Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Football Friday: Wesco's Emergence Gives Offense Another Option
November 09, 2018 06:30 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For years, it seemed as if there was a better chance of finding Jimmy Hoffa than locating a tight end in West Virginia's offense.
Rich Rodriguez rarely had a need for them. Bill Stewart had some but only occasionally threw the football their way, and Dana Holgorsen, well, why would he have a bunch of C-130s taking up space in his fleet when he's operating an Air Raid attack?
Not since the late 1990s when Don Nehlen had Anthony Becht has the tight end really been an integral part of West Virginia's offense.
That is until now, thanks to what senior Trevon Wesco is doing.
The Martinsburg senior has been around the program for three years now, but the Trevon Wesco we're seeing this year is far different than the one who caught a whopping two passes for seven yards during his first two seasons in the program.
He's bigger, stronger, faster and, most importantly, a much, much more confident football player.
The transformation from last year to this year is a lot like the Biggest Loser show that used to air on TV except in Wesco's case he's become the biggest winner.
And so has West Virginia.
Wesco, at 6-foot-4 and 274 pounds, is giving the Mountaineers an athletic, physical pass-catching presence the offense has been lacking in recent years. Watching a 274-pound dude out in space carrying a couple of defensive backs 10, 15 yards down the field as he did in the Baylor game has a way of getting people's attention.
But what he's doing at the line of scrimmage without the football is earning him even more notice from the guys who really know the game, and it might end up one day turning into a big, fat paycheck for him.
"I could talk about Wesco for the remainder of this press conference," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen beamed earlier this week. "This dude is blocking as well as I've seen a tight end block at this level."
Incidentally, that includes the guys at Oklahoma he faces each year.
"I really had to buy into blocking," Wesco admitted recently. "Nobody wants to block – everyone wants to catch touchdowns, but since I've bought into blocking, it's come easy for me. Coach (Dan) Gerberry puts in my head every game and every week that I need to be the most physical player that I can be. That's just what I try to do."
Keep doing it, Trevon, because it's working.
After watching the Texas tape, Holgorsen was beside himself with what Wesco managed to do at the line of scrimmage against the Longhorns. He was like a third tackle out there on running plays or helping protect quarterback Will Grier on passing plays when he wasn't out there catching passes from Grier.
"There were a couple of times that Wesco came down and hit the defensive end and completely wiped him out. So the tackle was just standing there going, 'I don't have anything to do.' Just watch the video," Holgorsen said.
We'll take your word, coach, but watching Wesco attack much smaller defensive backs with the football tucked under his arm is similar to what we see Vance McDonald doing up the road for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
McDonald, by the way, is about the same size as Wesco except seven pounds lighter.
We kept hearing all spring about how much Wesco had improved and how much more involved he was going to be in the offense this year, but when you've got David Sills V on one side, Gary Jennings Jr. and Marcus Simms on the other, plus Alabama transfer T.J. Simmons in the slot and all of those running backs, there are only so many players offensive coordinator Jake Spavital can target.
And there is just one football, so throwing it to Wesco meant robbing an opportunity from someone else to possibly get the football downfield and score.
Not anymore. Grier is targeting Wesco more frequently, and it's really helping the offense. He has caught two or more passes in four out of West Virginia's last five games, including three each in the Mountaineers' victories against Baylor and Texas.
"He's proven that he's a reliable guy," Grier said. "He makes tough catches, and he gets north and south with the ball.
"He's a really close friend of mine, too, so I usually don't tell him how good he does but I'll tell you guys (media) how good he's doing," the quarterback added. "I love when he catches it and starts rumbling down the field and getting extra yards and those guys are just falling off of him. He's a different type of weapon."
Wesco's 13 catches for 166 yards so far don't seem like much, especially considering the numbers tight ends Mark Raugh, Lovett Purnell and Becht put up for the Mountaineers years ago, but it's enough to give Grier another option in the middle field.
Add Jovani Haskins' 11 catches for 96 yards to Wesco's totals and that's 24 receptions for 262 yards from West Virginia's tight ends, meaning 24 fewer opportunities for Jennings Jr. to take a beating catching all those intermediate passes over the middle like he did last year.
In turn, that has allowed Jennings Jr. to remain fresh enough at the end of games to do what he did last Saturday against Texas.
Aside from Grier's season-ending injury against Texas, the declining production of Sills V and Jennings Jr. at the end of last season was probably the other big contributing factor to WVU's late-season offensive swoon.
Those two simply got worn down from so much use. Through eight games last year, Jennings Jr. showed 62 catches for 760 yards while Sills V had 49 catches for 781 yards and 15 touchdowns.
This year, Sills V (42 catches) and Jennings Jr. (35 catches) have been targeted far fewer times because of the emergence of Wesco and Haskins in the passing game.
And that could pay off handsomely coming down the home stretch with tough games remaining against TCU, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
"This is the time of year when you have to be multiple with stuff, and (the tight ends) make us more multiple as an offense," Spavital noted.
