WVU Football HC Rich Rodriguez Not Done Tinkering With His OL Starting Lineup

Much has been discussed about WVU football's offensive line struggles this season. The team's starters graded out exceptionally low against both Pitt and Kansas in recent weeks, and several players along the line have been called out by the fans and the media for their rough start to the season. But as of last week, Rodriguez had said that if any of the backups were ready to go, they'd have already been seeing more reps.

That changed during Saturday's loss to Utah – some of it was forced, and some of it was a standard personnel change. The Mountaineers started Carson Lee at center after Landen Livingston, who has started the first four games, was unable to play against the Utes after going down with an injury against Kansas. Then Kimo Makane'ole left the game in the first half with an injury, allowing Donovan Hasleam to get an opportunity at right guard. Finally, after the Mountaineers were trailing 28-0 at the halftime break, they swapped in backup right tackle Malik Agbo for starter Ty'Kieast Crawford. Rodriguez talked about the moves after the game.

"Well yeah, injury-based, because Kimo was out, so that was where Donovan went in. And then we wanted to get Malik some reps, and see what he could do – he's a pretty good player," Rodriguez said. "You know, we're not done finding the right combination. We're five games into it, and sometimes you got to put a guy in there and get him reps and see if he can handle it."

That answer seems far away from the answer just five days earlier, when Rodriguez indicated players would "already be rotating in" on the offensive line if they hadn't found their best five. Maybe he gave it some extra thought throughout the week, or maybe the realization came after watching some backups see significant reps against Utah and play relatively well. It's hard to tell if it's a shift in judgment and strategy that Rodriguez's predecessor, Neal Brown, would have made so quickly.

But it's hard to argue with the results on the field. Agbo and Lee, yet to see significant action this season, finished as the two highest-graded offensive lineman for WVU. Crawford and Makane'ole were two of the bottom three graded. The three backups helped anchor the offensive line and form a pocket against a five-man blitz in the third quarter for a Khalil Wilkins touchdown pass to Cam Vaughn – a distinct difference from when the right side of the line let a blitzing linebacker through untouched to sack Jaylen Henderson on a big first half play when the starters were still in.

And then Diore Hubbard broke a 29-yard run in a counter play in the third quarter, Donovan Haslam put a Utah defensive player into the turf, while Malik Agbo locked on a block and drove his man nearly ten yards downfield. Carson Lee executed a difficult pull moments after snapping the ball to set up the play.

Later in the fourth quarter, WVU broke a 68-yard run on an end-around by Jarod Bowie, and Malik Agbo made sure the offensive lineman and linebackers had bought the misdirection, gave a quick look behind him to see where Bowie was, and immediately locked on a defender and served as the lead blocker, driving a Utah defensive backwards 15-20 yards down the field from the original line of scrimmage like Michael Oher in The Blindside. The lead block helped turn a big play into a massive gain.

And on the final touchdown of the day, when Diore Hubbard punched in a touchdown in the redzone, Carson Lee was locked onto a linebacker and driving him into the endzone before Hubbard could even cross the goal line. That's the type of push this line hasn't seen yet this season without a jumbo package bringing extra big bodies onto the field. Regardless of what Rich Rodriguez and his staff take away from Saturday's brutal beatdown, they can rest assured that they may have found at least somewhat of a solution to their offensive line struggles.

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