Neal Brown explains how West Virginia has retained depth on line of scrimmage

West Virginia coach Neal Brown has built up his program with the offensive and defensive line serving as the foundation. Now getting ready to enter his sixth season in Morgantown, he saw his best results yet in 2023 to finish 9-4 and win the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

Brown has been able to create a solid core up front by giving players chances early to play. Many of the offensive lineman are multi-year starters for the Mountaineers, having chose to stick around for the long haul.

In the era of the transfer portal, retaining those players has been especially important for Brown to find success at WVU. Speaking with On3’s Andy Staples, he opened up on what it takes to ensure long-term commitment from his players.

“One of the things you have to do earlier in guys’ careers is you have to give them opportunity to play,” Brown said. “If a guy’s gonna redshirt, where a lot of offensive linemen and defensive linemen are still doing that, you gotta give them a lot of attention. That’s something we try to do here with both fronts. We got a development program that we put them through in the weight room where they’re getting a ton of attention from our strength coach.

“We are intentional about making sure that we do individual and team stuff throughout the season. Not just one day a week. We do it four days a week during the season to make sure they’re getting coaches and they understand our schemes. There’s constant feedback being given where they understand that there is a future and this is the path for them.”

That offensive line enabled the Mountaineers to rank fourth in the country in rushing offense this past season with 228.9 yards per game. They also tied for third in the FBS in sacks allowed per game (0.8). Similarly, the defensive line success to rank No. 4 in the Big 12 against the run.

WVU is set to return three of its five starters on the offensive line from this past season. That includes Wyatt Milum, who is set to enter his fourth season in a starting role. Not only that, but the Mountaineers bring back five of the seven players who were in the rotation a year ago.

Brown explained how all that started with Zach Frazier in 2020, who became a four-year starter as well and developed into a leader for the team. He, along with Doug Nester, helped set the foundation for what WVU expects from its offensive line, now passing the torch down to Milum.

That gives Neal Brown belief West Virginia can continue the standard set by Frazier and Nester.

“What has happened in that room is now the standard that was set by Zach Frazier and Doug Nester has continued,” Brown said. “It’s how they work. It’s how they meet. It’s the extra stuff they do, how they handle nutrition. All those things. Now that’s gone down to our younger guys and we’ve evaluated and recruited those guys at a pretty good level too, so we’ve got good guys behind them.

“But the standard from a work ethic standpoint has really changed. What they’ve done from an offensive line room is they’ve really challenged the defensive line because they work out together and they go up against each other all the time in practice. So that rose the level of work and production and play in our defensive line room. Both those units are the strength of our football team now.”