MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez was asked on Tuesday if any position groups have stood out to him since the beginnin…

Excitement surrounds this year’s West Virginia football team, with expectations high following last season’s 9-4 finish.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — Virginia Tech understood as it entered Thursday night’s Black Diamond Trophy battle with West Virginia that it did not have the offensive firepower to get into a shootout with the Mountaineers but would have to rely on its run defense and pass rush to have a chance.

In the end the Hokies had no chance at all because they ran into an offensive line of the Mountaineers that has been molded, nurtured and that has matured into the heart and soul of the offense over the three years Neal Brown has been in Morgantown.

So dominating were the Mountaineers that they rushed for 218 yards in a well-balanced, ball-control game play that produced 414 yards in 76 offensive plays, possessing the ball 38 minutes and 44 seconds to just 21:16 by the Hokies.

They put on a near-flawless performance as evidence by the grades given out by the Pro Football Focus scouts who rated their top five offensive players like this:

—Doug Nester, RG — 79.7

—Wyatt Milum, LT, 77.9

—Zach Frazier, C, 77.4

—Ja’Quay Hubbard, RT, 76.7

—JT Daniels, QB, 75.3

The top four offensive grades went to O-linemen, headed by guard Doug Nester, a man who well may have enjoyed the victory and his performance more than any one else.

Nester, you see, is a West Virginian who attended Virginia Tech for two years before transferring to WVU and now has beaten the Hokies two straight times, the second before a packed house in Blacksburg.

Perhaps redemption is a better word than revenge, but whatever is the right word, it fit at the moment.

The offensive line took control of the game in the final minutes of the first half, making a strong statement that the line of scrimmage was theirs and the Hokies could do nothing about it.

“I thought the drive before half was big,” Brown said. “That’s the two-minute stuff we rep a lot. Credit the O-line because they can run the passer. They gave us time.”

The drive ended with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Daniels to Sam James with 11 seconds left in the half that sent WVU to the locker room with a 13-7 advantage.

“It was big,” Brown said of the pass play and the entire 70-yard drive completed in six plays. “I felt like we were in control of the game, but the scoreboard didn’t show that. I thought really from that drive on we were in control.”

To understand how much this meant to those involved — Brown, offensive line coach Matt Moore and the men who played the offensive line, one has to go back to what Brown inherited when he came on the scene for the 2019 season.

“It’s really been a three-year process,” Brown said. “When we got here, Colton McKivitz was a really nice player. He played the game the right way. He’s had a nice career for the NFL. But our numbers were low, and we didn’t have many guys who had really played.”

The proof was in the yardage. WVU did not gain 1,000 rushing yards. That’s not meaning that didn’t have a 1,000-yard rusher. The entire offense for the entire year did not have 1,000 yards.

What’s more, they couldn’t have gotten life insurance on quarterback Jarret Doege, so vicious was the pass rush on him.

“In the COVID year, 2020, we came back and made the decision to go young. Michael Yates played, Zach Frazier and James Gmiter. They were really young players, but still we struggled at times.”

They pushed forward.

The Mountaineers brought Nester in, added freshman Wyatt Milum and put both into the lineup.

“We played well at time but were a little bit inconsistent,” Brown said. “We ran the ball against teams we should have been able to run against, but against really good defenses, we struggled.”

This year, they made a couple of other changes. Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell brought his high-powered offense in from USC, Milum was moved from right tackle to left tackle, freshman sensation CJ Donaldson came in at running back and, of course, Daniels came in at quarterback.

“We talked about that a lot in the offseason,” Brown said. “Now we’re more mature, we’ve played a lot of snaps. We needed to run the ball against good people and we proved we could do that in Week 1 (against Pitt).”

Virginia Tech was supposed to be the ultimate test, but WVU’s O-line just pushed them around.

“Ever since I’ve been here I’ve said that the offensive line is going to have to be the heart of this offense,” OC Harrell said. “There’s just so much experience there that has worked very hard, the whole team kind of looks to those guys.”

It begins with Frazier, the All-American center who is the best at that position since Dan Mozes won the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s top center in the Rich Rodriguez era.

Frazier’s voice, along with Daniels, is like a voice from heaven for the offensive unit.

Both are intelligent, talented, determined.

Frazier’s work ethic was the core of the reshaping of the offensive line. Over time, they collected a group with similar qualities — intelligence, talent and determination.

Collecting talent creates competition for jobs, and now instead of looking for five players who can play, they have seven or eight who could start and 10 who are worthy of playing time.

