In the Trenches: Evaluating WVU's much-improved offensive line play in Week 1

In Week 1, the West Virginia Mountaineersmoved to 1-0 on the seasonwith a seven-point victory over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. One of the major questions entering this season was whether or not the offensive line, one of the worst-performing groups on the team last year, would look better. On Saturday, we got our first set of answers.

Today, in what we hope will become a weekly segment, this author – who played along the offensive line in high school, as well as at the Division 2 level college – will take a look at what the Mountaineers did up front on offense this past week, and what to take away from it.

West Virginia Mountaineers improves greatly along the offensive line in 2026

Well, that header there drives home the main point I would like to make – and it's likely a common sentiment among fans who watched last year's team closely and then had eyes on the game this past Saturday. The Mountaineers looked a whole heck of a lot better against the Chanticleers than they did at any point last season. It's just one game against a Group of 6 opponent, of course, but it's encouraging.

The first thing to highlight is that last year, Rich Rodriguez went viral for his repeated comments on how his team couldn't move anyone up front – often not even enough to get one yard. That has definitely changed this year. It was evident on the first play.

Watchthe film below– Amare Grayson, Wes King, and Nick Krahe have the two interior defensive linemen 2-3 yards downfield and multiple linebackers blocked by the time Cam Cook gets to the line of scrimmage. The run goes between Krahe and Kevin Brown, with the true freshman tackle locking up his defender for more than long enough to get to the next level. 72 yards later, Cook was finally brought down.

The following play, the entire offensive line was again got penetration off the ball, pushing the defensive line back into the endzone to pave the way for Cook to score the first touchdown of the day in a goal line situation, proving that they could do it when it mattered most as well.

And you could see the offensive line still pushing people around on the final drives of the game. There was certainly an offensive lag in the second half where Coastal Carolina stacked the box and Rodriguez continued to try to force the run –and he had his reasonsfor that.

But look atWest Virginia's final touchdown of the day below. Focus in on Wes King at center, and Amare Grayson at right guard. Look as the absolute dominance with which they move a defensive lineman off the ball. Playside, there's not a ton of push, but both Brown and Krahe lock up their defender more than long enough to allow Michael Hawkins to get around the edge for the run.

Pro Football Focus grades wildly improved compared to last season's opener

Last year's starting five offensive lineman – Ty'Kieast Crawford, Kimo Makane'ole, Landen Livingston, Walter Young Bear, and Nick Krahe –combined to average a PFF grade of 57.7 in last season's openeragainst Robert Morris. That's a team playing a division lower than Coastal, at the FCS level. Crawford graded out the highest of the five in that game, according to PFF – with a 62.6 individual grade.

This season against an FBS opponent, the starting five averaged a 61.8 – a full four points higher, although still slightly below average (which is purportedly a grade of 65.0 or higher). The third highest-graded starting offensive lineman, which was Brown, had a 62.9 – meaning three of the five offensive lineman graded higher than the top player in last season's opener.

Grayson was also notably the 14th-highest graded offensive guard of the season after his performance. The only low point according to PFF was Carsten Casady. He finished with an offensive grade of 35.0, and a pass blocking grade of just 30.2 – he posted the lowest offensive grade of not just all seven offensive linemen who took snaps, but of any offensive player.

Rich Rodriguez, Amare Grayson come away happy with West Virginia's play up front

On Tuesday during the weekly press conference, after the game had a few days to sink in, Rich Rodriguez and Amare Grayson were both available to the media. Here's what they had to say about the offensive line performance.

“Thought they played hard,"Rich Rodriguez said. "I thought there were a couple [missed assignments] here and there, but for the first game together for all five of them, I thought it was a pretty solid effort, and they’ll grow from this one."

"I feel like our offensive line did a great job,"Grayson said. "We were very consistent. I feel like throughout the course of the season, we're going to gel even more. So it's going to be good,"

When it comes to the offensive line's drive and competitiveness, Grayson believes the offensive line unit's mentality "is different this year." And he shared how that played into the group being so effective at getting some push at the line of scrimmage and moving defenders off the ball.

"I would say the biggest thing, the biggest difference is we come off the ball and that's how we get our movement," he said. "It's basically, hey, you get in your stance. Hey, I'm going to move this man back from point A to point B. So, it's just a different mentality with the five guys."

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