Wyatt Milum fights nerves in order to compete at a high level

Headed into his senior season in 2024, West Virginia starting offensive tackle Wyatt Milum has started 32 career games. He took 337 snaps as a junior and allowed zero sacks and just nine QB pressures. He will enter this year as a top pro prospect at offensive tackle, and is listed as a preseason All-American by Phil Steele and has been named to the Outland Trophy Watch List.

That type of resume can turn quite a few heads as an offensive lineman -- but his inherit skill on the gridiron doesn't prevent his nerves from ratcheting out of control at times.

As a freshman, despite claiming Freshmen All-American status by the year's end, he claims he'd often have to ask former high school teammate and fellow Mountaineer lineman Doug Nester to give him the play. He'd get nervous or too in the moment, and let the call slip his mind.

What finally helped him battle these nerves was a heart-to-heart with fellow offensive lineman Tomas Rimac last season.

"Before a game I would ask Tomas, 'Do you get nervous before games?' He would say, 'No, because I think of them as just another practice.' Well, I started to think of it like that," Milum told the press at Big 12 Media Days. "That helped me stay calm and play better out there."

Milum will need to live out that advice every day in 2024 and hopefully channel something within him to finally overcome those nerves the best he can, as he is expected to step up as the leader of the WVU offensive line group this fall. His offensive line coach Matt Moore shared during spring ball this offseason about his transition into that role.

”So Wyatt is really starting to come out of his shell,” Moore said. “He's always been a real shy, humble, unassuming kid. He's really starting to come out of his shell this off-season with Frazier and Doug leaving, because Doug was kind of the mouthpiece, and Frazier was kind of the, ‘hey look what he's doing’ guy. Now, Wyatt has learned from both of them to where he's doing a little bit of both now.”