Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
WVU’s Moore Developing O-Line Depth For 2021 Season
April 19, 2021 04:00 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Matt Moore said a word this morning that we have rarely heard him utter in the 25-odd months he's been working with West Virginia University's offensive linemen – depth.
Come again, coach?
Offensive line depth?
Believe it or not, that's what he said following Monday morning's spring football practice. After two years of band-aids, duct tape, Gorilla Glue and some smoke and mirrors, West Virginia is finally getting to a place where it can do some planning instead of scrambling on the offensive line.
Back in 2019, during the first officiated scrimmage of the spring, the Mountaineer defensive line resembled German Panzers plowing through Poland during World War II against Moore's offensive line. Poor Leddie Brown had to run like Walter Payton just to get back to the line of scrimmage!
But some outstanding recruiting and lots of hard work through player development got the offensive line to a better place last year, and now, it's finally becoming a position of strength on the West Virginia football team.
During the first officiated scrimmage two weeks ago, running back Tony Mathis Jr. and wide receiver Isaiah Esdale made a couple of long touchdowns because the plays were perfectly blocked at the point of attack.
Neither guy got touched.
"The communication has been really good with (James) Gmiter, Jordan White and (Zach) Frazier in the middle," Moore said. "Gmiter has gotten a lot of snaps now; Frazier is a really good football guy and so is Jordan White. They are doing a really nice job of understanding what the defense does and starting the play with the proper pad level and playing hard. It's been nice. We've had some plays that have fit up."
The first group has been made up of Gmiter and White at the guard positions, sophomore Brandon Yates and Virginia Tech transfer Doug Nester at tackle and emerging sophomore Frazier playing center. That's five guys with quite a bit of college football experience running around out there.
Throw in some of the guys working with the twos, such as Parker Moorer, John Hughes, Nick Malone, Tairiq Stewart and Tyler Connolly, and you're looking at possibly West Virginia's deepest offensive line since 2016 when it won 10 games and averaged 228.4 yards per game on the ground.
Virginia transfer Ja'Quay Hubbard has worked hard getting into great shape and is getting his shoulder back to a place where it can withstand frequent contact, and the coaching staff is extremely high on its two offensive line signees, Wyatt Milum from Spring Valley High and Tomas Rimac from Brunswick, Ohio.
Therefore, the odds are extremely high that Moore can get at least three more players ready to go from this group. As you can see, this offensive line is in a much, much better place than it was last year, and it's a 180-degree turn around from 2019.
Moore said the goal right now is to cross-train his guys to learn multiple positions.
"What I've tried to do here is not just develop left tackles or left guards, I've really worked hard to develop guys that can play at least four of the five positions. Center is a little different because you've got to be able to snap," he explained. "Now, I feel like I have guys I can move around because if they're twitchy enough and long enough to play left tackle, they can play anywhere else. If you're good enough to play right tackle, you can play right tackle and right guard and left guard. That's the way we've tried to do this thing to get this."
Moore noted that he has been constantly moving players around, particularly his right guards and tackles.
"That's really helped the depth so we don't have to go out there and have two at each position," he said. "I've got my top five and if I can find three more - one that can snap and the other two that can play right and left guard and tackle - I feel good about having some depth. Really, right now the first two (groups) we can function better than we've ever functioned with a second group before."
There were not many run-throughs and blown assignments with the twos during last Saturday's scrimmage, which is an encouraging sign.
"They weren't killing the play and were giving our skill guys a chance to make a play," Moore said.
Training and developing guys to play multiple positions is really the way to go in college football these days. We're seeing it on defense now with linebackers and safeties becoming basically hybrid players, and we're also seeing it with offensive linemen. Years ago, it was unusual for offensive line coaches to cross train tackles and guards. A player was either a guard or a tackle with a backup behind him.
Cross training offensive lineman was really an indicator of poor depth.
But today, unless you're Alabama or Clemson, with players transferring as frequently as they are it's virtually impossible to have two guys ready to go at all five offensive line positions. So having them become capable of playing multiple positions has become the solution.
"It's so hard to get to that 85 number now with transfers and people leaving, so you're not as consistent with having 10 guys," Moore admitted. "It's hard to keep 10 good o-linemen because one of those second five are going to be good enough to play somewhere else, and they're going to leave. That's the way it's getting to be. It's hard to keep two good quarterbacks, let alone four like you used to. That's just the world we live in."
Something else that's helped this group of offensive linemen grow and develop is having some really good defensive linemen on the other side of the ball. On the inside, two Freshman All-Americans are going against each other in Frazier and Akheem Mesidor, and on the outside Nester has to figure out a way to block Dante Stills.
There are a bunch of Big 12 offensive linemen out there that will tell you blocking Stills isn't easy!
"It's like, 'Hey Doug, these guys are constantly working on ways to beat you. You're not going to be able to go out there and win the same way every time,'" Moore said. "That's what makes you a good player when you are going against good people that are competing and trying to figure out ways to beat you.
"With Mesidor and Frazier, you're talking about two Freshman All-Americans going against each other every day. Mesidor has been playing a lot of nose and inside stuff, and that's what I keep telling my guys because one is going to beat the other," Moore added. "Then, they've got to go back and figure it out and fix it."
Indeed, Moore's group continues to grow and mature.
"That first year, it was helter skelter and people were running through constantly. I don't think Leddie ever trusted the guys we had out there, but with this group - through recruiting and coaching and just continually working every day - we're getting better and we're building that trust," Moore explained. "That's when you have some good offenses that are able to run the ball."
