Lineman lead the way to victory

MORGANTOWN — 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 it 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-balance, 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;
and 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 season. That's not that they 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 times 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 off-season," 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 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," 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 said. "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.

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Still not sold on the line. Let's see how they look after their next three games.