Although the result stung for the Mountaineers, offensive tackle Nick Malone made his first career start against Houston at the left tackle spot in place of the injured Wyatt Milum, and Malone has a lot to take away from his first time taking over at tackle.
From right in his backyard at Morgantown High School, Malone began as a walk-on to the WVU football program and has blossomed into a starting caliber and rotational lineman for the Mountaineers.
“It’s a great story being from here, working hard and starting. It’s steps, and you keep going up the steps and my story kind of proves that,” Malone said.
After four seasons of working hard to move up the depth chart for West Virginia, Malone was offered a full scholarship on Thanksgiving of the 2022 season.
Then, he became a starter in WVU’s heartbreaking 41-39 loss to Houston on Oct. 12 in place of regular left tackle Wyatt Milum who went down with an eye injury and this accomplishment was surreal for him as an in-state native.
“It was a surreal moment, getting the first true career start at tackle,” Malone said. “It’s been something I’ve been working toward. All the hard work has paid off.”
The journey has been a challenge to overcome for Malone, and now after one start, he’s begun to see the fruits of his hard work and it’s been a goal for him to get on the field.
“I didn’t get the offer, I wanted to come in and work but my goal was to play and I feel like at this point I’ve put enough work in and did the standards and proved it worked and I did what I set out to do,” Malone said.
It’s been a combination of goals and standards for Malone’s West Virginia career and the coaching cues given by offensive line coach Matt Moore really started to click for the fifth-year senior.
“When we have our meetings with Coach [Matt] Moore, it’s about setting your goals and standards,” Malone said. “At this point, I’ve been able to do the things they told me to do. You get bigger, you feel bigger and it clicks in our head.”
Now that Malone’s first opportunity in the starting lineup is in the past, offensive coordinator Chad Scott was impressed by his ability to step right into the starting role and succeed, crediting it to his preparation during the week.
“[Nick Malone] has got a tremendous work ethic and he’s done a great job of preparing. He got an opportunity to start this past week and he stepped right in because he practices that way,” Scott said. “He practices as if he’s a starter, so I’m proud of the way he’s come along and developed.”
Malone admitted that there were some first-play jitters against the Cougars but once he got warmed up, the game came naturally to him as he adjusted to the bump in competition in a starting role against a Big 12 conference opponent.
“It’s always that first play jitters to get the first play out but after that it was like practice, just talking to the coaches and what to do,” Malone said.
The Mountaineers acculated 150 more yards than Houston and scored 39 points in the loss and Malone admits that there were more opportunities on the table for the game to swing WVU’s way.
“We want to win and you want to win every game but when you fall short you think what can I do better?” Malone said. “The film we watched today was the little pieces that we could have blown them out by like 20.”
Now after a respectable performance and a PFF grade 67.3 following his first start, Malone has one game under his belt and is happy with his accomplishment.
“On the offensive line, we had our hiccups but overall I felt really well,” Malone said. “I felt personally, I did pretty well and held my own.”
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