“I guess there’s seven or eight we have played consistently up front and those guys have had a whole lot of reps together,” Harrell acknowledged. “That’s allowed them to play at the level we’ve played so far. If you want to have success offensively, you better play at a high level up front. That’s not just us. That’s everywhere.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A four-star recruit coming out of Spring Valley High School in Huntington, offensive lineman Wyatt Milum had a who’s who offer list, but he chose to stay close to home, signing with the Mountaineer football team as part of its class of 2021.

“The relationships I built with Coach (Neal) Brown and Coach (Matt) Moore were a big part of it,” said Milum when asked about committing to WVU over the likes of Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Clemson and a myriad of others. “To be able to play for your home state is also really special.

“This felt like home,” he added. “They always took care of me and my family whenever I was here for visits. It always felt like a home atmosphere.”

Once Wyatt arrived at WVU in the summer of 2021, he quickly made himself at home as a starter in the Mountaineers’ offensive line. He began the season by getting regular action as a backup at right tackle, but by midseason, he had moved up to the first unit. He started eight of West Virginia’s final nine games, missing out only when injured at Baylor on Oct. 2.

In all, Milum saw action on 628 offensive snaps last year and earned freshman All-American honors from the Football Writers Association of America and The Athletic for his work.

In the last 40+ years, Wyatt was just the second true freshman to start in WVU’s offensive line, following in the footsteps of Zach Frazier, who started nine of West Virginia’s 10 games at guard in 2020. A native of Fairmont, Frazier moved over to center last season, and along with o-line returnees like Milum and guards James Gmiter and Doug Nester, is expected to be the heart of the Mountaineers’ offensive unit in 2022. Three of those are Mountain State natives with Frazier a product of Fairmont Senior High, and Milum and Nester both being Spring Valley alums.

“We have our o-line standards this year,” explained Milum, who has gotten bigger and stronger in his year at WVU. He now stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 311 pounds, having added more than 15 pounds since he arrived in Morgantown. “We want to move people. We want to be physical.”

Though he’s in his second season at West Virginia, Milum is experiencing change this year, as he’s moved from right to left tackle. It may not seem like a huge switch, but there are subtle differences in each position.

“The transition to left tackle honestly hasn’t been that hard,” Milum said. “I’d never played on the left side before (going back to high school). I had to learn a different kick step for pass pro, but that was really the most difficult aspect of the move.

“I’d definitely say I’m more comfortable this year,” he added. “The game has definitely slowed down for me, and I understand the game much more.”

Milum is left-handed – those who faced him as a baseball pitcher in high school when he was clocked with a fastball in the high 80s can attest to the fact he’s a southpaw – so while the move to left tackle took some adjusting at first, there are parts of it that are instinctive for him.

“I feel like my hands are better on the left side, just because I’m left-handed and it’s natural for me,” he said.

Milum believes he and the offensive line as a whole are improving.

“I think we’re definitely getting better,” noted the big tackle. “We’re working every day it. We always have things to fix, but I’d say we’re improving every day.”

Wyatt was a highly regarded prospect, but he’s not resting on those laurels.

“For me, I knew I needed a lot of work on my pass pro once I got out of high school. We probably threw the ball six times a game,” chuckled Milum in recalling Spring Valley’s ground-dominant attack. “It was definitely different coming here and throwing the ball much more. I knew I needed a lot of work (on his pass protection).

“The hardest transition in college is the technique you have to use, though,” the liberal arts and humanities major added. “It’s a lot different than high school. You can’t use the wrong technique and block anybody in college. You have to use the right technique every time.”

A preseason first-team all-Big 12 selection by Phil Steele heading into his sophomore campaign, Milum has quickly become a stalwart of the Mountaineers’ offensive front. And he’s doing so not far from his home in Kenova.

“I’m really close to my family, and it’s always really nice to have my family close,” he smiled. “My parents (Todd and Francie Milum) go to every game, and it’s always nice to have them there.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — Used to be we were thinking we were getting those rough and tough linemen out of West Virginia because they wanted to stay out of the coal mines.

Like it was a tough way to make a living down there in the dark, so playing football at least got you out into the fresh air with a chance to still get physical.

But times have changed, and there are a lot of routes to get around the coal mines, allowing you to do your thing while wearing a helmet but not one with a light on it to pierce through the dusty darkness.

As we look at a West Virginia football team that is getting ready to open against Pitt in the Backyard Brawl on Sept. 1, we hear the coaches telling us one of the major strengths on the team is the offensive line.

