WVU’s Offensive Line Displaying Toughness
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MORGANTOWN -- Over the years since Don Nehlen came to Morgantown to put together a Hall of Fame coaching career at West Virginia and through Rich Rodriguez's term in office and into the Bill Stewart reign, the Mountaineers were known for their toughness.
Over those three decades opponents might have beaten WVU but come Sunday morning they normally had to make the first stop after getting out of bed at the medicine cabinet to find something to ease the aches and pains that had been inflicted upon them.
The idea was that you may outscore them -- and when they had talents like Major Harris, Marc Bulger, Pat White or Steve Slaton outscoring them didn't often happen -- but you would not out tough them.
Coach Neal Brown let it be known back in the spring that creating a physical team would be a major goal this year.
While no firm conclusions can be drawn this early in the season with victories against an overmatched Duquesne team and Pitt in the Backyard Brawl to offset a road loss to No. 7 Penn State, there is no reason to believe WVU would play the year out as if each game would be played like a "Rock 'em, Sock 'em" robot battle.
No statistics bear that out more than two that Brown revealed Monday following tape analysis of Saturday's 17-6 Backyard Brawl victory over Pitt.
In that game All-American center Zach Frazier had 14 knockdown blocks and his partner at right guard, Doug Nester, had nine.
Those are nearly inconceivable numbers, especially within the framework of having run just 61 plays.
Certainly, the toughness displayed by the offensive line made it possible to survive the loss of quarterback Garrett Greene. While the game plan had been set up to run, to rush 51 times and throw 10 passes was not really what they had in mind.
But it became a necessity and WVU took it on as a challenge.
"There's nothing better than being able to run the ball even though they know you are going to run the ball," Nester said. "That's the best feeling in the world when they are loading the box and we are still able to produce yardage."
Certainly, the running game is made easier when the defensive front is being moved back or knocked over, but it helps, too, when you can run CJ Donaldson at them 18 times for 102 yards, displaying power, vision and speed.
At 240 pounds, he seldom is brought down by first contact and often sheds tacklers as easily as a snake sheds its skin.
His 102 yards in the game were yards built through toughness on his part and on the blockers ahead of him, whether it was Frazier and Nester knocking people down or wide receivers keeping the secondary off of him.
"We won the football game because we strained, we were physical and I thought we out-toughed those guys," offensive coordinator Chad Scott said.
"Great teams do what they do, even though the other team knows that's what they've got to do to win ball games," Scott went on. "Particularly when we lost Garrett, they knew we weren't going to be able to pass as much as we wanted to. But we were still able to control the clock, win in the trenches and run the football, which is what great teams do."
Brown's history shows that he believes in a far more balanced attack than the one that was present against Pitt.
As evidence of that we offer up that over the past two years, WVU has run the 897 times and thrown it 872 times. That's rushing the ball 50.7% of the time and throwing it 49.2%.
They were neither fish nor fowl, but now they are a power offense. They use a tight end, then run some power formations.
They scream out, "Here we come. Stop us if you can."
They no longer think pass first.
"There were a couple of times where Coach Brown said, 'What's a good drive starter? What's a good pass play to get things going?' Everyone across the board said the best pass play was to hand the ball off to a running back."
"To win with that kind of physicality was awesome," Scott said. "We've had times where we've played like that before but not consistently for the whole game. That was the first time from start to finish, no doubt."
But it hasn't only been on offense where the level of physicality has reached new heights. The Mountaineers have averaged 7.7 tackles for loss a game, which ranks 21st nationally.
True, it's a number inflated by the Duquesne game, but if anyone saw the pressure WVU put on Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec, that number reflects a strong pass rush.
The defensive front came into the year in a rebuilding mode but by now WVU has developed its defensive line to the point that Brown believes he has as many as 10 defensive linemen he can rely on in games.
To move forward in Big 12 play, beginning with Saturday's 3:30 p.m. home game against Texas Tech, that kind of physicality is a necessity.
The Red Raiders have beaten WVU all four times Neal Brown has faced them, and even though they have had a 1-2 start against a schedule that is as tough as the 2-1 Mountaineers have faced, Tech is a slim favorite.