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Matt More sees Potential in his Offensive Line

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Matt Moore
Co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Matt Moore coaching up his offensive line during spring practice. (Photo by Christopher Hall)

West Virginia co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Matt Moore is looking for consistency among his linemen. He doesn’t have a lot of experience up front, but since the first day of spring practice, Moore is starting to sense the team is coming together.

I feel much better about my group up front – feel much better about their togetherness.” Stated Moore. “They’re really a fun group to coach. They really like each other – they’re going to play hard for each other. We’re really talented in a couple spots. I just got to fill in the other spots. I think it’s it there. It’s just one of those things that we got to keep pushing and I got to see what we’re going to do in adverse situations. O-line, you’re only as good as your worst player. I tell my guys all the time, ‘it ain’t about your great plays, it’s about your bad plays not being terrible. Because if you can go out there and you can be good and your bad plays be eh, then you’re going to have a successful group, but that’s what we’re working on is keeping our bad plays from being 5-yard losses and sacks and sack fumbles and things like that.”

Moore has two guys that are primed to be all-conference players by seasons end. Colton McKivitz was named to the 2019 preseason All-Big 12 team and Josh Sills earned All-Big 12 Second Team Selection by the coaches at the end of the 2018 season.

Moore has moved them to opposite sides of the line for the upcoming season. McKivitz is going from right to the left tackle and Sills is moving from left to right guard.

“That’s the good thing about both those guys is McKivitz played a bunch of right and Sills has played a bunch of left, so if we want to move them around, we can move them around for short yardage situations and stuff like that,” said Moore. “You don’t always want them right beside each other – they have different strengths. I mean, Mike Brown at the left guard spot is as good as a run blocker as Sills is, so there’s no reason to bump them around too much. As long he continues to get himself in shape and learn the offense.”

Coach Moore continued to explain to find depth at the left guard position and taking the load off Mike Brown. “We got to develop a guy behind him that can come in and help him. It’s not that he can’t do it, it’s just that I’m afraid he loses his focus when he gets really, really tired and he’s worked really hard. I mean the kid didn’t play at all last year – he was injured. He never played high school ball. You’re basically dealing with a kid that played spring ball and this. But he’s really developing well and he’s working really hard. He’s a hard-working kid. I’m looking forward to him being a really good player here.”

An option is redshirt freshman James Gmiter. He was recruited under former head coach Dana Holgorsen’s staff as a defensive lineman, but Neal Brown and his coaches though his talents would be better suited on the other side of the ball.

“Gmiter, he’s one of the most explosive/strongest guys in the program in the weight room, but he’s always been a D-lineman. He played a little bit of o-lineman in high school, but it wasn’t like a true dedicated o-lineman because he had to play both ways and all that stuff. So, he’s just now going into practice number 17 of ever being an o-lineman and he’s really coming along. He’s had a really good summer. Like I said, his strength and ability is no doubt, it’s just learning to play o-line with your feet wide, instead of putting your feet together running like a d-lineman is a bit of a struggle. But I can already tell, even though we don’t have pads on, he is starting to feel the position and what to do and he really wants to do it and he’s the guy I’m trying to develop to maybe split those reps with Mike to try and get us through a game, so he’s done really well.”

The coaching staff needed some immediate depth coming into the season and they found John Hughes out of Navarro Community College.

“John Hughes, I think was a really good get for us.” Said Moore. “He can play the tackle spot. He can play the guard spot. He’s athletic. Of course, we haven’t put on pads yet and he’s a guy that hadn’t had the full off year of training like everybody else. Physically, I know he’s not going to be as strong as we want him to be, but is he going to be strong enough to get the job done? We’ll find out. He’s definitely athletic enough.”

Briason Mays is another lineman that has put work in and has the potential to make an impact this season.

“Briason Mays has done a really good job from spring,” stated Moore. “I think his bench went up like 40 pounds or something like that. He was always a really athletic kid – he just didn’t have the pure strength up top, but I think it’s going to be interesting to see what he does when we come out with pads on.”

Jacob Buccigrossi will be redshirted this season due to another shoulder injury. That leaves WVU with some uncertainty at center, but Matt Moore believes he may have found his guy to back up starter Chase Behrndt.

“(Adam) Stilley is probably my second most reliable snapper right now,” specified Moore. “It’s going to be interesting to see what Briason (Mays) does. Stilley, as far as knowing what to do and how to do all that stuff – he’s got the same issue I had in when I was in college, he’s missing about six inches. He’s just not real tall but he’s a good player. I wouldn’t hesitate to play him in the game. He’s going to know what to do and how to do it. He’s going to get a good snap back there.”

Having fresh bodies throughout the duration of the long season will be vital for the Mountaineers success and Moore may have to rely on some freshmen

“We just got to develop some depth,” explained Moore. “We got to have some young kids step up. We got two true freshmen that have a lot of talent with Yates and Moore. Yates just got here, but he’s a really good-looking dude and he’s athletic. He’s really far behind because it took him awhile to get his eligibility to work out. Both of those guys that are young guys that are really good players.”

However, he’s got some strong leadership in his veterans.

“Colton (McKivitz) is a really reserved kid. He’s a really hard worker. He’s the kind of guy that sets the tone by how hard he works – what he does instead of what he says, and we’ve worked really hard since we’ve been here about getting him to develop about being more vocal,” boasted Moore. “He’s done a good job. We have the player practices where they go out there and they coach them and teach them and when you got two guys like that – I have been places where you don’t have true leadership and those player practices aren’t very good. But here, having those two dudes (referencing Josh Sills with Colton) have been really good and also (Kelby) Wickline. He’s a kid that’s grown up around football his whole life. When you got those three guys out there running a player led practice – you got three guys that know what they’re doing, and everybody listens to them. Those guys have done a really good job of bringing the group together.”

The offensive lineman had high praise for the work his unit put in this off-season and a few stuck out as they started fall camp.

“I think Colton McKivitz has really changed his body. He’s a lot thicker than he was, he’s a lot stronger. I mean, the best decision he made was – right after coach Brown got the job and he decided he was going to stay here, that’s the best decision he’s made. He had a really good off-season.”

“(Josh) Sills had a really good off-season. He’s trimmed down a little bit. You probably can’t tell by looking at him, but he has. He’s upped his cardiovascular.”

“(Kelby) Wickline’s put on some weight and he’s held it. He’s always been a thin guy but he’s over 300 and holding it strong and had a really good off-season.”

Moore has two studs up front, but he believes for them to be a good offensive line, he needs some guys to step up.

“We need Mike Brown to be that guy. We need Wickline to be that guy and we need Chase to be that guy,” said Moore. “We need to those three guys to step up and go ‘woo’. One of those guys need to be great and the other two to be good. They’re all three completely unproven. We got to have one of those guys that got to really step up.”

The fundamentals seem to be there, but the Mountaineers won’t know what they have till they put the pads on and start going up against the defensive line. They’ll begin to figure how good they are on August 31st against James Madison and get their first true test the following week when they travel to Columbia to take on the Missouri Tigers.

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