Spring work will continue on Wednesday and Friday leading into Saturday's Gold-Blue Game taking place inside Milan Puskar Stadium at 1 p.m. Tickets are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office and can be purchased online by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Come again, coach?
Offensive line depth?
Believe it or not, that's what he said following Monday morning's spring football practice. After two years of band-aids, duct tape, Gorilla Glue and some smoke and mirrors, West Virginia is finally getting to a place where it can do some planning instead of scrambling on the offensive line.
Back in 2019, during the first officiated scrimmage of the spring, the Mountaineer defensive line resembled German Panzers plowing through Poland during World War II against Moore's offensive line. Poor Leddie Brown had to run like Walter Payton just to get back to the line of scrimmage!
But some outstanding recruiting and lots of hard work through player development got the offensive line to a better place last year, and now, it's finally becoming a position of strength on the West Virginia football team.
During the first officiated scrimmage two weeks ago, running back Tony Mathis Jr. and wide receiver Isaiah Esdale made a couple of long touchdowns because the plays were perfectly blocked at the point of attack.
Neither guy got touched.
"The communication has been really good with (James) Gmiter, Jordan White and (Zach) Frazier in the middle," Moore said. "Gmiter has gotten a lot of snaps now; Frazier is a really good football guy and so is Jordan White. They are doing a really nice job of understanding what the defense does and starting the play with the proper pad level and playing hard. It's been nice. We've had some plays that have fit up."
The first group has been made up of Gmiter and White at the guard positions, sophomore Brandon Yates and Virginia Tech transfer Doug Nester at tackle and emerging sophomore Frazier playing center. That's five guys with quite a bit of college football experience running around out there.
Throw in some of the guys working with the twos, such as Parker Moorer, John Hughes, Nick Malone, Tairiq Stewart and Tyler Connolly, and you're looking at possibly West Virginia's deepest offensive line since 2016 when it won 10 games and averaged 228.4 yards per game on the ground.
Virginia transfer Ja'Quay Hubbard has worked hard getting into great shape and is getting his shoulder back to a place where it can withstand frequent contact, and the coaching staff is extremely high on its two offensive line signees, Wyatt Milum from Spring Valley High and Tomas Rimac from Brunswick, Ohio.
Therefore, the odds are extremely high that Moore can get at least three more players ready to go from this group. As you can see, this offensive line is in a much, much better place than it was last year, and it's a 180-degree turn around from 2019.
Moore said the goal right now is to cross-train his guys to learn multiple positions.
"What I've tried to do here is not just develop left tackles or left guards, I've really worked hard to develop guys that can play at least four of the five positions. Center is a little different because you've got to be able to snap," he explained. "Now, I feel like I have guys I can move around because if they're twitchy enough and long enough to play left tackle, they can play anywhere else. If you're good enough to play right tackle, you can play right tackle and right guard and left guard. That's the way we've tried to do this thing to get this."
Moore noted that he has been constantly moving players around, particularly his right guards and tackles.
"That's really helped the depth so we don't have to go out there and have two at each position," he said. "I've got my top five and if I can find three more - one that can snap and the other two that can play right and left guard and tackle - I feel good about having some depth. Really, right now the first two (groups) we can function better than we've ever functioned with a second group before."
There were not many run-throughs and blown assignments with the twos during last Saturday's scrimmage, which is an encouraging sign.
"They weren't killing the play and were giving our skill guys a chance to make a play," Moore said.
Training and developing guys to play multiple positions is really the way to go in college football these days. We're seeing it on defense now with linebackers and safeties becoming basically hybrid players, and we're also seeing it with offensive linemen. Years ago, it was unusual for offensive line coaches to cross train tackles and guards. A player was either a guard or a tackle with a backup behind him.
Cross training offensive lineman was really an indicator of poor depth.
But today, unless you're Alabama or Clemson, with players transferring as frequently as they are it's virtually impossible to have two guys ready to go at all five offensive line positions. So having them become capable of playing multiple positions has become the solution.
"It's so hard to get to that 85 number now with transfers and people leaving, so you're not as consistent with having 10 guys," Moore admitted. "It's hard to keep 10 good o-linemen because one of those second five are going to be good enough to play somewhere else, and they're going to leave. That's the way it's getting to be. It's hard to keep two good quarterbacks, let alone four like you used to. That's just the world we live in."
Something else that's helped this group of offensive linemen grow and develop is having some really good defensive linemen on the other side of the ball. On the inside, two Freshman All-Americans are going against each other in Frazier and Akheem Mesidor, and on the outside Nester has to figure out a way to block Dante Stills.There are a bunch of Big 12 offensive linemen out there that will tell you blocking Stills isn't easy!
"It's like, 'Hey Doug, these guys are constantly working on ways to beat you. You're not going to be able to go out there and win the same way every time,'" Moore said. "That's what makes you a good player when you are going against good people that are competing and trying to figure out ways to beat you.
"With Mesidor and Frazier, you're talking about two Freshman All-Americans going against each other every day. Mesidor has been playing a lot of nose and inside stuff, and that's what I keep telling my guys because one is going to beat the other," Moore added. "Then, they've got to go back and figure it out and fix it."
Indeed, Moore's group continues to grow and mature.
"That first year, it was helter skelter and people were running through constantly. I don't think Leddie ever trusted the guys we had out there, but with this group - through recruiting and coaching and just continually working every day - we're getting better and we're building that trust," Moore explained. "That's when you have some good offenses that are able to run the ball."
Spring work will continue on Wednesday and Friday leading into Saturday's Gold-Blue Game taking place inside Milan Puskar Stadium at 1 p.m. Tickets are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office and can be purchased online by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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