Tyler Orlosky named to Rimington Watch List

Tyler Orlosky has been a seasoned veteran on the West Virginia football team’s offensive line. Now, he is gaining national attention for his impending senior season.

Orlosky was named to the Rimington Trophy Watch List for the upcoming 2016 campaign. The Top 57 Division I centers in the country were named to the list. Orlosky is the only returning starter in the Big 12 who garnered the recent attention.

Orlosky has been a familiar face for the Mountaineers since he joined the WVU football team in 2012. He redshirted his first season but has started 29 games since 2013. Orlosky has been the most reliable offensive lineman these past three seasons, starting all 13 games in both the 2014 and 2015 season.

Last season, the Mountaineers shuffled around their offensive line quite a bit. Nonetheless, Orlosky was the mainstay in the middle. Under head coach Dana Holgorsen and offensive line coach Ron Crook, the Mountaineers utilized a run-first mentality with the offense.

It was a far cry from what the players were used to in the early Holgorsen days when the WVU football team gained national attention for its air raid offense.

The Mountaineers wanted to keep to the ground in 2015. Part of that reasoning was because of the personnel. The coaching staff believed the Mountaineers had the right people in place to succeed in the run game. That’s where the depth at offensive line helped out.

"“You get to a point where you kind of get comfortable with who you have in there,” Crook said. “When guys are playing well, you don’t want to mess things up. You don’t want to throw someone into a pressure situation and then they make a mistake and lose confidence. There’s a lot of things involved in it, but we’ve six or seven guys that have been in there on a somewhat decent amount.”"

The Mountaineers started off the 2015 season with a 3-0 record. In those games, the offensive line helped West Virginia score in 17 of 19 chances in the red zone. In all, the Mountaineers averaged 479.7 yards per game, while 228.2 of those yards were gained on the ground.

Personally, Orlosky was used on 965 offensive plays. He is a reigning All-Big 12 team member and a Big 12 First Team Academic honoree. At the Spring Game, Orlosky was one of the returning players who received an Iron Mountaineer Award.

Orlosky stands at 6-foot-4 and weighs 295 pounds. The Cleveland native would be the first Rimington Trophy winner since Dan Mozes won it in 2006.

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