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The Left Is Best for West Virginia’s McKivitz

Senior-to-be taking over for Cajuste

MORGANTOWN — When senior-to-be Colton McKivitz elected to return to West Virginia University for his final season of eligibility the Jacobsburg, Ohio native knew there would be some changes.

Dana Holgorsen and his staff were gone, and the Union Local High School product had to deal with Troy University head coach Neal Brown and his offensive line coach Matt Moore.

The first change was an expected one, however.

ìItís not odd,î McKivitz explained when asked about his move from right tackle to left tackle. ìItís just re-learning that what you had, and now, itís getting the little things down there for right now.

ìThatís the focus is instead of being a pivot from right to left, now itís more of a focus on left and most of my drills are going to be left. So, Iím going to be focused on learning that technique and honing in on what I need to work on in left.î

And, itís not as if the 312-pounder has never played the position before.

WVU was taking on Missouri in its season opener at Mylan Puskar Stadium when then-starting left tackle Yodny Cajuste went down with a leg injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the year.

In stepped McKivitz, who played in all 13 games that season and started 10 of them, and the then-redshirt freshman became part of an offensive front that ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 in fewest sacks allowed and paved the way for the offense to average 485.5 yards per game of total offense (No. 17 nationally).

ìPractice is, well offense is, pretty much the same, but with Coach (Matt) Moore, technique is key on his part, and I think we spend most of our practices teaching that technique and working on boards and shoots and just going over the basic fundamentals of first step and driving guys off the ball.

ìI think thatís been the biggest part of what the change has been, that focus on your technique, so far.î

And, the results — especially for McKivitz — have been noticed by Moore.

ìI think heís one of our best O-linemen, and I think you have to put him at left tackle,î Moore said. ìHe had some trouble today with a set just because it was the first time, heís really done it live. But I think he could be a really good left tackle in this league.î

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