It sure does, thanks to Trevon Wesco and West Virginia's rediscovered tight end position.
Rich Rodriguez rarely had a need for them. Bill Stewart had some but only occasionally threw the football their way, and Dana Holgorsen, well, why would he have a bunch of C-130s taking up space in his fleet when he's operating an Air Raid attack?
Not since the late 1990s when Don Nehlen had Anthony Becht has the tight end really been an integral part of West Virginia's offense.
That is until now, thanks to what senior Trevon Wesco is doing.
The Martinsburg senior has been around the program for three years now, but the Trevon Wesco we're seeing this year is far different than the one who caught a whopping two passes for seven yards during his first two seasons in the program.
He's bigger, stronger, faster and, most importantly, a much, much more confident football player.
The transformation from last year to this year is a lot like the Biggest Loser show that used to air on TV except in Wesco's case he's become the biggest winner.
And so has West Virginia.
Wesco, at 6-foot-4 and 274 pounds, is giving the Mountaineers an athletic, physical pass-catching presence the offense has been lacking in recent years. Watching a 274-pound dude out in space carrying a couple of defensive backs 10, 15 yards down the field as he did in the Baylor game has a way of getting people's attention.
But what he's doing at the line of scrimmage without the football is earning him even more notice from the guys who really know the game, and it might end up one day turning into a big, fat paycheck for him.
"I could talk about Wesco for the remainder of this press conference," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen beamed earlier this week. "This dude is blocking as well as I've seen a tight end block at this level."
Incidentally, that includes the guys at Oklahoma he faces each year.
"I really had to buy into blocking," Wesco admitted recently. "Nobody wants to block – everyone wants to catch touchdowns, but since I've bought into blocking, it's come easy for me. Coach (Dan) Gerberry puts in my head every game and every week that I need to be the most physical player that I can be. That's just what I try to do."
Keep doing it, Trevon, because it's working.
After watching the Texas tape, Holgorsen was beside himself with what Wesco managed to do at the line of scrimmage against the Longhorns. He was like a third tackle out there on running plays or helping protect quarterback Will Grier on passing plays when he wasn't out there catching passes from Grier.
"There were a couple of times that Wesco came down and hit the defensive end and completely wiped him out. So the tackle was just standing there going, 'I don't have anything to do.' Just watch the video," Holgorsen said.
We'll take your word, coach, but watching Wesco attack much smaller defensive backs with the football tucked under his arm is similar to what we see Vance McDonald doing up the road for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
McDonald, by the way, is about the same size as Wesco except seven pounds lighter.
We kept hearing all spring about how much Wesco had improved and how much more involved he was going to be in the offense this year, but when you've got David Sills V on one side, Gary Jennings Jr. and Marcus Simms on the other, plus Alabama transfer T.J. Simmons in the slot and all of those running backs, there are only so many players offensive coordinator Jake Spavital can target.
And there is just one football, so throwing it to Wesco meant robbing an opportunity from someone else to possibly get the football downfield and score.
Not anymore. Grier is targeting Wesco more frequently, and it's really helping the offense. He has caught two or more passes in four out of West Virginia's last five games, including three each in the Mountaineers' victories against Baylor and Texas.
"He's proven that he's a reliable guy," Grier said. "He makes tough catches, and he gets north and south with the ball.
"He's a really close friend of mine, too, so I usually don't tell him how good he does but I'll tell you guys (media) how good he's doing," the quarterback added. "I love when he catches it and starts rumbling down the field and getting extra yards and those guys are just falling off of him. He's a different type of weapon."
Wesco's 13 catches for 166 yards so far don't seem like much, especially considering the numbers tight ends Mark Raugh, Lovett Purnell and Becht put up for the Mountaineers years ago, but it's enough to give Grier another option in the middle field.
Add Jovani Haskins' 11 catches for 96 yards to Wesco's totals and that's 24 receptions for 262 yards from West Virginia's tight ends, meaning 24 fewer opportunities for Jennings Jr. to take a beating catching all those intermediate passes over the middle like he did last year.
In turn, that has allowed Jennings Jr. to remain fresh enough at the end of games to do what he did last Saturday against Texas.
Aside from Grier's season-ending injury against Texas, the declining production of Sills V and Jennings Jr. at the end of last season was probably the other big contributing factor to WVU's late-season offensive swoon.
Those two simply got worn down from so much use. Through eight games last year, Jennings Jr. showed 62 catches for 760 yards while Sills V had 49 catches for 781 yards and 15 touchdowns.
This year, Sills V (42 catches) and Jennings Jr. (35 catches) have been targeted far fewer times because of the emergence of Wesco and Haskins in the passing game.
And that could pay off handsomely coming down the home stretch with tough games remaining against TCU, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
"This is the time of year when you have to be multiple with stuff, and (the tight ends) make us more multiple as an offense," Spavital noted.
It sure does, thanks to Trevon Wesco and West Virginia's rediscovered tight end position.
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