MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s offensive line, bolstered by soaring projections during the preseason, has posted mixed results through two games.
Then again, the unit wasn’t whole for long.
Left tackle Yodny Cajuste suffered a torn ACL injury on the season’s second series, forcing redshirt freshman Colton McKivitz into expedited playing time. Senior left guard Adam Pankey, who missed the opener against Missouri after a DUI arrest, returned in a rotating role with Tony Matteo for the Youngstown State game.
That 38-21 win over the FCS Penguins featured 624 yards — the 13th-highest output ever for a West Virginia offense — but that pile of yardage didn’t produce enough points to satisfy coach Dana Holgorsen or the line.
“I thought we played OK up front. Nothing special, honestly,” Holgorsen said.
Through a 2-0 start, West Virginia is averaging 5.1 yards per carry and 559 yards overall while surrendering zero sacks and seven negative plays. In 2015, after facing Georgia Southern and FCS member Liberty, West Virginia was averaging 4.2 yards per carry, 514 overall, with four sacks and 11 negative plays.
McKivitz and right tackle Marcell Lazard struggled to handle Youngstown State defensive ends Derek Rivers and Avery Moss, players Holgorsen presumes could be “drafted fairly high” next spring. Now the mission becomes preparing those tackles to handle defenders from BYU on Sept. 24 and the Big 12 lineup that follows.
“Colton had a rough day. He played like a redshirt freshman,” Holgorsen said. “Marcell didn’t show the progress that I feel like he needs to show. Inside we were just OK.”
After a pass-protection breakdown led to a near-interception in the first half, quarterback Skyler Howard began barking at his blockers as they lined up.
“With the veterans we have out there, I feel like that shouldn’t happen,” Howard said. “I was telling guys ‘Wake up!’
“In the back of some guys’ heads it might have been, ‘Hey, it’s just Youngstown State.’ Well, the guy from Youngstown State is kicking your butt right now.”
Howard’s reaction didn’t seem out-of-line to fifth-year center Tyler Orlosky, who was himself perturbed by the blocking miscommunication that allowed a blitzer to come free off the right side.
“If Skyler’s unhappy with us, obviously we’ve done something wrong,” Orlosky said. ”One guy went one way and one guy went the other way. That kind of stuff can’t happen. We had to get it fixed and we did.”
West Virginia’s red-zone performance — one touchdown in three trips — would have looked better if not for Kyle Bosch’s holding penalty negating a 5-yard score by Rushel Shell. On another drive late in the half, WVU faced second-and-goal in the closing seconds when Mike Molina entered for a field goal attempt that failed.
Through a 2-0 start, West Virginia is averaging 5.1 yards per carry and 559 yards overall while surrendering zero sacks and seven negative plays. In 2015, after facing Georgia Southern and FCS member Liberty, West Virginia was averaging 4.2 yards per carry, 514 overall, with four sacks and 11 negative plays.
The only metric that hasn’t improved is scoring, down from 42.5 after two games last season to 32 points per game currently.
Holgorsen anticipated Youngstown State playing incentivized football, which it did leading 14-7 midway through the second quarter. The counterpunch of 24 unanswered points from his own team made Holgorsen appreciate how West Virginia skirted the upset — something seven FBS teams haven’t done against FCS foes already this young season.
“I don’t want to come off as we lost,” he said. “Youngstown has a lot of guys that have played at this level. Their motivational factor was a little higher than ours.
“When it was 14-14 at halftime, I said ‘This is not surprising. Don’t panic. Let’s go in and coach them up, and let’s go out and play better in the second half.’ The third quarter was arguably our best quarter that we have had so far, so yeah, I was really happy with what they did.”