Photo by: Caleb Saunders
WVU’s Young and Improving Offensive Line Bodes Well For Future
November 17, 2020 03:36 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For years, it seems like West Virginia has been playing the whack-a-mole game with its offensive line. When the Mountaineers fixed one problem, two more problems usually popped up someplace else.
Do you remember when Bill Stewart took over for Rich Rodriguez in 2008? The big thing Stew said he wanted to do back then was improve the team's offensive line depth.
Four years later, when Dana Holgorsen began his unusual head-coach-in-waiting arrangement, he talked about getting more top-quality offensive linemen into the fold.
Nine years after that, we've been listening to Neal Brown saying some of the same things.
It's almost as if every new West Virginia football coach wakes up at a bed and breakfast at 6 a.m. and the Sonny & Cher song "I Got You, Babe" comes on the clock radio.
Yet just as Bill Murray once did in the movie "Groundhog Day," Brown might be getting closer to taking that annoying clock radio and smashing it to the ground. For the first time in a long time, there could finally be some light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel when it comes to West Virginia's offensive line depth.
Have you been noticing where West Virginia has been running the football a lot lately? To its left, where true freshman Zach Frazier plays left guard and redshirt freshman Brandon Yates plays left tackle.
A week ago, we wrote about the unprecedented impact Frazier is making as a true freshman starting offensive lineman, most likely the first one to ever do so in WVU history.
Yates, a Middleton, Delaware, resident who came to WVU by way of Liberty Baptist Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada, is getting better by the week, according to veteran offensive line coach Matt Moore.
"He was a big basketball player in high school, and you can see that athleticism and balance out there on the field," Moore said of Yates. "He's had multiple challenges going back to Kansas State with the (Wyatt) Hubert kid being a really, really good defensive end and then versus Texas with (Joseph Ossai) being a really good player. The same thing with TCU, both of their defensive ends were really good players, and I enjoy watching (Brandon) grow and get better."
And anybody who has a Twitter account by now has probably seen redshirt freshman Parker Moorer's block on defensive end Ochaun Mathis late in last Saturday's 24-6 TCU win.
The Charlotte resident gave Mathis a warm hello by pushing him about 6 yards down the field with the type of aggressiveness and nastiness you rarely see from a player so young. An embarrassed Mathis didn't like it, and he had to be restrained by the umpire afterward.
Moore yesterday said some of Moorer's nastiness has been coming out during the team's Monday night football scrimmages with the younger players.
"He has been improving tremendously," Moore said. "He's getting more comfortable at his position, and he was ready and with (junior) John Hughes being dinged up and not being full speed, he got a chance to step in there in the second half and played really well and graded out really well.
"He had a couple of knock downs and played really hard with a lot of passion," Moore added. "He just really came out of his shell and showed what he can be, so I'm really excited about him down the road continuing to improve as the season goes on."
Actually, Moore has a lot about which to be excited. He's got three freshman players with pretty high ceilings to work with for the next three years.
Sophomore James Gmiter, who some labeled West Virginia's best returning offensive line in 2020, is still around, too.
Thirteen-time starter Briason Mays still has more than half of his college career ahead of him, and Hughes has at least one more season of eligibility remaining in 2021.
The offensive line two-deep for last Saturday's TCU game was also sprinkled with some other young players such as redshirt freshman Nick Malone from right here in Morgantown, Largo, Maryland, true freshman Jordan White and West Portsmouth, Ohio, sophomore Blaine Scott.
"I don't think we're at a point where we want to be or where I envision us getting to, but we're better," Neal Brown said earlier today. "That credit needs to go to Matt Moore. I think he's done a nice job teaching and growing them fundamentally. "
The offensive line is also getting a lot out of Travis Trickett's two tight ends, Mike O'Laughlin and T.J. Banks. At least two of Leddie Brown's three long runs last Saturday were the result of the tight ends outflanking the TCU defense and opening up running space for Brown to do his thing.
"(The tight end) position has really improved tremendously since last year with Mike O'Laughlin and T.J. Banks," Moore pointed out. "Both of those guys got considerably stronger and both of them have really learned how to block well. Coach Trickett has done a really good job with them."
Moore continued, "We use (the tight ends) a lot in our motion packages and a lot of our shift stuff, and they've gotten better each week at being able to fit up. We spend a lot of time with tackle-tight end work with coach Trickett making sure we get what we want with the first we want and the angles we want.
"That's been a huge part of our run game using those tight ends, and we keep expanding each week on how we use them trying to get them the ball down the field," Moore said. "Those guys are kind of the unsung heroes of our offense jelling our run and pass game, and they've made a huge difference in us being able to move the ball."
Look at what Brown is doing this season with a competent group of blockers in front of him that also include senior center Chase Behrndt and senior right guard Michael Brown - 165 carries for 897 yards and nine touchdowns with two regular season games remaining.
Last year, when Brown managed just 367 yards on 107 attempts, the first guy to usually meet him once he broke the team huddle was an opposing defensive player. Now, Brown is usually meeting them well beyond the line of scrimmage with a full head of steam.
The entire offense is getting a full head of steam, thanks to some young and improving offensive linemen with bright futures ahead of them.
"For those three young guys - Zach Frazier, Brandon Yates and Parker Moorer - the thing all three of those guys have in common is they love football and it's really, really important to them," Brown said. "I wish every scholarship player we had was consumed with football and thinking about it when they are not here, but that's honestly not the case.
"Those three guys it's really important to them," Brown continued. "From a preparation standpoint they work at it - they watch their opponents, they take coaching and I think that gives you a real chance. I'm excited about them and I think we've got to continue to grow them because they are going to be in our program for a long time developing."
Moore said there are more on the way.
