Donovan Haslam’s Unique Penalty At Houston And Why It's A Good Thing For WVU Football

There's an important mantra to remember when an offensive lineman trying to help out a teammate with the ball – you can push, but you can't pull.

No, not "pulling" as in a pulling guard sweeping to the opposite side of the line after the ball is snapped to serve as a lead blocker. Rather, you can't grab onto another player who has the ball and pull him forward. Pushing forward is fine, which makes the "tush push" a legal play that has gained popularity over the years. But, for example, if a running back catches a pass and is pulled across the first-down marker by his offensive lineman, that's coming back.

Such was the fate of WVU offensive guard Donovan Haslam last Saturday in the upset win over Houston, when Diore Hubbard was stopped short of the first-down on a 3rd & 6 in the fourth quarter of the game – Haslam grabbed ahold of Hubbard's shoulder pads, and pulled Hubbard across the line. It negated the first down and cost the team crucial yards in a tight game, but it was a play that head coach Rich Rodriguez wasn't all that upset about.

"You can't pull, but you can push," Rodriguez said during his press conference this Tuesday. "My argument was that he wasn't pulling him – he was carrying him. That's a little different dynamic."

"What was nice is I saw a clip later that Raquel (Rodriguez) showed me that you could see the sideline's emotion when that happened," Rodriguez added. "You could see that everybody was into the game, which to me, the thing that we've been trying to get all year is having everybody on our sidelines totally engaged in every play. It bothers me when that's not the case. At least in that moment, you can see that everybody was totally engaged in that play and that's what we've got to do."

For a team that was 2-6 overall entering a road game against a then-Top 25 opponent and had just been chastised for their lack of intensity quite publicly by Rodriguez two weeks earlier, that type of effort is crucial to righting the ship. Seeing such fight for Rodriguez made the enalty a good bit more bearable than it may have otherwise been, especially when he saw the proof in the pudding that it had done something for his team's intensity just one play later. Because on the following snap, freshman quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. connected with veteran wideout Jeff Weimer for a 50+ yard gain that ended up setting up a score.

"You'd rather everybody block so it wouldn't be so hard to get the first down, but Donovan has played hard, and he's making the most of his opportunity," Rodriguez said. "I've said all along, playing hard is non-negotiable."

"I thought it was a great play, but obviously the penalty got called," center Landen Livingston told reportes earlier this week. "When it got down to it, I just love how he played and how he's playing, and when in doubt, he was willing to do whatever to get that first down, especially in a situation where we really needed it."

Haslam just recently worked his way into the starting rotation for the Mountaineers' offensive line after the unit has struggled all season long, and the type of effort he displayed against Houston – particularly on the play called back for a penalty – shows why he might be perfect to anchor the offense in the trenches and exemplify Rodriguez's "hard edge" culture.

Rodriguez said that Haslam was banged up during the win over Houston, but was listed as probably on Wednesday's player availability report ahead of the Colorado game. The Mountaineers will hope he is healthy, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see him keep a starting spot on the line after earning it with tough-nosed play recently – even when he isn't always following the rules.