And, if you look a little closer, the strength of the offensive line can be found in the fact that three native sons of West Virginia start in that line — Zach Frazier, the center out of Fairmont Senior, being the leader of the line, if not the whole offense; and a pair of Spring Valley behemoths, each also at 300 pounds or more, playing at right guard in Doug Nester and left tackle in Wyatt Milum.

Must be something we’re doing with those pepperoni rolls to get behind all of this.

“It’s amazing,” Milum said of having three West Virginians starting across the front. “West Virginia high schools don’t get recognized like they should be because there is good high school football here in the state.

“It’s very exciting to see people from this state play.”

Nester has concurred with that.

“I think it’s a special thing, honestly,” he said a week earlier when talking about it. It’s been great having those two other guys in there with me. Fraz is awesome. I live with him. And Wyatt I grew up with ... to see all of three of from West Virginia, it’s something special, I’d say.”

Both Nester and Wilum were in their first seasons at WVU last year, Nester having transferred in from Virginia Tech and Milum having come in as a true freshman. Like Frazier, who well could be the nation’s top center this year, Milum got to start at his home state school as a freshman ... and it really didn’t surprise him that he did.

“Starting was definitely my goal,” he said. “I always wanted to play college football, so my goal was to start.”

They put him at right tackle last year and it wasn’t simply a matter of moving in and taking charge. It’s a big step from high school to college ball, especially in the offensive line, even for someone who was as sought after as was Wilum.

To begin with, at Spring Valley, they threw the ball only when they had to and college ball is far more pass oriented.

“I knew I needed a lot of work because we were throwing the ball only about six times a game,” Milum said, smiling wryly knowing that the ball will be in the air a whole lot more than that this year. “It was different coming here and throwing 20 or 25 times, so I knew I needed a lot of work on that.”

The techniques of pass protection are not natural movements and you make a lot of mistakes early on in your career. Just comes with the territory, but Wilum had a lot of people helping him get through those mistakes ... especially Frazier and Nester.

“They definitely helped me out a lot. Doug especially. Whenever I had to ask him a question, he would stay with me after practice and help me with stuff,” Milum said.

“I knew Wyatt since we were 6 or 7 years old, so it really wasn’t much of a hassle to play alongside him,” Nester said. “We played in high school so we knew each other and the main thing was just giving him any tips I could, helping him out when I could and communicating with him during the games and making sure he understood his assignment.”

But this wasn’t just an in-state thing. It was the culture in the offensive line room.

“It’s everyone in the room trying to help the young guys out. If see someone’s step is too short on this play or they miss the defender with their hands on another play, we communicate with each other no matter who it is,” Nester noted.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Spring practice for the West Virginia football team, which will begin March 22, is fast approaching.

Since returning from the winter break in January, the Mountaineers have been heavily involved in their offseason strength and conditioning work.

“We lift on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we do team workouts,” explained WVU head coach Neal Brown. “On Tuesdays, it’s really focused around speed, agility and quickness, and on Thursdays, it’s more about discipline and mental toughness.

“We have had six of those weeks. We’ll go through next Thursday, and then we’ll have spring break. Then we’ll come back and start spring practice on the 22nd (of March), and we’ll have our annual spring game on April 23.

“This is the first true offseason we’ve had since 2019 (because of the impact of Covid the past two years). This year we’ve had the natural progression where we’ve had this eight-week period (of strength and conditioning workouts), and then we transition into five weeks of spring ball and then go home for May before coming back for an eight-week summer.”

In total, West Virginia will have 15 practice sessions this spring in which to install the new Graham Harrell offense, groom its young quarterbacks and start the process of filling holes in its secondary.

“I’m really excited about this staff and team,” said Brown, whose club finished 6-7 last season after losing the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. “This is the hungriest team, the most competitive team we’ve had. This is by far the best team we’ve had in those areas.”

The Mountaineers will work with 62 scholarship players this spring, as well as approximately 30 walk-ons. West Virginia has 12 other prospects who have already signed National Letters of Intent and will enroll at WVU in the summer, and on top of that, it has openings to add up to seven other scholarship newcomers – likely transfers – prior to the start of the 2022 season.

“We’ll have some more attrition between now and the end of spring,” admitted Brown. “That’s just the way it goes, but I fully anticipate for us to be around 78 or 80 (players on scholarship) going into fall camp. Then we’ll have some opportunities for some blue shirts and for walk-ons to earn those (scholarships with the maximum total of 85).

“We’re going to be very close to where everyone else is.”

