There is no larger void, neither physically nor strategically, to replace on WVU’s defense in this coming season than at nose guard where Chris Neild unselfishly manhandled opponents the past two (plus) seasons. It’s the keystone position in the 3-3-5 and the Mountaineers have to be good there to be good across the field.

Among the candidates — and perhaps the leader today — is a reformed and reshaped outside player, Jorge Wright.

A reserve and one-time starter at the tackle and end positions, he’s inside now and working with more experience and more muscle and more weight. It is the redshirt junior who has thus far made the most of this most important position in a most unusual career.

Wright started off as a 16-year-old college freshman. 

“When you have a good mother and good surroundings around you, temptations can’t break you,” Wright said.

And so it was that he arrived at WVU a year or two earlier than many of his classmates and as much five or six years younger than some of his teammates, but that did not prove to be a problem.

“I fit it,” he said. “Since the ninth grade I was always younger than everyone else. It was the same thing in the transition to college.”

Besides, he noted, “I never looked 16, just like I don’t look 20 now.”

“To me, it’s pretty much the same thing,” he said. “If you don’t put in time, you don’t get the results you want. If you come here and be lazy in practice, lazy in the weight room, lazy in the film room, you’re not going to do good. If you don’t study, don’t do your homework, you won’t get grades.”