West Virginia football will look quite different across the offensive line this coming season.
The Mountaineers are losing all five starters across the front -- Wyatt Milum, Brandon Yates, Nick Malone, and Ja'Quay Hubbard have all exhausted their eligibility and declared for the 2025 NFL Draft, while junior Tomas Rimac has transferred to rival program Virginia Tech.
Rimac follows the architect of that offensive line, Matt Moore, who will assume the offensive line coach gig with the Hokies following a six-year stint in Morgantown of the staff of former head coach Neal Brown.
While Brown's tenure with WVU was controversial and ultimately disappointing, his team's usually saw some pretty solid offensive line play.
His teams sent former Mountaineer offensive linemen Colton McKivitz, Zach Frazier, and Doug Nester to the NFL, and at least a couple more WVU linemen will likely join them soon. Over the past two seasons, the Mountaineer offensive lien unit paved the way for 210 rushing yards per game, and ranked in the Top 10 amongst Power 4 programs both years.
So new head coach Rich Rodriguez and his hand-picked offensive line coach, Jack Bicknell Jr., have a lot to do. They can't even completely turn to the team's bench from last season, as depth pieces with significant experience such as Sullivan Weidman and Johnny Williams have also left the program in the portal.
It was no surprise Rodriguez and Bicknell Jr. went heavy on lineman in the portal, adding LSU's Kimo Kimo Makane'ole, Arkansas' Ty'Kieast Crawford, NC State's Robby Martin, Tulsa's Walter Young Bear, Princeton's William Reed, and Youngstown State's Wyatt Minor. Last season's backup center, Landen Livingston, is also still with the team and taking plenty of snaps spring practice.
These pieces will likely help build the core offensive line unit for the Mountaineers in addition to a former Rodriguez player at Jacksonville State in Xavier Bausley, who was a Conference USA All-Freshman selection in 2023 before playing a season with the Mountaineers under Neal Brown. WVU also returned a number of other reserves of the line and have moved linebacker Raymond Kovalesky to the trenches as well.
“There’s not a whole lot of experience, so that’s a concern. But I'm seeing steps every day where they get a little bit better," Rodriguez said about the unit during Tuesday's spring football press conference.
Rodriguez, however, knows the experience and the knowledge will come with the rest of spring practice, summer workouts, and fall camp -- they have plenty of time to grow there before they see a competitive snap against competition.
But what he can tell from what he's seen so far, is that he is a big fan of the attitude they bring to the table, which he "loves."
“I think the eagerness to learn, the want-to is there," he said. "Athleticism is okay, its not off the charts. I don’t know if we have a Zach Frazier right in there, but at the same time, I do think we got some pretty good players up front. They’re all eager to get a chance to play a lot.”
For his part, Bicknell is a career offensive line coach with experience at multiple levels of the sports over numerous decades, and he understands the approach needed with a fresh group such as this one. Mistakes are going to happen early and he's aware -- but he can tell they're also the type of group that will learn in the end due to the mentality they bring each practice.
“O Line is, you go and make mistakes, and you come in and fix them.," Bicknell said. "Then you make mistakes the next day, but then they put in another defense, and you’re gonna make mistakes on that, and then you fix them. So its a process that you got to go through, but I’ve been impressed with the guys."
"I know this, they’re a very willing group, they want to be coached, and they want to play hard, and I think that’s what we’re trying to show them when coaches talk about the hard edge, like what does that really mean? Like everybody can talk about it, what’s the big deal, but you got to live it and you got to do it. And we’re trying to push them to that level."