MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia running back Leddie Brown saw his touchdown run last Saturday against N.C. State while watching film, and while it was his first time finding the end zone this season, he couldn’t believe what he saw from one of his blockers at the end of the play.
“Man, I asked, ‘That’s Briason?’ Because Briason isn’t that type of person — he’s quiet and doesn’t really say much, but it shows that he can turn into a different type of animal,” Brown said.
Briason Mays, a redshirt freshman, earned his first career start at center against the Wolfpack, and on Brown’s scoring run, laid out N.C. State linebacker C.J. Hart Jr. as Mays shoved him into the end zone for a pancake. As a final gesture, Mays stepped over Hart Jr. and said a few choice words.
With the demeanor of a small-town Tennessean, born and raised in Bolivar about 1 1/2 hours from Memphis, Mays seems like a gentle giant at 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds. He proved quickly that once the pads start to pop, his quiet tone turns into that of a gritty, no-nonsense offensive lineman.
But during pregame warmups, Mays admitted nerves were getting the best of him, and even had offensive coordinator and line coach Matt Moore a little tense, himself.
“Briason, during pregame, was out there spraying his snaps all over,” Moore said. “He was nervous. I went up and told him, ‘OK, you’re going to be fine,’ but I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.”
The coach was rightfully concerned because Mays, a high school tackle, was relatively new to playing center. Even during fall camp, there were questions about his ability to snap the ball consistently, which led to juggling at the position that even forced Josh Sills, who also never played center in college, to slide over from guard.
At one point, it appeared Mays was third or fourth on the depth chart.
“I just kept working every day,” Mays said. “Josh is a good player so wherever they put him, he’s going to play well. I just kept working, trying to do my best and do my part to help this team. Whatever happens would happen, and the coaches ultimately know what’s best for the team.”
Mays continued to improve as camp came to a close and as the season opened. Sills and Chase Behrndt got most of the snaps at center in the win against James Madison and loss at Missouri, but with Sills injuring his shoulder, it opened the door for Mays to get his first start.
The communication aspect seemed to come naturally for him, but making consistent snaps was something he wanted to work on most. With former high school teammate and current WVU quarterback Trey Lowe as his roommate, there is a lot of work put in outside of the facility.
“He probably gets tired of me,” Mays said of Lowe. “We do it right in the hallway — it’s a little narrow hall so if you snap it anywhere but his hands, you’ll hear it.”
Mays was confident in saying that he will still get his security deposit back since there aren’t any dents or holes in the walls, but getting in front of 57,000 fans at Milan Puskar Stadium is different than snapping with a roommate in their apartment.
“He hadn’t had a bad snap all last week, and all of a sudden, he’s spraying his snaps everywhere,” Moore said about the pregame routine. “I was trying to reassure him and I was hoping I didn’t have that nervous sound in my voice.”
Mays used his coach’s words of wisdom to settle down, and after the first play and taking his first hit, it was just another game.
“It makes all of the work in the offseason and all the work in practice become more visible,” he said. “When you’re doing it then, you’re just thinking, ‘Man, I want to get out of there.’ But when you look an d we put up 14 points in the first five minutes of the first quarter, it’s really impressive. After that first play, it knocks all the jitters out of you.”
