MORGANTOWN — Much has been talked about the WVU offense against Virginia Tech’s defense headed into Saturday’s Battle for the Black Diamond Trophy at Milan Puskar Stadium, but the Hokies have an unusual threat at quarterback.
“He’s the fastest guy on their team,” WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said of Braxton Burmeister.
That’s high praise on a Power 5 program chocked full of speedy athletes, but Burmeister’s ability to not only make plays with this legs, but outrun defenders in the process, has been the focal point for the Mountaineers’ defense all week.
“He’s running away from people and you don’t see that a whole lot at quarterback,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “He has really good top-end speed. He has a big arm and he’s making a lot of throws that you don’t see.”
In the game notes provided by VT, Burmeister was clocked at 22.53 mph through his GPS tracking device this off-season. He leads the team in rushing through two games with 94 yards on 16 attempts.
While those numbers don’t pop off the page, the threat exists, which opens up the running game and keeps defenses guessing. The Hokies are averaging 4.3 yards per carry and have three running backs with over 10 carries on the season — Raheem Blackshear, Jalen Holston and Keshawn King. As a team, VT has five rushing touchdowns, led by Blackshear’s two.
Through two games, it doesn’t appear Burmeister is rolling out of the pocket and improvising on designed passes, but is a significant piece to the overall running game with read options and run-pass options.
When he does run out of the pocket, Burmeister isn’t a slouch with his arm. either.
“He can sling it on the run. Gives you a whole other set of issues,” Brown said. “If everything is right and everything is covered up that gives you a whole other section of the offense you have to worry about.”
Burmeister stands at 6-foot-1, but the Hokies will bring in 6-foot-5 Connor Blumrick as a change-of-pace. He played last week against Middle Tennessee when Burmeister was dinged up.
Blumrick “is a bigger kid and athletic kid,” Lesley said. “They use him in what we call mash sets. They did that a lot last year, also. They have that capability.”
Still, it all comes down to VT’s ground game.
“They want to run the ball,” Brown said. “They’re not trying to hide that. They want to run the football and hit big plays.”
The Mountaineers, on the other hand, have allowed 199 yards on the ground through two games, good for 39th nationally. Take out a 53-yard run by Maryland’s Tayon Fleet-Davis in the closing minutes of WVU’s Week 1 loss, then the Mountaineers jump into the top 25.
WVU is also riding of streak of not allowing a rushing touchdown at home in their last eight games at Milan Puskar Stadium, dating back to November 2019.
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