Apr 24, 2025
Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com WVU offensive lineman Wyatt Milum is projected to be selected as early as the second round or the third round when the NFL draft gets underway this evening.
MORGANTOWN — Traditionally, April is not exactly what you’d call prime time on the college sports calendar, but there is nothing traditional about the year 2025.
The baseball team is pushing to win the Big 12, host a regional and make it to a Super Regional — all under a new coach that has become an object of affection among the fans.
Basketball is rebuilding its roster from scratch through the transfer portal under an intriguing new coach, Ross Hodge, after the stunning departure of Darian DeVries after one year.
Football had an equally stunning change in leadership when Rich Rodriguez, after 17 years in exile following his defection to Michigan, was brought back to do a rebuilding job for the second time in his home state. He is dizzily spinning through the portal revolving door with players transferring out and transferring in. He knows his roster next season will have approximately 65 players who were not on this year’s roster.
And the world of college sports itself is caught up in reinventing itself as a professional presence as it moves into revenue sharing and NIL compensation that is turning a few 18- or so-year-old athletes into millionaires and quite more than a few into hundred-thousandaires.
All of this, of course, is competing for both sports page space and prominence, whether you follow it online through your favorite website or podcast or in your local news publication.
But for a day or two in these parts, all of that will be moved aside like a defensive end trying to rush a WVU quarterback by Wyatt Milum, who is WVU’s main man in the yearly festival that is the National Football League draft.
Milum, all 6-foot, 6-inches and 317 pounds of him from Kenova, West Virginia, through Spring Valley High, seems to be the only Mountaineer being mentioned by those overbearing draftniks who have turned the football job search into a year-long guessing game of who will go where.
And while others well may offer interesting possibilities, such as quarterback Garrett Greene’s transition from pass thrower to pass catcher for the NFL, tight end Kole Taylor, who at 6-7 and 255 pounds offers a unique package should some NFL team want to take a shot toward the end of the draft or such players of local interest such as defensive end Sean Martin or offensive tackle Nick Malone, it is Milum who has NFL scouts predicting where his NFL home will be, possibly as early as the second round, more likely the third.
His credentials could not be better, although his position remains in question, whether it be at tackle, where he became a consensus All-American at WVU, or at guard, where some feel he’s better suited for his arms may not meet the requirements they place upon NFL tackles to be able to control pass rushers.
Not that there’s anything on his resume saying that he can’t do that job, considering that he has not allowed a sack since his freshman season.
The draftniks are tossing around selections that have him going with a mid-70s pick in the draft to near 100. The group at PFF (Pro Football Focus had him slotted in as a third-round selection of the Philadelphia Eagles, which is something he may love for not only will he be going to the NFL champions but also where he has a real shot at playing.
This was their quickie evaluation of Milum:
“Despite playing left tackle his whole career, Milum will probably move to guard due to his shorter arms. That is perfectly fine for the Eagles, who currently are projected to start Tyler Steen at right guard, author of a 37.5 PFF pass-blocking grade last season.”
That is roughly the equivalent of the grades I had in using up five semesters of college French to pass the required three at Missouri.
One ESPN analyst, Field Yates, has Milum written in with the 77th pick in the third round to the Patriots while another, Jordan Reid of ESPN+, disagrees, though hardly violently guesstimating him as the 78th pick in that same third round by Arizona.
Most everyone agrees that Milum brings dependability and toughness into the NFL with him and those are qualities most coaches expect — no, demand — out of offensive linemen, it appears that WVU has become a place to look for offensive linemen, considering that Colton McKivitz made his bones after being drafted by San Francisco in 2020 and Zach Frazier of Fairmont Senior High became probably the best rookie O-linemen as a rookie last year with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
If you take a look on the Internet at Milum’s highlight reels that are being displayed, you see that he brings a lot of ability along with dependability and toughness. His footwork seems effortless, which is something not easily acquired when you are moving 317 pounds side to side or forward or backward.
The durability is obvious in having started 42 consecutive games at WVU and his intellect is such that he has made both the Big 12 Commissioner’s and the Garrett Ford academic honor rolls while earning a bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies.
For the last two years of college, it was obvious that Milum was a potential NFL draft choice, but while he put that on the front burner, he remained such a part of the team that he did not bypass the bowl game to prepare for the draft.
The draft is being held for the first time in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and there is neither snow nor cold expected for it. The first round begins at 8 p.m. Thursday while the second day will feature second and third round selections at 7 p.m. And Saturday finishing off rounds 4 through 7 beginning at noon.
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