Mays’ day: Freshman center Briason Mays gives WVU a needed rescue

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As West Virginia prepared to use its third starting center in three games, offensive line coach Matt Moore was becoming increasingly anxious that he would have to move on to a fourth.

Redshirt freshman Briason Mays had earned the job in the week leading up to the North Carolina State game. But when it came time to warm up, Mays looked more like he was trying to snap to a punter rather than a quarterback.

“Whew, I was so nervous,” Moore said. “He was spraying them all over in pregame. He snapped about four over the quarterback’s head.”

Given the situation, Moore had to show his best poker face and project confidence.

“I was definitely amped-up during pregame,” Mays said. “He said ‘Just do what you do.’ And that definitely helped me a lot.”

As it turns out, it was a bit of a mind trick.

“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” Moore said. “I was trying to reassure him, but I hope I didn’t have that nervous look in my face.”

Based on what happened from there, Mays didn’t notice the nervous look if it was there. And West Virginia may end up going quite a few games — ideally somewhere in the 30s or 40s — before it ends up needing to start another player at center.

The offensive line had its best performance of the season in both run- and pass-blocking, and Mays played a big role in the improvement.

“He had a good game,” Moore said. “He didn’t play with good pad level, but played with effort and energy. They did what they were coached to do. It’s my job to continue to enforce that and get guys to understand we do things a certain way around here.”

Mays’ energy is what got him into the lineup in the first place. He was buried down the depth chart in training camp, falling behind Chase Behrndt and Adam Stilley. Then the coaching staff decided yet another option — moving Josh Stills from guard to center — was preferable to giving Mays a shot.

Mays didn’t take it personally.

“I just kept working every day,” Mays said. “Josh is a good player, so wherever he was working he would do pretty well. The coaches know what’s best for the team.”

The problem for Mays in training camp was the same one that cropped up before the N.C. State game — his snaps were all over the place.

“His snaps have gotten considerably better,” Moore said. “That was one thing that hurt him early on.”

Mays got better by practicing in his apartment with roommate Trey Lowe.

“I snap in the hallway,” Mays said. “It’s a little narrow hallway, so if you snap it here or there, you hear it [hit the wall].”

He and the Mountaineers’ No. 3 quarterback played together at Bolivar Central High School in Collierville, Tenn., though at that level Mays was exclusively a tackle.

“Snapping has never been my natural thing,” Mays said. “Learning has helped me a lot.”

Mays’ work ethic became hard for the coaching staff to ignore.

“He never lost hope,” Moore said. “He kept working and working, and when he got an opportunity he took advantage of it.”

Though snapping didn’t come naturally to Mays, mauling people certainly seems to. On Leddie Brown’s 3-yard touchdown run to cap off the Mountaineers’ 44-27 win over N.C. State, Mays laid out Wolfpack linebacker C.J. Hart with a devastating pancake block in the end zone.

“I was like ‘That’s Briason?’ Because he’s not that type of person,” Brown said. “He’s like, quiet. Just stays to himself. But on the field he turns into a different animal.”

Mays admitted there was plenty of satisfaction in finally laying someone out after more than a year of keeping it bottled up during practice.

“That was pretty cool, I’m not gonna lie,” Mays said. “But I was more happy with the touchdown and icing the game than the pancake, to be honest with you.

“It was third down and if we scored there, it was over. Something in you is like, ‘We have to score here and it’s over.’”





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