MORGANTOWN - Let's face facts here when it comes to a pair of Tylers on West Virginia's football team: Tyler Rader and Tyler Urban don't share much in common.
MORGANTOWN - Let's face facts here when it comes to a pair of Tylers on West Virginia's football team: Tyler Rader and Tyler Urban don't share much in common.
Yes, they're both seniors who play on offense. In fact, somewhat surprisingly in the case of both, they are likely to line up with the No. 1 offense Friday night when the Mountaineers finish spring drills with the Gold-Blue game.
Oh, yeah, and they both arrived at WVU as tight ends - Rader from Nitro in 2007 and Urban from suburban Pittsburgh a year later. For the record, the tight end position pretty much no longer exists at West Virginia.
And that, of course, is where Rader and Urban's paths dissect. Urban was a tight end throughout his first three years in Morgantown, and when Dana Holgorsen arrived and eliminated the position, the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder seemed dinosaur-like. But he was turned into a big slot receiver and to say that he has thrived in the position this spring would be an understatement.
Rader, on the other hand, was lucky enough to have blown out his knee two years ago. Lucky because in retrospect had he remained a tight end to this day he would certainly be lost in the Mountaineers' new offense.
"Let's be honest,'' he said with a self-deprecating laugh. "My 260-pound butt wouldn't be running routes and catching balls out here.''
No, that knee injury forced something that has worked out extremely well. Rader put on another 30 pounds - he's now listed at 6-3 and 296 pounds and moved to the offensive line. And after 14 of WVU's 15 spring practices - not to mention countless others since he arrived and essentially became practice fodder - Rader has accomplished something.
Were the season to start today, he would likely be in the starting lineup at right guard.
"It was a fresh start for everybody,'' Rader said of the primary reason for his chance to play this spring, an entirely new offensive coaching staff. "With the old staff, they were great guys and all but they also already had in mind what they wanted going in and they had their notions of what we could do. The new guys didn't have any of that. It was a chance to prove ourselves.''
For Rader, though, this new offense presented even more of an opportunity because, unlike most of his teammates, Rader wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the schemes. It seems ages ago, of course, but remember that Rader played in Scott Tinsley's wide-open attack at Nitro.
MORGANTOWN - Let's face facts here when it comes to a pair of Tylers on West Virginia's football team: Tyler Rader and Tyler Urban don't share much in common.
Yes, they're both seniors who play on offense. In fact, somewhat surprisingly in the case of both, they are likely to line up with the No. 1 offense Friday night when the Mountaineers finish spring drills with the Gold-Blue game.
Oh, yeah, and they both arrived at WVU as tight ends - Rader from Nitro in 2007 and Urban from suburban Pittsburgh a year later. For the record, the tight end position pretty much no longer exists at West Virginia.
And that, of course, is where Rader and Urban's paths dissect. Urban was a tight end throughout his first three years in Morgantown, and when Dana Holgorsen arrived and eliminated the position, the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder seemed dinosaur-like. But he was turned into a big slot receiver and to say that he has thrived in the position this spring would be an understatement.
Rader, on the other hand, was lucky enough to have blown out his knee two years ago. Lucky because in retrospect had he remained a tight end to this day he would certainly be lost in the Mountaineers' new offense.
"Let's be honest,'' he said with a self-deprecating laugh. "My 260-pound butt wouldn't be running routes and catching balls out here.''
No, that knee injury forced something that has worked out extremely well. Rader put on another 30 pounds - he's now listed at 6-3 and 296 pounds and moved to the offensive line. And after 14 of WVU's 15 spring practices - not to mention countless others since he arrived and essentially became practice fodder - Rader has accomplished something.
Were the season to start today, he would likely be in the starting lineup at right guard.
"It was a fresh start for everybody,'' Rader said of the primary reason for his chance to play this spring, an entirely new offensive coaching staff. "With the old staff, they were great guys and all but they also already had in mind what they wanted going in and they had their notions of what we could do. The new guys didn't have any of that. It was a chance to prove ourselves.''
For Rader, though, this new offense presented even more of an opportunity because, unlike most of his teammates, Rader wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the schemes. It seems ages ago, of course, but remember that Rader played in Scott Tinsley's wide-open attack at Nitro.
"It's exactly what Coach Tinsley ran and I kind of knew it right from the start,'' Rader said. "We watched film and they introduced the offense and I said, 'Man, this is high school.' So I figured right from the start I had a little bit of an advantage.''
Of course, most people don't necessarily associate what goes on between the tackles as that much different in this offense or any other. The differences are mainly in what the skill position players do while the grunts like Rader stay home and fight it out.
But there are, in fact, differences in how the linemen play, and that's what Rader noticed right away.
"A lot of it is just the play calling. We don't have a lot of plays,'' Rader said after Wednesday's morning practice. "The linemen have designated things they have to do and it doesn't change that much. Now the receivers and stuff, that's more complicated, but there might be 15 things the O-linemen have to know and that's it. It was the same in high school in this offense.''
Now, of course, it would be easy to jump the gun here and assume things following 14 spring practices that might not necessarily be true four months from now. Although they don't play his position, returning starting tackles Don Barclay and Jeff Braun missed all of spring drills after January shoulder surgery. When they return, some of the tackles who replaced them this spring might be looked at as guards. There are four freshman linemen arriving this summer.
Line coach Bill Bedenbaugh has maintained all along that he will find the best linemen he can find this spring, add Barclay and Braun and the newcomers to the mix when he can and try to find the five best and their backups.
In other words, Rader still has a lot of work to do to prove himself. But he's already come a long way, working into a lineup that now seems to be settled on Joe Madsen at center, Rader and Josh Jenkins at guards and Quinton Spain and Pat Eger at tackles.
"It can only make us better. Competition breeds greatness,'' Rader said. "You have to have confidence in yourself. You have to be confident or no one else will believe in you, either. You have to want to be there and I did want to be there and now I'm getting the shot.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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