The keystones
July 22, 2015 by Mike Casazza
West Virginia’s Tyler Orlosky figures to be in the middle of a lot of action this fall, and for good reason. People inside the Puskar Center say no one’s had a better offseason than him. He’s perhaps the strongest player on the roster. He’s connected with Skyler Howard and he’s settled into a leadership role that might have been harder to embrace when he was younger and around older players.
And he’s good. I mean, touted-by-pundits good. He’s revered-by-peers good. Ask Texas Tech center Jared Kaster
“It’s a lot of pressure to put on someone to make the calls and know the front and signal all that stuff, but he’s just good, man. You can tell from watching him,” Kaster said. “He’s very good technique-wise. You can tell he’s smart, but it’s more about his technique. He’s a really good player with really good hands.”
But centers are funny folk. Their lives are unique. Their roles are critical. Their impact is frequently overlooked and underappreciated. So, sure, they are fans of one another because they know what it’s like to be in that unusual position. Forgive them if they think they’re the most important players on offense. Maybe believe them, too.
There were three quarterbacks at the Big 12’s media days. There were five centers. This, they said, was not a coincidence. It is an offensive league, but those offenses ask and trust the centers to do and be so many things to make those units so prolific. The decision to invite five centers? In a word: Smart.
Hunt, Doyle and Orlosky have made academic All-Big 12 teams. Darlington was his high school valedictorian with a 5.1 grade-point average, a 2060 on the SAT and a 33 on the ACT. He’s now an academic All-American.
“I know how much I do, and I know most of [the Big 12] centers are doing as much as I do,” Hunt said. “You’ve got to make sure everyone is on the same page and that you’ve got the call out for where we’re going, where we’re sliding. You’ve got to be someone who can comprehend the defense, see what’s going on over there and understand what the defense is trying to throw at you. And you’ve got to be calm and collected to communicate all of that, too.”
But you can’t limit their value to just intellect. They’re quite literally indispensable.
“We touch the ball more than anybody on the team,” Kaster said. “Why not have us here? Good grief. The quarterbacks are the pretty boys of the team, but the offense starts with us.”
This is not to say the centers are not aesthetically pleasing, though.
“You need a group of good-looking guys in the room,” Kaster said.