Zach Frazier didn’t have to do a single thing in his final game as a Mountaineer and he still would have went down as one of the best players to ever wear the West Virginia uniform.
But what happened in what ended up being the final play of his collegiate career, cemented his legacy.
Trailing 31-27 to Baylor with 1:14 remaining and no timeouts, the Mountaineers needed to move the ball down the field as quickly as possible. Right out of the gate, adversity hit.
Frazier went down with a leg injury on the first play of the drive and had no way of being able to stay in the game. Had he stayed down on the field, it would have resulted in a 10-second runoff due to WVU being out of timeouts. Instead, he hobbled his way to the sideline to avoid the runoff and saved precious time.
Also on that play, Frazier grabbed wide receiver Hudson Clement and tossed him toward the first down marker, giving the Mountaineers a fresh set of downs, stopping the clock. Between helping pick up the first down and making his way off the field following the injury, Frazier saved anywhere from 20-25 seconds and WVU needed every bit of it. Four plays later, Garrett Greene hit Jahiem White in stride for the game-winning touchdown.
On this week’s episode of In the Gun, Frazier detailed what happened on the play and credited his teammates for piecing together the game-winning drive.
“The first play of the drive was a tunnel screen. It was a four-down front, so I was sliding to the left. I had a guy in my gap and I kind of stepped towards him and swatted him by but he didn’t really bite on it too much. I think he kind of saw the screen, but I tried to get him up the field as much as I could. I went to release and normally, I have first backer in the box and it was kind of a weird situation and it never really happened to me before but when I released out there, there was no one really out there for me to get. But Huddy was right in front of me so I just grabbed him and that d-lineman that I hit up the field that didn’t really bite, he retraced and I don’t really know what I would have done in his situation because I’m holding the guy with the ball and he can’t go around me. So he ended up tackling me – wrapped his hands around my waist and dropped down on the side of my leg and I let go of Huddy as that happened and pushed him forward.
“I knew something wasn’t quite right. I didn’t hear the snap or anything but I felt like my foot was kind of turned and I just had a lot of pain. And in two-minutes, I have to be the first one to the ball but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run another play and I knew I had to get off the field because we didn’t have any timeouts and you don’t want to get that ten-second runoff, so I just rolled over and I didn’t want to put any weight on that leg so I was just screaming and bear crawling off the field.
“Once it happened, I just made the decision I’m not going to be able to run another play and I just knew that if I couldn’t get on the ball, I got to get off the field. People will say I was the reason we won the game and stuff, which I probably did save some time and maybe helped the drive with just momentum. But at the same time, you have (Brandon) Yates coming in and the last snap he took was at pregame and he came in and had four perfect snaps and made all the calls. If he goes in there and has one bad snap or snaps it over his head, that drive never would have happened. And then Garrett (Greene) too, marched right down the field. So without those guys we wouldn’t have won the game if they didn’t execute on those last four plays.”
That right there is just another reason why offensive line coaches around the league are going to be pounding the table for this guy come April. The IQ and awareness to be able to recognize he has to get off the field while severely injured is remarkable. And to put the cherry on top, he could have taken the credit for helping win that game, but he didn’t. It’s about his teammates. He gives those guys the glory and deservingly so. But the reality of it is, if WVU doesn’t have those 20-25 seconds to work with, they don’t win the game. That play will forever be remembered by Mountaineer fans as it was a bittersweet end to an All-American career.
The good news is Frazier is making progress in his recovery and is “ahead of schedule.” It’s still unknown how much he will do at the NFL Combine later this month but it appears he is on track to be a full-go sooner than later.
