OL Coach Crook Developing Depth
April 15, 2015 09:42 AM | General
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| West Virginia assistant coach Ron Crook is still seeking offensive line depth this spring. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Well, that perfect world hasn’t existed here for quite some time, and it probably won’t exist this fall either.
West Virginia’s five offensive line starters took all but 149 of the 1,097 offensive snaps for the Mountaineers last season. That averages out this way: left tackle Adam Pankey (99 percent of the offensive snaps), center Tyler Orlosky (99 percent), right guard Mark Glowinski (99 percent), right tackle Marquis Lucas (97 percent) and left guard Quinton Spain (92 percent).
Two years ago, all five offensive line starters averaged at least 80 percent of the snaps with Glowinski leading the way at 94 percent.
Two things jump out immediately when you consider this: one, the strength and conditioning and athletic training staffs are doing a phenomenal job of keeping these guys on the field, and, two, the Mountaineers are still fighting an uphill battle in developing depth along the line.
In years past, offensive line coaches here would force themselves to try and fortify the offensive line by putting in a second group of linemen at predetermined times of the game, oftentimes with varying degrees of success.
A lot of things go into that, though - specifically, the type of teams you are playing and the quality of the defense you are putting out on the field to keep you in games.
It’s hard to do it when you are facing Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State and the rest of the Big 12 each year, and it’s also hard to develop offensive line depth when your defense is struggling to keep the other team out of the end zone.
And it’s even more difficult if your backup center is snapping popups to the quarterback and your left tackle is still getting out of his stance when the opposing defensive end is making a beeline to your quarterback’s rib cage.
Those are some of the thoughts that are usually in the back of Crook’s mind whenever he considers putting unproven guys into the game. Still, Crook said he’s got to continue to fight some of those thoughts.
“You kind of go in it with the idea of this is what I want to do and you’ve just got to trust yourself with it,” he said recently. “We talk about them trusting us and us trusting them, well, we’ve got to trust ourselves too.”
Ideally, you’d like to have three extra proven guys – one who can snap, one who can play the two inside positions and one who can play the two outside spots. Obviously, Crook hasn’t had that luxury the last two years here at WVU.
“I’m hoping we are going to be able to rotate more,” he said. “We’ve got some guys and we’re developing depth. We’ve got more bodies to work with so we’re hoping that’s going to pay off and we can use a little more of a rotation.”
There is a considerable amount of tinkering going on right now, especially at left tackle. We’ve seen Russell Haughton-James and Sylvester Townes working with the ones, and more recently, we’ve also seen intriguing freshman Yodny Cajuste out there as well.
Cajuste is a young player with impressive size and athleticism who immediately gets your attention. Having a left tackle with good feet and a large wingspan in this league is a necessity and Cajuste appears to have that covered. With him on one side and two-year starter Marquis Lucas at the other tackle spot, the Mountaineers have a pretty athletic duo at tackle.
“You’re always looking for that,” said Crook. “The more athletic guys you can get the better off you’re going to be, but in the end they’ve got to have toughness, too, so it’s not just athleticism.”
Do they?
“We’re going in the right direction with it,” said Crook. “(Cajuste) is still young and he’s still learning how to play left tackle. It’s an important position and there is a lot of stuff that happens out there so he’s learning how to play and that’s why these reps are so important, seeing things and starting to understand things and see them before they happen.”
West Virginia is in good shape at left guard with converted left tackle Adam Pankey now manning that spot, and also at center where two-year starter Tyler Orlosky returns. Those two guys are battle-tested having close to 1,500 Big 12 snaps each under their belts heading into 2015. Pankey’s backup, Tyler Tezeno, and Orlosky’s backup, Stone Underwood, have been in the program for a while, too.
The right guard position, handled the last two years by Mark Glowinski, is a toss up right now between Tony Matteo and Grant Lingafelter, and will probably remain that way heading into the fall. The same goes for left tackle.
Haughton-James and Underwood could be the two key guys because they are versatile enough to play multiple positions and could give Crook some additional options he’s lacked in the past.
Therefore, in addition to developing depth, Crook also has to develop the continuity coach Dana Holgorsen is always seeking from his offensive line in order to consistently move the football.
“The O-line is different than any other position,” explained Holgorsen. “They have to develop continuity and trust each other. The more they play next to each other, the better off they’re going to be.”
“That’s what spring ball is all about: evaluate your guys, find out where they’re at, try to make improvements, try and keep the guys headed in the right direction and hopefully during the summertime they can get into the weight room, get stronger, become more confident, and continue that,” Crook concluded.
Hopefully they do.
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