One of the main talking points surrounding the West Virginia football team throughout the first three weeks of the season has been the offensive line.
The offensive line is one of the more experienced groups for the Mountaineers this year with all five starters being returning players, some of which being in their third year of starting.
One name that has stood out to many people is the starting right tackle, Doug Nester.
Nester, a West Virginia native, spent the first two years of his college career at Virginia Tech before electing to transfer to WVU following the conclusion of the 2020 season.
Since transferring to WVU, Nester has become an integral part of this offensive line, starting in 34 games since 2021.
“Just as an offensive line I think we’ve improved a lot even since last year,” said Nester. “I think we keep improving every game and that’s what we have to keep doing.”
When Nester first arrived in Morgantown, the offensive line was one of the youngest groups on the team but over time has grown together.
“The offensive line as a whole has just gotten so much better. Even game to game, year to year, and just keep developing the younger guys as well. We were all pretty young whenever we first started and I just think that has helped a lot because we all started really young and just being able to develop and grow as those young players until we’re in our third seasons now together has been fantastic.”Over the weekend against Pitt, the Mountaineers rushed the ball a total of 51 times, and according to offensive coordinator Chad Scott, the offensive line was asking to do that.
“I thought up front man we were physical, we moved people around and created space, created lanes, against a really good defense,” said Scott. “To hear those guys, to hear those offensive lineman say coach keep running the football, you know there was a couple times where coach Brown would say what’s a good drive start, what’s a good pass play, what’s a good way to get it going and all the coaches across the board would say the best pass play is to hand it off to one of the running backs.”
