MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With the amount of juggling the interior of the West Virginia offensive line has done over the first month of the season, the fact tackles Colton McKivitz and Kelby Wickline haven’t been talked about much is certainly a good thing for the Mountaineers.
McKivitz has been heralded the best player on the Mountaineers offense by coach Neal Brown, and Wickline, after a rough first game against James Madison, as been Mr. Consistent the last three games.
“From last year to this year, one of the most improved players on our roster,” Brown said of Wickline. “He’s been very solid. He played really well against Kansas and played well against North Carolina State.”
Both guard spots and center have seen a constant rotation because of injury, illness and underperformance, so stability on the outside has been a lift for West Virginia, which will host Texas at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
For Wickline, though, this weekend may be a little more special than most. When he came out of high school in 2015, his father, Joe Wickline, was an assistant coach at Texas, so he was around the program in Austin for a bit.
The eldest Wickline joined Dana Holgorsen’s staff at West Virginia as the offensive line coach in 2016. In the meantime, Kelby spent a year at Texas-San Antonio and another at Jones County College in Mississippi before enrolling at WVU to be coached by his dad.
Under his father’s tutelage, Kelby’s role began to grow, and as fate would have it, he was forced into major playing time last season at Texas. After the David Sills touchdown where he flashed the now famous “Horns Down,” left tackle Yodny Cajuste was ejected following the point after because of a thrown punch.
Wickline filled in admirably as the Mountaineers left with a 42-41 win, but what happened 11 months ago has little to no bearing to what he expects Saturday.
“That game last year was a fun experience and we had a good time, but we’ve moved on to this game this year and we’re thinking about what we can do to win this game,” Wickline said. “It gives me a little bit of confidence, but it’s a whole new ballgame this year with new teams. You’ve got to come in with a different approach and you’ve got to start from ground zero for a new game.”
Wickline also got the start in the Camping World Bowl against Syracuse when Cajuste decided to sit out, and with Cajuste moving on to the NFL, it appeared Wickline was going to be the clear choice to grab one of the starting tackle spots in the offseason with McKivitz already locking down the other.
But with Holgorsen moving on to Houston and Brown bringing in an entirely new offensive staff, that meant Joe Wickline was out as the offensive line coach. In comes Matt Moore, who followed Brown from Troy, as the new offensive line coach.
However, Kelby didn’t want to make another move — West Virginia was going to be his final stop.
“This is my last year,” he said. “I’m a fifth-year senior. I know all the guys here — just the relationships. I wanted to stay put. This was the best decision for me. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”
The grass has been pretty green so far for Wickline, playing every snap at right tackle this season. The only near miss was at Missouri when his shoe fell off, but the Tigers called timeout, so Wickline didn’t have to miss a play.
“He’s been really coachable and he plays hard,” Moore said. “He’s been what I wanted him to be this year. That’s the big thing — he hasn’t graded out to a point where he’s won any awards, but then again, he hasn’t been something that has hurt us. Again, he has been really consistent and that’s the biggest thing I ask of my guys.”
