Owen Schmitt Reveals What He Told New WVU FB Kayden Luke in FaceTime Call

A direct message from the Runaway Beer Truck.

WVU Athletics Communications

It was pretty clear that after last season, West Virginia needed to infuse its roster with a bunch of physical, tough, hard-nosed guys who loved to hit, and that's on both sides of the ball. In hopes of bringing a new level of physicality to the offense, Rich Rodriguez went out and got himself a fullback, Kayden Luke, out of the transfer portal.

Luke saw limited action last year with Arizona, but when he was in the game, he did a heck of a job paving the way for the Wildcats' rushing attack. That's likely what his role will be in Morgantown rather than being the modern version of Owen Schmitt.

“Stick his face in the fan and go bust your helmet," Rodriguez said when asked what Luke's role will be this season. "If Owen Schmitt is your hero, be somewhat of an Owen Schmitt. Owen Schmitt now had tailback skills, and Kayden can run a little bit; he’s got good ball skills. Owen was just a freak. I did see Kayden got a mohawk or something, so he channeled his inner Owen, and I think Owen got a hold of him and said, ‘Okay now, that’s fine, but if you’re going to do that, you better stick your face in the fan and get your nose bloodied a little bit.’ But Kayden will do that. He’s got a good example from Schmitt happens.”

During our recent episode of In the Gun, breaking down WVU's offense (dropping tonight/early Friday morning), this conversation Big O had with Luke was brought up, and he told us what he said and what he expects him to bring.

WVU Athletics Communications

“I think, for me, I could look at it as a compliment. I actually reached out to Travis Trickett. I saw one of their hype videos, and there was a section in there where he’s like faking hitting his head on his helmet, and I was like, alright, I got to talk to him for a second. I just wanted to talk to him and let him know, like, hey, that wasn’t fake. That was real. So Travis went over to him, and he had me on FaceTime, and I just said, ‘Hey man, you’re getting a lot of love. That’s great. The whole helmet thing, that wasn’t an act.’ Like so much is theatrics now, I feel like, and I was like, ‘Hey, if you’re going to be about it, be about it.’ And I think he got the message. I think he understood what I meant. I wasn’t meaning any disrespect. It was just, ‘Hey, if you’re going to be that guy, be that guy.’

"We’re two totally different guys, and what we are is fullback guys, and we got a couple screws loose, which I think he does. I think he brings a good energy to the squad. He’s definitely a downhill guy, and he’s going to smack a guy in the mouth and bring some of that tenacity and that hard edge that we have definitely been lacking.”

From Ira Rodgers, Ron Wolfley, and Wes Ours to Owen Schmitt, the Mountaineers have a pretty strong history with fullbacks, and oftentimes, WVU had an incredible amount of success when they had a really good one on the roster.

Kayden Luke doesn't need to be the Runaway Beer Truck 2.0 or the Wes Express. He just needs to play with his hair on fire and set the tone in the run game. When you have a fullback who just goes crazy plowing through defenders, it gets the rest of your team hyped up and wanting to join him in the hit parade. If Luke can do that, Rich Rod and Big O will be ecstatic.