"It's really exciting to see some of the youth we have, but also with our recruiting class coming in, we're going to get even better," he predicted.
Perhaps pretty soon, all of those moles are going to quit popping their heads out of their holes.
Do you remember when Bill Stewart took over for Rich Rodriguez in 2008? The big thing Stew said he wanted to do back then was improve the team's offensive line depth.
Four years later, when Dana Holgorsen began his unusual head-coach-in-waiting arrangement, he talked about getting more top-quality offensive linemen into the fold.
Nine years after that, we've been listening to Neal Brown saying some of the same things.
It's almost as if every new West Virginia football coach wakes up at a bed and breakfast at 6 a.m. and the Sonny & Cher song "I Got You, Babe" comes on the clock radio.
Yet just as Bill Murray once did in the movie "Groundhog Day," Brown might be getting closer to taking that annoying clock radio and smashing it to the ground. For the first time in a long time, there could finally be some light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel when it comes to West Virginia's offensive line depth.
Have you been noticing where West Virginia has been running the football a lot lately? To its left, where true freshman Zach Frazier plays left guard and redshirt freshman Brandon Yates plays left tackle.A week ago, we wrote about the unprecedented impact Frazier is making as a true freshman starting offensive lineman, most likely the first one to ever do so in WVU history.
Yates, a Middleton, Delaware, resident who came to WVU by way of Liberty Baptist Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada, is getting better by the week, according to veteran offensive line coach Matt Moore.
"He was a big basketball player in high school, and you can see that athleticism and balance out there on the field," Moore said of Yates. "He's had multiple challenges going back to Kansas State with the (Wyatt) Hubert kid being a really, really good defensive end and then versus Texas with (Joseph Ossai) being a really good player. The same thing with TCU, both of their defensive ends were really good players, and I enjoy watching (Brandon) grow and get better."
And anybody who has a Twitter account by now has probably seen redshirt freshman Parker Moorer's block on defensive end Ochaun Mathis late in last Saturday's 24-6 TCU win.The Charlotte resident gave Mathis a warm hello by pushing him about 6 yards down the field with the type of aggressiveness and nastiness you rarely see from a player so young. An embarrassed Mathis didn't like it, and he had to be restrained by the umpire afterward.
Moore yesterday said some of Moorer's nastiness has been coming out during the team's Monday night football scrimmages with the younger players.
"He has been improving tremendously," Moore said. "He's getting more comfortable at his position, and he was ready and with (junior) John Hughes being dinged up and not being full speed, he got a chance to step in there in the second half and played really well and graded out really well.
"He had a couple of knock downs and played really hard with a lot of passion," Moore added. "He just really came out of his shell and showed what he can be, so I'm really excited about him down the road continuing to improve as the season goes on."
Actually, Moore has a lot about which to be excited. He's got three freshman players with pretty high ceilings to work with for the next three years.
Sophomore James Gmiter, who some labeled West Virginia's best returning offensive line in 2020, is still around, too.
Thirteen-time starter Briason Mays still has more than half of his college career ahead of him, and Hughes has at least one more season of eligibility remaining in 2021.
The offensive line two-deep for last Saturday's TCU game was also sprinkled with some other young players such as redshirt freshman Nick Malone from right here in Morgantown, Largo, Maryland, true freshman Jordan White and West Portsmouth, Ohio, sophomore Blaine Scott.
"I don't think we're at a point where we want to be or where I envision us getting to, but we're better," Neal Brown said earlier today. "That credit needs to go to Matt Moore. I think he's done a nice job teaching and growing them fundamentally. "
The offensive line is also getting a lot out of Travis Trickett's two tight ends, Mike O'Laughlin and T.J. Banks. At least two of Leddie Brown's three long runs last Saturday were the result of the tight ends outflanking the TCU defense and opening up running space for Brown to do his thing.
"(The tight end) position has really improved tremendously since last year with Mike O'Laughlin and T.J. Banks," Moore pointed out. "Both of those guys got considerably stronger and both of them have really learned how to block well. Coach Trickett has done a really good job with them."
Moore continued, "We use (the tight ends) a lot in our motion packages and a lot of our shift stuff, and they've gotten better each week at being able to fit up. We spend a lot of time with tackle-tight end work with coach Trickett making sure we get what we want with the first we want and the angles we want.
"That's been a huge part of our run game using those tight ends, and we keep expanding each week on how we use them trying to get them the ball down the field," Moore said. "Those guys are kind of the unsung heroes of our offense jelling our run and pass game, and they've made a huge difference in us being able to move the ball."
Look at what Brown is doing this season with a competent group of blockers in front of him that also include senior center Chase Behrndt and senior right guard Michael Brown - 165 carries for 897 yards and nine touchdowns with two regular season games remaining.
Last year, when Brown managed just 367 yards on 107 attempts, the first guy to usually meet him once he broke the team huddle was an opposing defensive player. Now, Brown is usually meeting them well beyond the line of scrimmage with a full head of steam.
The entire offense is getting a full head of steam, thanks to some young and improving offensive linemen with bright futures ahead of them.
"For those three young guys - Zach Frazier, Brandon Yates and Parker Moorer - the thing all three of those guys have in common is they love football and it's really, really important to them," Brown said. "I wish every scholarship player we had was consumed with football and thinking about it when they are not here, but that's honestly not the case.
"Those three guys it's really important to them," Brown continued. "From a preparation standpoint they work at it - they watch their opponents, they take coaching and I think that gives you a real chance. I'm excited about them and I think we've got to continue to grow them because they are going to be in our program for a long time developing."
Moore said there are more on the way.
"It's really exciting to see some of the youth we have, but also with our recruiting class coming in, we're going to get even better," he predicted.
Perhaps pretty soon, all of those moles are going to quit popping their heads out of their holes.
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