Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Sills’ Move Highlights Importance of Center Position
August 19, 2019 12:12 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Many years ago, I remember listening to the late Mike Jacobs talk to a group of Mountaineer Athletic Club supporters about the importance of the center position.
Specifically, he made reference to having a solid offensive apex, which meant being strong in the middle.
That entails having good, consistent play at quarterback, of course, and it also means having good, consistent play at center - the only two positions in football that handle the ball on every play.
Football is really no different than baseball in that regard. We've heard it many times before: the best baseball teams are usually the ones that are the strongest up the middle at pitcher, catcher, shortstop and centerfield, where the baseball is most frequently handled.
Well, it's usually that way in football, too. How many good football teams can you recall that didn't have good, consistent quarterback AND center play? Quarterback, for sure, but go back through the years and examine some of West Virginia's strongest football teams and you will discover that all of them had outstanding centers, too.
Some centers were considered among the best in the country: Bob Orders in 1953 and Tyler Orlosky in 2016, while others like Dickie Roberts in 1969, Al Gluchoski in 1975, Kevin Koken in 1988 and Mike Dent in 2007 had their best seasons during those years.
It was a similar deal with Dale Williams, now Purdue's offensive line coach, who was the guy up front in 1993 who helped clear a path to the 1994 Sugar Bowl.
The best of them all, 2006 Rimington Award winner Dan Mozes, was one of the catalysts to the enormous success that West Virginia enjoyed in the mid-2000s when it finished in the top 10 three straight years and won Sugar, Gator and Fiesta Bowls.
Pat White, Steve Slaton and Owen Schmitt are the players most frequently associated with that run, naturally, but if you dig a little deeper you will realize that it all began when Mozes was moved from guard to center prior to the 2005 Maryland game.
That's when the Mountaineers went from being good to being really good, and that is what immediately came to mind when we learned last week that Josh Sills was asked to move from guard to center.
Don't forget, you've got to be good at center before you can be good at the other four offensive line positions, including left tackle. The center is the guy lined up right in front of the quarterback and if he's inconsistent then everything is inconsistent.
Good coaching is about identifying your best guys and getting them in the most important places on the field and to me, that's what the Sills move demonstrates.
For Sills, it doesn't matter where he plays just as long as he plays.
"It's one of those things where I'll play wherever coach (Matt) Moore and coach (Neal) Brown tell me to play, or put me," he said last week. "At the end of the day the more positions you can play the better off you are."
When you think about it, Sills is really a natural fit for the center position because he's such an exceptional athlete for his size.
"He's a really athletic kid," Moore mentioned. "He can play baseball, he kicks field goals and does a lot of things. The more athletic you are the easier it is to snap."
Football players can be creatures of habit and being asked to do something different at the snap of a finger can sometimes be very unsettling.
Yet when Moore approached Sills last Monday before practice and told him to start snapping, he started snapping.
"They just wanted to try something different," Sills said. "I was like, 'OK, it doesn't bother me.' I've been really supportive with Chase (Behrndt) because he's going to have to be a guy for us this year. He obviously played some last year and he has to mentally know that he can play every game and he can play a lot of snaps.
"I've been really positive toward him and all of the guys because at this point we don't have much depth," Sills explained. "They're still trying to find those guys and we're just trying to be positive toward all of them to let them know, 'Hey, you should be here and you can play here.'"
And in order to get those other four positions where they need to be you first have to start with center. It's the foundation of the offensive line, and really, the entire offense.
After all, center is the one position on the football field everyone watches before the ball is snapped, which is just fine with Sills.
"My dad always said, 'Do you want to be the guy up in the bottom of the seventh inning, two outs, bases loaded and it's a three-two count or do you want to be the kid sitting at the very end of the dugout praying it's not you up to bat?'" he explained.
Sills obviously wants the bat in his hands, or in this case, the ball in his hands.
"I don't know if it's permanent or temporary, I'm just a guy who is going to go out there and play where they tell me to play," Sills explained. "Just one day at a time. That's what my dad taught me and I've always done that since I've been younger."
West Virginia is scheduled to have practices today and tomorrow prior to the first day of the fall semester on Wednesday, Aug. 21. Head coach Neal Brown is slated to visit with the media Tuesday afternoon following practice.
