Published: July 10, 2009 09:13 pm      

HERTZEL COLUMN: Jobe at center of new line

MORGANTOWN — He may be the center, but West Virginia University’s Eric Jobe doesn’t want to become the center of attention.

See, most offensive linemen labor in relative obscurity. After all, what fun is football if you aren’t watching the ball, and the only time an offensive lineman has a football in his hands is if someone dropped it.

Miss a block?

Yeah, everyone knows a block has been missed, but who missed it?

Really, it’s too much trouble to figure that out. Besides, there’s another play coming.

Ah, but snap the ball low to the quarterback in the shotgun, snap it over his head, there’s 60,000 fingers pointing in your direction.

Jobe knows something about that. He had some problems back in the Meinecke Car Care Bowl game against North Carolina.

“I was rushing everything. That’s why I made the bad snaps. It’s something I’ve been working on a lot,” he said the other days as he took time out from making final preparations for camp to begin in less than a month now.

When you have big, quick defensive tackles like North Carolina had and the center has to get out and block them, it can make you rush.

Jobe is the center of attention in another aspect.

Anyone who has followed WVU football knows that if there is any unit that needs to prove itself this season it is the offensive line that was hit heavily by losses.

In fact, when Jobe played center in the bowl game he was playing for the last time with tackle Ryan Stanchek and guards Greg Isdaner and Jake Figner.

Now he’s one of two veterans on the O-line, joining tackle Selvish Capers … but neither is really what you’d call a veteran veteran.

Capers has started the last 19 games for the Mountaineers, but has been an offensive lineman only since 2007 when he was converted from tight end.

Jobe was forced into the starting lineup in the middle of last season when Mike Dent went down with a neck injury that ended his career. He started the final five games.

“It was imperative (to start the last five games),” the 285-pound Jobe said. “I’m coming into this season already having had that experience. I know what to expect, and I know how to prepare.”

He’d better, because he may be the one Mountaineer that the team can’t afford to have fail or suffer an injury. There isn’t much experience behind him.

That means that Jobe will probably be out there as long as he can be in most games, 60 or 70 plays a game.

“I’m preparing to play the whole game,” he admitted. “Last year, when I went in there, I really didn’t have much time to prepare to play that much.”

Not that it mattered. Against Cincinnati, in that crushing overtime loss that ended the Mountaineers chance to win the Big East title, Jobe played a season-high 86 plays, which makes for a tough time getting out of bed the next morning.

A year ago, of course, when Jobe was snapping, it was Patrick White on the other end of the snap. This year, that has changed and it’s Jarrett Brown, but Jobe sees no reason why that should be any kind of problem.

“I’ve worked with him the past two or three years, with me being the backup center and him being the backup quarterback,” Jobe said. “There’s chemistry between us.”

That becomes important when the offense is communicating, as it must do.

“There’s a lot of emphasis on that, especially picking up blitzes,” Jobe said. “Jarrett has the last say on that. He has his eyes up, so we have to follow him.”

But sometimes the calls come from the offensive tackles, who are checking their side of the field to see if the safety has rolled up or if they can spot a blitz coming.

Once they do that, they pass the word down to Jobe.

“My head’s between my legs half the time so the tackles make the calls. They’ll relay it to me, then it’s my job to get it to the other side of the line. The hardest part of the job is making sure everyone is on the same page. Everything kind of goes through me.”

Everything, that is, except a blitzing linebacker.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.