MORGANTOWN — WVU will have one of the most-experienced offensive lines in the country when the 2023 season kicks off in the fall.
The Mountaineers have 102 combined starts between their top five linemen and 123 if you include the sixth man, Brandon Yates. It’s safe to say that WVU’s top linemen are pretty used to their positions by now. That is why head coach Neal Brown and offensive line coach Matt Moore have shuffled them around this spring.
Yates, a tackle, has been playing center, right guard Doug Nester has been playing center and tackle Ja’Quay Hubbard has slid inside to guard. This game of musical chairs is forcing the lineman to learn other spots along the line, further increasing their knowledge of how all five spots work together.
“Football IQ goes through the roof,” Moore said Tuesday. “Especially when you move to center because now you have to know what everybody does. That’s what Doug and Yates really like about it.”
Because WVU’s linemen have so much experience, less and less time this spring needs to be spent on teaching them how to play the team’s scheme and what they need to do, and more time can be spent on honing in on the little things.
“The teaching is always in the little things,” Moore said. “They know what to do and that’s good, but how do you react to little movements? With the young guys, you don’t preach it as much because they’re still trying to learn what to do. Those older guys, you have to take it to another step.”
Cross-training the lineman at multiple positions also helps bolster depth at every spot. Starting center Zach Frazier is limited this spring as he recovers from an injury, and now guys like Yates and Nester are learning how to fill in at the spot.
“It’s got other guys ready for the moment,” Moore said. “Doug Nester’s done a phenomenal job from a leadership standpoint. … We’re the veteran group, we’ve got to take charge.”
“We all have high expectations for us,” Nester said last week. “We talk about it a lot how we have to come in and be the leaders of this offense because we have that experience — just to bring it every day because the team’s going to rely on us.”
It also helps keep guys locked in this spring. Nester has been so good at right guard in his career that there may not have been a lot for him to work at if he was there right now. But there is plenty for him to do during practices as he tries to learn both center and tackle.
“Every single day we have to work on not being complacent and wanting to get better, wanting to still iron out our technique,” Hubbard said. “We all want to be that anchor for the team, so we’re trying to make it so the team can lean on us.”
As experienced as WVU’s linemen are, none of them are finished products and the cross-training this spring is just another step in their progression.
“It is such a hard position to master; very few have,” Moore said. “There’s always something to learn as an o-lineman, always something to do better at.”
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