MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Consistency and reliability are the cornerstones of success in athletics. Players who can consistently perform are the most reliable, and the most reliable guys are the ones coaches usually put on the field.
Nick Malone learned first-hand those values as a former walk-on player from Morgantown High. When he first got here, Malone wisely understood that he needed to create value for himself as a player to move forward in the program.
His best advice to those traveling his path is to do whatever it takes to get onto the field.
"I didn't start playing offensive line much," he recalled last week. "It started on special teams and went from tight end on field goal, to shield on punt, to backup tight end, to backup tackle, to now the role of actually playing."
Punt shield is one of those necessary and thankless jobs that can oftentimes separate the guys who are really serious about wanting to play college football from those who are not.
"It's not a pretty position, but it was my role, and I wanted to play," Malone explained. "It didn't matter if it was offensive line or field goal, I just wanted to be on the field as much as possible and doing what I could do to help was kind of my big thing."
Each role led to something a little bigger to the point last year when Malone was like the team's Swiss Army knife among offensive linemen. If something happened or somebody went down, Malone was usually the first guy going in somewhere.
"You have to stay ready," he explained. "I never thought I would go in the second or third drive at Penn State, so you have to be ready and stay ready. I think consistency is the big word to use and just keep going."
Malone has taken lots of advice through the years from former players such as Colton McKivitz,
Zach Frazier and
Doug Nester to current teammates such as
Brandon Yates,
Ja'Quay Hubbard and
Wyatt Milum.
He's also had extensive conversations with offensive line coach
Matt Moore and head coach
Neal Brown through the years. Walk-ons here are not treated like typical walk-ons at other programs, and their message to him was to press forward and create value for himself in some manner or form.
"Coach Moore and coach Brown always had one-on-one meetings, and starting with those meetings at the beginning, it was kind of like, 'Keep going, you've got this.' Then, as time went on, it was like, 'You've got a bigger role now and you've got to step in,'" Malone mentioned. "Expectations kind of changed, but I think it's the mindset of the consistency piece that was the biggest part of that.
"The big thing about here is you don't get treated like a walk-on. It's kind of all-for-one, one-for-all," Malone said.
Malone also had some conversations with Rich Braham, Mountaineer football's gold standard for walk-ons. Braham was always unhappy that he didn't get a scholarship coming out of University High here in Morgantown and spent his entire college football career at WVU taking it out on his opponents.
When Braham left West Virginia following the 1993 season, he was considered a top NFL prospect who ended up playing 13 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Braham's message to Malone was basically to prove all the doubters wrong.
"I talked to him, and it was kind of that mindset piece of having a chip on your shoulder and being from West Virginia, you kind of have to outdo everybody," he said. "Prove them wrong was the big thing."
So, that process began for Malone as a 260-pound freshman trying to block players 40 pounds heavier than him.
"That doesn't get you very far at the Division I level," he laughed. "It was a big transition because I was moving people around pretty easily in high school, but here they're lifting, too, and getting stronger, so we talk about hand and pad leverage, and that's kind of what I took to heart to work on those things."
Eventually, he found a role for himself as a shield on the punt team, a blocker on field goal and then as a blocking tight end in short-yardage situations. That evolved into the team's handy man along the offensive line, which eventually led to him earning a scholarship following a Thanksgiving practice in 2022.
He said he never got too low on the bad days nor too high on the good ones.
"On the O-line, we talk about being flat-lined. It's being consistent," he explained. "You have your bad plays, you give up sacks and get beat at the point of attack, but when you have those great blocks it's a great feeling. You kind of have to find that mixture of both and not get too high and not get too low."
Now, the 6-foot-5, 302-pound senior is the leading candidate to be the team's starting right tackle when West Virginia faces Penn State in the 2024 season opener on Saturday, Aug. 31. He earned three starts as
Doug Nester's replacement at right tackle and one in place of
Wyatt Milum at left tackle last year and has now appeared in 40 career games.
It's a golden opportunity for someone who has worked hard and done all the right things to get himself into this position.
Naturally, he's not taking anything for granted.
"My mindset is going 100% all the time," he explained. "It doesn't matter if I'm coming off the bench as a backup tackle or big tight end; none of that really bothers me. I just think of it as full steam ahead.
"One of the things I lacked last year was at the point of attack, I was not running off the ball and I think, especially now, we're running the ball pretty heavy, and I think I've been able to do the little things and it will show in the fall," he added.
As for this year's offensive line, post Frazier and Nester, Malone thinks it will be just fine.
"I think we can be better, especially now because we've taken the steps, and we have a lot of experience back. We'll definitely will miss Zach and Doug for sure. I heard in here previously, it's not a rebuild but a reload," he concluded.
