MORGANTOWN - One of the most surprising offseason revelations about West Virginia's roster came from one of the least surprising sources.
Tyler Orlosky had a headline summer. He was voted first-team all-Big 12, the first time a Mountaineers lineman earned the preseason honor, and a third-team preseason All-American by Athlon. Watch lists for the Rimington Award and the Outland Trophy, which honor the nation's best center and interior offensive or defensive lineman, included the senior from Cleveland.
That wasn't the surprise. WVU folks have thought for a year now that Orlosky has a chance to be the best center the school has seen. He is the keystone of an offensive line that is projected to be one of the best in the Big 12 and perhaps even the country.
The shock, it turns out, came from Pro Football Focus, a data-driven scouting website that named Orlosky the NCAA's highest-rated returning center, the Big 12's best run blocker, WVU's best returning player and the 60th best returning player in the country.
Why? Here's the stunner.
"On 460 pass-blocking snaps, Orlosky allowed just six total pressures, including one sack - good for the best pass-blocking efficiency among returning Power-5 players at the position," PFF wrote.
One sack. Six pressures. Think of all the times quarterback Skyler Howard was under duress last season and understand it was almost never Orlosky's fault.
"I trust him," Howard said. "I don't think he's going to give up any sacks. Blown assignments are not what he does."
There is one exception, though, and it must be revisited, not to remind Orlosky, but to reinforce his image. Both Howard and Orlosky remember the game, Howard specifically, Orlosky hesitantly.
"I try to put that game away because it just wasn't a good game for me," the center said.
"Baylor," Howard said.
He was sacked twice that day. One does indeed belong to Orlosky, who had to deal with defensive tackles Beau Blackshear and Andrew Billings, massive pains in the neck that partnered with the ones that shot through Orlosky's left side.
"I had a torn hip flexor," he said. "I had a torn hip flexor, and I was on medication to block out the pain but to also stop the leg from moving."
No one knew about the injury, and for obvious reasons. Imagine if the muscles that help you move and flex your legs and knees became a target for opportune opponents.
Centers use both hip flexors every time they stand over the ball and then fire the snap back to the quarterback. By the time his head is up, Orlosky's facemask is usually butting up against a defender's, and he's asking his hips to help establish a base with the lower half of his body.
Orlosky figures he goes through that routine - the stance, the snap and the clash - around 2,000 times a week. He was hurt on the Tuesday before the Baylor game, the start of the week for the Mountaineers, and didn't miss any of the practices that followed. He played just about each of the 83 plays the offense ran that day.
The sack is somewhere in the back of his brain. The pain is not.
"Not good," he remembered, smiling at both the memory and the explanation that followed. "That's why I gave up a sack."
That was the sixth game and the seventh week of the season, so there was some natural and expected soreness beneath the pain that came with the tear. He played the next five games with diminishing discomfort and figures he was back to normal probably by the Kansas State game that ended the regular season and certainly for the Cactus Bowl a month later.
And he never gave up another sack, not against Arizona State, which blitzed more than probably anyone in the country, and not in the Big 12, which has a bunch of three-man defensive lines or compact four-man lines that routinely occupy the center.
That, in hindsight, is the ultimate credit to the best part about Orlosky. He is close to mentally mastering the position, the pleasant byproduct of spending the last four years on campus and starting 26 straight games the past two seasons.
He's not going to get tricked. He's not going to forget his responsibility. He's not going to let someone next to him get tricked or forget.
Now he's back with Howard and with the starting guards to either side. They're not learning anything about one another. They're not being taught anything they don't already know. They're instead trying to give the offense something it's been missing.
"It's great to sit back there and get the ball to our playmakers," Howard said. "I don't have to get it out of my hands right away like some games last year when it was just catch and release. Now I can sit back there and pinpoint my target and put it on them."
Contact Mike Casazza at 304-319-1142 or mikec@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikecasazza and read his blog at http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/wvu/.