Tickets are still available for West Virginia's season opener against James Madison on Saturday, Aug. 31, and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Specifically, he made reference to having a solid offensive apex, which meant being strong in the middle.
That entails having good, consistent play at quarterback, of course, and it also means having good, consistent play at center - the only two positions in football that handle the ball on every play.
Football is really no different than baseball in that regard. We've heard it many times before: the best baseball teams are usually the ones that are the strongest up the middle at pitcher, catcher, shortstop and centerfield, where the baseball is most frequently handled.
Well, it's usually that way in football, too. How many good football teams can you recall that didn't have good, consistent quarterback AND center play? Quarterback, for sure, but go back through the years and examine some of West Virginia's strongest football teams and you will discover that all of them had outstanding centers, too.
Some centers were considered among the best in the country: Bob Orders in 1953 and Tyler Orlosky in 2016, while others like Dickie Roberts in 1969, Al Gluchoski in 1975, Kevin Koken in 1988 and Mike Dent in 2007 had their best seasons during those years.
It was a similar deal with Dale Williams, now Purdue's offensive line coach, who was the guy up front in 1993 who helped clear a path to the 1994 Sugar Bowl.
The best of them all, 2006 Rimington Award winner Dan Mozes, was one of the catalysts to the enormous success that West Virginia enjoyed in the mid-2000s when it finished in the top 10 three straight years and won Sugar, Gator and Fiesta Bowls.
Pat White, Steve Slaton and Owen Schmitt are the players most frequently associated with that run, naturally, but if you dig a little deeper you will realize that it all began when Mozes was moved from guard to center prior to the 2005 Maryland game.That's when the Mountaineers went from being good to being really good, and that is what immediately came to mind when we learned last week that Josh Sills was asked to move from guard to center.
Don't forget, you've got to be good at center before you can be good at the other four offensive line positions, including left tackle. The center is the guy lined up right in front of the quarterback and if he's inconsistent then everything is inconsistent.
Good coaching is about identifying your best guys and getting them in the most important places on the field and to me, that's what the Sills move demonstrates.
For Sills, it doesn't matter where he plays just as long as he plays.
"It's one of those things where I'll play wherever coach (Matt) Moore and coach (Neal) Brown tell me to play, or put me," he said last week. "At the end of the day the more positions you can play the better off you are."
When you think about it, Sills is really a natural fit for the center position because he's such an exceptional athlete for his size.
"He's a really athletic kid," Moore mentioned. "He can play baseball, he kicks field goals and does a lot of things. The more athletic you are the easier it is to snap."
Football players can be creatures of habit and being asked to do something different at the snap of a finger can sometimes be very unsettling.
Yet when Moore approached Sills last Monday before practice and told him to start snapping, he started snapping.
"They just wanted to try something different," Sills said. "I was like, 'OK, it doesn't bother me.' I've been really supportive with Chase (Behrndt) because he's going to have to be a guy for us this year. He obviously played some last year and he has to mentally know that he can play every game and he can play a lot of snaps.
"I've been really positive toward him and all of the guys because at this point we don't have much depth," Sills explained. "They're still trying to find those guys and we're just trying to be positive toward all of them to let them know, 'Hey, you should be here and you can play here.'"
And in order to get those other four positions where they need to be you first have to start with center. It's the foundation of the offensive line, and really, the entire offense.
After all, center is the one position on the football field everyone watches before the ball is snapped, which is just fine with Sills.
"My dad always said, 'Do you want to be the guy up in the bottom of the seventh inning, two outs, bases loaded and it's a three-two count or do you want to be the kid sitting at the very end of the dugout praying it's not you up to bat?'" he explained.
Sills obviously wants the bat in his hands, or in this case, the ball in his hands.
"I don't know if it's permanent or temporary, I'm just a guy who is going to go out there and play where they tell me to play," Sills explained. "Just one day at a time. That's what my dad taught me and I've always done that since I've been younger."
West Virginia is scheduled to have practices today and tomorrow prior to the first day of the fall semester on Wednesday, Aug. 21. Head coach Neal Brown is slated to visit with the media Tuesday afternoon following practice.
Tickets are still available for West Virginia's season opener against James Madison on Saturday, Aug. 31, and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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