MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia will be without a starter on each side of the ball for at least the four remaining regular season games.
Third-year head coach Neal Brown announced Tuesday tight end Mike O’Laughlin will miss what’s left of 2021 season, and cornerback Nicktroy Fortune is out for what remains of the regular season.
Both O’Laughlin and Fortune suffered lower body injuries October 23 in West Virginia’s 29-17 win at TCU, and neither played last Saturday in a 38-31 victory over then-No. 22 Iowa State.
A separate injury kept O’Laughlin, a redshirt junior, out of West Virginia’s first two games, before he made his season debut against Virginia Tech.
Fortune, a junior, played in the team’s first seven contests and is West Virginia’s most experienced cornerback.
Without O’Laughlin, who suffered a torn ACL in fall camp before the start of the 2018 season, T.J. Banks becomes the Mountaineers’ top tight end.
Banks, a 6-foot-5, 245-pound junior, made the most of his opportunity against the Cyclones. He caught three passes for 34 yards and helped create lanes as a blocker in the run game.
“T.J. sees an opportunity,” Brown said. “His approach is much more mature than when he had to play early when Mike was out with the other injury. He’s always played really hard. The effort piece has never been an issue. It’s been technique issues and the ability to concentrate and focus for an extended period of time. Saturday was the first time he combined high effort with really good concentration and technique.”
After redshirting in 2018, Banks played the final four games in 2019 and saw his role increase last season when he caught four passes for 41 yards and one touchdown. He had not caught a pass this season before last week.
“He did a great job catching the ball and finishing runs vertically and protecting the football the right way,” offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said. “It was really good to see him break some tackles and play physical with the ball in his hand.
“In the run game, he did a great job of keeping his feet in the ground and with hat placement and ball get off. He really protected his gap and strained, which is also what our entire offensive line did the best.“
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It’s no coincidence that in West Virginia’s wins over TCU and Iowa State, the Mountaineers’ offensive line played what many would consider their two best games to this point in the season.
WVU managed eight total offensive touchdowns and its top two scoring and yardage outputs of the year against FBS competition.
While the line has shown improvement across the board, the play of true freshman right tackle Wyatt Milum hasn’t gone unnoticed. Two of Milum’s three career starts were in those victories after the Spring Valley High School standout overcame an injury that prevented him from playing October 9 in a loss at Baylor.
The 6-6, 290-pound Milum was rewarded as the team’s offensive lineman of the week for his performance against the Cyclones
“He played extremely physical and played hard,” Brown said. “He had eight knockdowns and he was the most productive offensive lineman. As a true freshman starting against Iowa State, that was an impressive performance.”
Milum’s performance didn’t catch his teammates by surprise, though guard James Gmiter admits the offensive line had grown accustomed to center Zach Frazier claiming the award for the unit that comes following victories.
“For a true freshman to win offensive lineman of the week against the No. 1 defense in the conference is incredible,” Gmiter said. “We heard eight knockdowns and all started looking at Frazier, just because that’s what we expect from him. Coach Brown was like, ‘You guys are expecting the wrong name.’ He said Wyatt’s name and it was really relieving.
“I was proud of him and we all were to see him play the way he did. He was very physical and his attention to detail was elite. He really took a step from previous weeks. Even from TCU, in one week, he made tremendous strides.”
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Brown began Tuesday’s media outing by paying respect to veteran TCU coach Gary Patterson.
Following the Horned Frogs’ 31-12 loss at Kansas State, Patterson resigned effective immediately.
Patterson finishes his TCU head coaching tenure, which began with the bowl game in 2000, 181-79 overall. He led the Horned Frogs to six conference titles in three separate leagues and six of his teams finished with a top 10 ranking.
“Wanted to open today paying respect to Gary Patterson,” Brown said. “really one of the legends in the coaching community. He’s been a great mentor to me, especially early in my head-coaching career. He’s just been great for the profession and done a lot of work with the American Football Coaches Association. He’s served in a lot of different capacities to really help football and the coaching profession.”
However, since the 2018 season, the Honed Frogs are 21-22, including 13-19 in Big 12 play.
In 2016, a statue of Patterson was unveiled outside TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Jerry Kill was named TCU’s interim head coach. The 60-year-old Kill was 29-29 in four-plus seasons at Minnesota, before health reasons forced him to step down in 2015.