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While West Virginia’s offense returns eight full-time starters from last year, its the biggest question mark on that side of the ball comes at quarterback where true freshman Nicco Marchiol, redshirt freshman Goose Crowder and sophomore Garrett Greene will battle this spring for the opportunity to replace departed starter Jarret Doege.

“We’ve got three guys who are going to get the reps this spring,” explained Brown of the quarterback position. “They’re going to go through 15 practices, and we’re going to get a really good evaluation.

“I’ve had the question a lot about why didn’t we go get a transfer quarterback at mid-year,” continued WVU’s coach. “If we went and got a transfer, I don’t know how we’d get as good an evaluation on the young guys this spring. It’s not just about this fall but about the future.

“We have guys who deserve to show what they have this spring. If one of them wins the job, we’ll move on. If not, we’ll go find a guy, because there will be (transfers) available after the spring. I thought it was important for (the current trio) and the trajectory of our football team to let those guys go out and compete in the spring.”

Quarterback obviously is getting a majority of the focus this spring, but it’s not the only position of interest for the Mountaineer head coach.

“I’m excited to see what the running back room can do with the pieces we’ve added.” said Brown.

“Up front in terms of our offensive line, we return the group that played last year. The thing about them, they played good against the teams they should’ve played good against. Now the next step for that line is to raise their game.”

WVU’s starting interior o-line trio of center Zach Frazier and guards Doug Nester and James Gmiter remain unchanged. West Virginia’s top two tackles, Wyatt Milum and Brandon Yates, also return, but they will flip sides this spring, with Milum moving from right tackle to left and Yates switching from left to right.

“Milum is left-handed, so that should be a more natural fit for him,” noted Brown.

West Virginia is trying to build offensive line depth behind those returning five. “Ja’Quay Hubbard and Jordan White have had tremendous offseasons,” explained WVU’s coach. “Now, can that translate when we get into spring ball? Can they push for a starting spot?”

West Virginia has just six scholarship wide receivers available for the spring, though it will add a couple of other receiver signees from the junior college ranks this summer.

“It used to be you wanted 10 or 12 wide receivers, kind of a three-deep at each of those positions,” said Brown. “What’s become abundantly clear to us over the last two years is you can’t keep that many guys happy anymore. We had a solid group in that room last year, but we couldn’t keep seven or eight guys happy. So, the roster numbers inside that room have thinned out, but we still have quality players.”

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Injuries will keep a number of Mountaineers off the field in the spring, though all are expected to be healthy by the time the regular season begins on Sept. 1 at Pitt.

Tight end Mike O’Laughlin is the only offensive player expected to miss spring drills, as he continues to rehab from an injury he suffered midway through last season. West Virginia’s defense will be without several players for part or all of the spring, as they recover from injury or offseason surgery. Defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor, defensive lineman Edward Vesterinen and linebacker Exree Loe are not expected to practice this spring, and cornerback Nicktroy Fortune will be limited, though the expectation is he’ll be able to do more and more as spring drills progress. Defensive tackle Dante Stills won’t go through much contact work either, though not because of injury. WVU’s coaches just want to keep the valuable fifth-year senior out of harm’s way as much as possible.

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The Mountaineers will be adapting to a new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach this spring in Harrell and a new wide receiver coach in Tony Washington.

“We have to install a new offense, and then fundamentally we have to be more consistent on that side of the ball,” said Brown of the offensive keys to the spring.

“On defense, we have to get better in situations,” said WVU’s coach. “Last spring we worked to improve our redzone defense. We got better there. Now we have to get better in end-game scenarios – two-minute and four-minute situations. We had a chance to finish games defensively last year, and we were only able to do it on two out of the five.

“If you look at our depth chart on defense, we’re going to be younger there, but this will be the most athletic group we’ve had defensively.”

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WVU returns all its key components along its defensive line, but behind that front three are plenty of holes.

Though Loe will miss the spring at will linebacker, Lance Dixon is back there after gaining a great deal of playing time last season. At middle linebacker, Lee Kpogba is the leading candidate, having arrived at WVU from the junior college ranks this summer. Ja’Corey Hammett will also see plenty of practice work at the mike this spring.

Charles Woods, Marcis Floyd, a transfer from Murray State, and redshirt freshman Andrew Wilson-Lamp will divide the first-team reps at cornerback until Fortune returns. At the safety spots, Saint McLeod and Naim Muhammad will work at the spear, Aubrey Burks and Hershey McLaurin will each see action this spring at free safety, and Davis Mallinger, Caleb Coleman and Malachi Ruffin will compete at the cat safety, according to Brown.