Photo by: Pete Emerson
From Castaway to Possible Difference Maker
June 21, 2018 04:56 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - For the first year Trevon Wesco played football at West Virginia University he was a lot like Robinson Crusoe - a castaway stranded on a deserted island.
Wesco was a tight end in an Air Raid offense, which meant he was all alone.
He prepped at Musselman High over in the Eastern Panhandle and then spent two years at Lackawanna College in Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, before deciding to get off the grid by returning to West Virginia to play tight end.
The research he did in choosing the Mountaineers was fairly extensive. It took him the better part of five seconds to watch all of the tight end pass-catching cutups. But then again, his junior college career consisted of a whopping five receptions for 47 yards, so if that's not a direct ticket to the tackles and offensive guards room, then I don't know what is.
"Coming here, I knew the tight end wasn't really involved that much, but being from West Virginia, I just wanted to come here," the Martinsburg resident explained Thursday before his afternoon workout. "Then, when I got here I kind of wanted to change that."
It's beginning to happen. Plus, he's gotten a lot of help from a willing co-conspirator in second-year offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, who has spent the time he's been back at West Virginia giving that area of the Mountaineer offense a Michael Jackson-level facelift.
Wesco spent his first year in Morgantown as the only tight end in the program so he had to go and meet with the fullbacks. They may have taken him in as one of their own, but Wesco was still the lone wolf of the pack.
"I was doing a lot of the Eli (Wellman) role that he did last year, and I wasn't comfortable with it," Wesco explained. "But now I'm way more comfortable with it because I understand what to do and things like that, so it's much easier for me."
He also spent some of his time with the offensive tackles trying to be a mini-Yodny Cajuste, but he's finally got some other guys here just like him.
There's Miami transfer Jovani Haskins and a couple of promising freshmen in T.J. Banks from nearby East Allegheny High in North Versailles, Pennsylvania, and Mike O'Laughlin from farther away Fenwick High in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with Wesco being their elder statesman.
"He's been killing the runs and the lifts all summer, and we've had a lot of the younger tight ends come in this summer, and he's done a great job of being a big brother to them," senior wide receiver David Sills V noted.
Those guys' reasons for coming to West Virginia are far different than Wesco's. Yet simply having more of them around guarantees a more prominent role for the tight ends in West Virginia's offense this year.
Make no mistake, the others have bright futures in this offense, but Wesco is the guy right now. Poll anybody in the Mountaineer locker room and you will get a consensus that Trevon Wesco was one of the offensive standouts last spring.
He certainly looks the part this summer, a chiseled 6-foot-4-inch, 270-pound specimen who runs like a 225-pounder and moves people around like a 300-pounder.
Incidentally, this 270-pounder can also line up just about anywhere on the field … attached, unattached, in the backfield you name it … which is something everyone will be watching.
Before, it was a mathematical certainty that opposing defensive coordinators spent no time whatsoever worrying about a West Virginia tight end catching a football in the Mountaineer offense. That would be about the equivalent of the city of Miami budgeting a substantial amount of money for snow removal.
Doing so this year could come with some consequences, however.
"I didn't realize how talented he really is," senior quarterback Will Grier admitted. "He had a really, really impressive spring and we're excited about his potential and what he can do."
Grier was asked to give some examples of what Wesco did this spring to warrant that type of praise. Grier wanted to take the bait.
"You can pull up the film and watch," he finally answered. "He shows up on run plays and just gets after it. If you ask around the locker room, they will tell you the same thing - he has turned into a difference maker. The defensive guys and the offensive guys alike will tell you the same thing."
So, will that mean more flying footballs headed in Trevon Wesco's direction this fall?
Five? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty?
Just having a couple of passes thrown his way will double what he caught last year. Two, five, 10, 20, 25 passes … it doesn't matter to Wesco.
"I'm really not worried about it," he said. "I'm worried about the team. You've just got to buy into the program and if your number gets called, then you've got to show up."
His teammates are confident that he's going to show up this fall.
Wesco was a tight end in an Air Raid offense, which meant he was all alone.
He prepped at Musselman High over in the Eastern Panhandle and then spent two years at Lackawanna College in Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, before deciding to get off the grid by returning to West Virginia to play tight end.
The research he did in choosing the Mountaineers was fairly extensive. It took him the better part of five seconds to watch all of the tight end pass-catching cutups. But then again, his junior college career consisted of a whopping five receptions for 47 yards, so if that's not a direct ticket to the tackles and offensive guards room, then I don't know what is.
"Coming here, I knew the tight end wasn't really involved that much, but being from West Virginia, I just wanted to come here," the Martinsburg resident explained Thursday before his afternoon workout. "Then, when I got here I kind of wanted to change that."
It's beginning to happen. Plus, he's gotten a lot of help from a willing co-conspirator in second-year offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, who has spent the time he's been back at West Virginia giving that area of the Mountaineer offense a Michael Jackson-level facelift.
Wesco spent his first year in Morgantown as the only tight end in the program so he had to go and meet with the fullbacks. They may have taken him in as one of their own, but Wesco was still the lone wolf of the pack.
"I was doing a lot of the Eli (Wellman) role that he did last year, and I wasn't comfortable with it," Wesco explained. "But now I'm way more comfortable with it because I understand what to do and things like that, so it's much easier for me."
He also spent some of his time with the offensive tackles trying to be a mini-Yodny Cajuste, but he's finally got some other guys here just like him.
There's Miami transfer Jovani Haskins and a couple of promising freshmen in T.J. Banks from nearby East Allegheny High in North Versailles, Pennsylvania, and Mike O'Laughlin from farther away Fenwick High in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with Wesco being their elder statesman.
"He's been killing the runs and the lifts all summer, and we've had a lot of the younger tight ends come in this summer, and he's done a great job of being a big brother to them," senior wide receiver David Sills V noted.
Those guys' reasons for coming to West Virginia are far different than Wesco's. Yet simply having more of them around guarantees a more prominent role for the tight ends in West Virginia's offense this year.
Make no mistake, the others have bright futures in this offense, but Wesco is the guy right now. Poll anybody in the Mountaineer locker room and you will get a consensus that Trevon Wesco was one of the offensive standouts last spring.
He certainly looks the part this summer, a chiseled 6-foot-4-inch, 270-pound specimen who runs like a 225-pounder and moves people around like a 300-pounder.
Incidentally, this 270-pounder can also line up just about anywhere on the field … attached, unattached, in the backfield you name it … which is something everyone will be watching.
Before, it was a mathematical certainty that opposing defensive coordinators spent no time whatsoever worrying about a West Virginia tight end catching a football in the Mountaineer offense. That would be about the equivalent of the city of Miami budgeting a substantial amount of money for snow removal.
Doing so this year could come with some consequences, however.
"I didn't realize how talented he really is," senior quarterback Will Grier admitted. "He had a really, really impressive spring and we're excited about his potential and what he can do."
Grier was asked to give some examples of what Wesco did this spring to warrant that type of praise. Grier wanted to take the bait.
"You can pull up the film and watch," he finally answered. "He shows up on run plays and just gets after it. If you ask around the locker room, they will tell you the same thing - he has turned into a difference maker. The defensive guys and the offensive guys alike will tell you the same thing."
So, will that mean more flying footballs headed in Trevon Wesco's direction this fall?
Five? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty?
Just having a couple of passes thrown his way will double what he caught last year. Two, five, 10, 20, 25 passes … it doesn't matter to Wesco.
"I'm really not worried about it," he said. "I'm worried about the team. You've just got to buy into the program and if your number gets called, then you've got to show up."
His teammates are confident that he's going to show up this fall.
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