never really an option. You know where you’re at you can always build upon. You can never go low,” Malone said.
During his career, Malone has been able to play all over which has allowed him to become more comfortable with what is being asked out of him at any of the spots. But being able to focus solely on the right side certainly was a different feeling for him this past spring.
“It’s a little more helpful,” he said.
Malone has taken the approach of having a flatline approach to the position where you never get too high or too low depending on the results on the field. There are days when he has experienced both, but finding a way to balance that and focus on what he has to do to improve has been critical.
For Malone, he has placed an emphasis at the point of attack and even with his rise in potential opportunities he is treating the preparation the same as he did when he was an undersized freshman.
“I really think of it as full steam ahead,” he said.
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