Matt Moore Details the Next Step for Wyatt Milum

West Virginia left tackle Wyatt Milum is looking to go from great to elite.

Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

It's almost been two years since West Virginia left tackle Wyatt Milum allowed a sack. Last year alone, he allowed just nine pressures and zero QB hits. Guys weren't even getting their hands on Garrett Greene or Nicco Marchiol. That's how elite the Kenova, West Virginia native was.

When you have someone as talented as Milum, what do you do? How do you get them better? That's the million dollar question that only offensive line coach Matt Moore can answer, which he did in great detail on Wednesday.

“The next step for Wyatt is being an elite pass protector off the edge. That’s something that he’s got to continue to work at. When you got a player like Zach (Frazier) and Wyatt, you got to find ways to coach ‘em because they're really, really good at what they do. You got to find things for them to work on. It’s like if you’re a teacher in a classroom. You’ve got really gifted students and you got some students that struggle, you got to figure out how to teach them all. That’s what we’ve worked really hard at is having things for Wyatt to work on to get him to be that elite pass protector on 3rd and long off the edge. Week 1 he’s going to be challenged with one of the best pass rushers, if not the best pass rusher in college football this year. That’s the next step with him.

"It’s about working on all the type of sets you take, not always doing the same thing. Understanding body demeanor from the defensive line, understanding linebacker leverage and really trying to hone down and understand what that guy is going to do. If you can hone it down to he’s either going to do this or this, well, that’s a whole lot better than setting off the ball and going wow, I don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s going to speed me, bull me, he’s going to go inside, whatever it is. It’s a lot of studying, a lot of film watching, and it’s a lot of technique at practice with his hands.”

Earlier this summer, Milum was named to the Outland Trophy preseason watch list which is given to the best offensive lineman in the country. According to Max Chadwick of Pro Football Focus, Milum is the fifth-best offensive tackle in the nation, trailing only Will Campbell (LSU), Kelvin Banks Jr. (Texas), Jonah Monheim (USC), and Ajani Cornelius (Oregon).

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