In one of WVU's strongest groups on the field, junior Brandon Yates is one of five talented offensive line pieces for the Mountaineers up front and a unit that has been the backbone of the team's offense.
This season, injuries have hurt this group and the Mountaineers have turned to quite a few different combinations up front, but players like Yates have been able to fill in where they're needed, and this has been crucial to stop the bleeding when a player has gone down.
Yates is a junior but has played with the Mountaineers since 2019 and this past offseason he made a switch from offensive tackle to an interior position.
Now with his primary position as an offensive guard, Yates has played three positions this season, taking up center, right guard and left guard duties against BYU on Nov. 4.
This versatility hasn't just been showcased in WVU's recent win over the Cougars, Yates has been filling in all over the line all season due to injuries hitting the group in the middle of the season.
Junior tackle Wyatt Milum and sophomore guard Tomas Rimac missed a couple of games due to injury and Yates was shuffled around at left tackle and left guard to fill these voids. Junior guard Ja'Quay Hubbard and tackle Nick Malone, making his first career start this year, also worked alongside Yates to fill this need and this is a shared quality among the group.
Yates said that many of his teammates on the offensive line are familiar with a variety of positions and this is a quality that can benefit the whole group.
"Three can play all five and four can play all four positions," Yates said. "Me, Zach [Frazier] and Doug [Nester] can play all five."
In terms of alignment, Yates noted one of the biggest challenges is how the play calls are flipped as you move from one side of the formation to the other, especially moving from each guard position and playing the all-important center position.
"I've been doing it for a while now so it's getting easier for sure but the hardest part is flipping the plays in your head," Yates said. "Once you play center you know how to play left or right [guard]. I don't think anything really changes, our techniques are still going to be the same regardless of where I am."
This flurry of injuries and the following response by the WVU offensive line is a testament to what Yates believes to be a much improved and deeper group of players, and he feels like that is what has made this group different from past seasons.
"Recently before, it was more that the depth was the biggest problem. In the offseason, some years you have guys that work at completely different positions," Yates said. "We all take this game very seriously, it comes down to practice and working hard. Everyone knows their assignments, I think we just know how to do our jobs."
Despite all of the turmoil and personnel changes due to injury, clearly something has worked for the Mountaineers' offensive line led by players like Yates. WVU averages 419.4 yards per game ranking No. 43 in the nation and No. 34 in the country with 31.4 points per game this season.
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More importantly, West Virginia has succeeded in carrying out their primary offensive philosophy throughout the first nine games, checking in as the seventh-best rushing attack nationwide with 218 yards per game.
Yates feels that he and his fellow lineman have improved every game and there's a visible uptick in the WVU offense that can be attributed to this group.
"I think we've definitely improved every game. Every game but the Houston game we’ve played to our expectations," Yates said.
This season, Yates is confident about how the offensive line prepared to compete every day and that this is a quality that they pride themselves in, hard work.
"A lot of teams were looking at our offensive line wanting to compete. We took that and prepared every single day," Yates said. "That's how we pride ourselves on hard work and being a hard working offensive line."
Of course, it helps to work alongside a future NFL athlete and All-American center Zach Frazier, who Yates says is the catalyst for the unit to continue building chemistry and developing together.
"He's [Zach Frazier] the heart of the offensive line and our leader. We've all gotten older and all developed together, so we all bounce off each other and develop," Yates said. "It's a good development from top to bottom. The chemistry is really good, we all bounce off each other."
From a team perspective, Yates feels like the West Virginia blue-collar attitude transfers over to the hard work that his offensive line puts in every day.
"No one believes in West Virginia, but the people who do believe in West Virginia are people in West Virginia," Yates said. "We know how much we had to work and we know how this state prides itself in hard work and blue collar. I think we're proving everyone wrong."
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