MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After weeks of good news following every COVID-19 test, the West Virginia football team finally received news of the inevitable last Friday, a day before the Mountaineers took on Baylor at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Offensive lineman James Gmiter tested positive, the first scholarship player to test positive during the regular season. After going through and figuring out who may be involved following contact-tracing, coach Neal Brown and the offensive coaching staff needed to do some severe juggling along the offensive line.
“We had to change on Friday at about 11:30,” Brown said Tuesday. “Chase (Behrndt) had been working some at guard and tackle, and we had practiced guys at some different spots and had to move them on Friday.”
Come kickoff against the Bears, Behrndt, a senior, got the nod at center — a spot he hadn’t practiced all week — and true freshman Zach Frazier, who worked at center all week, replaced Gmiter at left guard.
With a week of prep falling by the wayside at the last minute, the first half against Baylor was a struggle for the Mountaineers, especially in pass protection. Quarterback Jarret Doege was hit multiple times, two of which were sacks that caused Doege to fumble.
“In the first half, we had some quarterback hits on twist games where the guys hadn’t worked with each other,” Brown said. “I didn’t think we had a lot of protection issues. There were against Oklahoma State, but not so much against Baylor. We did misidentify a couple of things.
“Moving forward, Chase will get locked in on the interior.”
Behrndt has primarily worked at guard and center during his career, but the emergence of Frazier allowed the staff to test Behrndt outside at tackle. But after his performance last Saturday, he is too valuable as an interior lineman to consider shuffling around.
Behrndt was named the offensive lineman of the week as WVU’s highest graded lineman in the 27-21 double overtime win over the Bears.
“He had to play three different positions in the week leading into the game, and as a senior, he has really risen to be a leader in that room,” Brown said.
After battling a torn labrum all of last season which eventually needed surgery in the offseason, Behrndt proved his toughness, and now as a senior, he knew the running game needed to improve significantly. So far in 2020, WVU is ranked 27th nationally at 177 yards per game, way up from 128 out of 130 in 2019.
Still, pass protection is a problem at the forefront, and Behrndt is well aware that it needs to get better, even though Doege continues to get back up.
“It’s disgusting to turn around and see [Doege] on the ground,” he said. “The fact that he can get up time and time again and still come back with the same composure, still compete the same or maybe even compete harder, it is amazing to watch.”
The Mountaineers are on their second bye week of the shortened season, and Brown said they will begin game prep for Kansas today. The Jayhawks will play in Morgantown at noon Oct. 17 and it will be televised on FS1.
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