COLUMN: O-line strength of WVU

By Bob Hertzel

MORGANTOWN — Let us understand the basics behind the plan to bring the West Virginia Mountaineers a Big East championship and, perhaps, a national championship this year.

Despite all that flashy speed, the deceptive motion, the threat of pass or run ... the championship isn’t going to be won there.

No, when push comes to shove — and that is not a cliché but, instead, a job description – the Mountaineers greatest strength comes in 300-pound packages of spit and grit. Their knuckles are scraped, their noses twisted, so dirty they have to shower by the hour to get really clean.

“Our offensive line — outside of Patrick White — should be the strength of our football team. Our offensive line is special. Special! They’re in sync. They are fun to watch. They are very talented. They are more blue collar guys than talented,” Head Coach Bill Stewart said during Big East Media Day.

They are five individuals and their backups who merge into one offensive line.

Don’t believe it.

Next time Patrick White runs a play and is buried at the line of scrimmage, then comes back later in the same game and breaks through a big hole on the same play for 65 yards of so, understand how important it is that the offensive line does its job correctly.

The offensive line returns intact from a year ago. They were good enough then to create enough holes that two backs would gain more than 1,000 yards on the ground.

Their names are Ryan Stanchek and Greg Isdaner and Mike Dent and Jake Figner and Selvish Capers.

If Notre Dame had its Four Hosemen, West Virgina has its Five Clydesdales, for they pull the wagon.

They are backed up by Don Barclay, Stephen Maw and freshman Josh Jenkins, who is being considered as a redshirt but who seems to be playing just too well to allow them to do that.

But the leader, the senior who makes it all go, is the left tackle, a player who a year ago could not make All-Big East but could make All-American, is Stanchek, a minesweeper of a blocker out of Cincinnati’s LaSalle High School.

Listen to Stewart talk about Stanchek.

“That guy is an absolute warrior. He plays hard, he plays fair. Ryan Stanchek is the heartbeat of the offensive line,” Stewart said.

“... the heartbeat of the offensive line” is what Stewart called him. Could there be higher praise?

Stanchek has grown over the years. Survived may be a better word. He has had three different position coaches, from the obscene yapping of Rick Trickett to the middle-of-the-approach of Greg Frye to the quiet approach of current coach, Dave Johnson.

He believes he has benefitted from all three, sort of a smorgasbord of coaching styles for a player who someday sees himself as a coach. He’s learned different moves, different techniques, as many little tricks of the trade as any lineman in the nation has had a chance to learn.

“There is a time you have to be fiery, there are times when guys react different. It’s almost neat to see the differences,” he said.

Johson started at center on West Virginia’s 1981 Peach Bowl team and the 1982 Gator Bowl team. He became a graduate assistant on Don Nehlen’s staff in 1984 to 1985 but wound up doing most of his coaching at Georgia.

As an idea of how important it was for him to come home, he left a team that most polls pick as No. 1 in the nation to coach under Stewart here.

Johnson seldom raises his voice, but players seem to cling to every word he utters.

“You have to listen. Dave is so smart,” Stanchek said. “He tells you one way, you’ve been told something else and you’re thinking, ‘I don’t think that’s right.’ But you do it. He has helped us tremendously.”

Johnson’s No. 1 mission this year was to teach pass blocking skills to a team that was run-blocking oriented.

“Pass blocking was never our forte. We were running the ball 75 to 80 percent of the time. When we had to pass the ball, Pat wound up running a lot,” Stewart explained.

White always kept the offensive linemen guessing.

“With No. 5 back there, you never know what he’s going to do,” Stanchek said.

Stanchek never doubted the pass blocking aspect of the game could be learned.

“If you can run block, most guys can pass block. Coach Johnson has brought different aspects. After three coaches in three years, we’ve learned from each coach. We’ve learned things we wouldn’t have learned,” he said.

Johnson has no complaints at present about where his line stands less than two weeks before the opener.

“I’m satisfied with the (first-team) and there are some things that need settled with the (second-team) and there’s always room for movement because you always want to be prepared for any situation,” said Johnson. “It helps the offense because it keeps guys fresh and allows you to make moves if you have to.”

Perhaps Johnson’s biggest challenge is seeing that Barclay gets enough playing time. “We have a young talent, a boy named Barclay, a redshirt freshman. He has a chance to be better than all five of those guys we have their now. He has a chance to be the next special lineman ... and he can’t get on the field,” is the way Stewart described Barclay at the Big East Media Day. “They are a special unit and I don’t want to break up the cohesion.”

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com