Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com Nick Malone (58) is one of the Mountaineer seniors that will be honored today.

MORGANTOWN — In this changing world of college football, Senior Day is not what it once was.

Senior Day was set up to honor the seniors who were playing their final home game. It was set up at a time when nearly all of them had spent four years at the school, who had come in raw high school graduates who had to grow into college players.

No more.

Now there are only a smattering of four-year players, the transfer portal having made switching schools as easy as switching majors. You now have players who have been with you a year, maybe two, and players who have played for six years, sometimes seven.

The emotion that made it so meaningful in the past has been eroded away.

But sometimes there comes a player for whom Senior Day was invented and in WVU’s case that player in Nick Malone, an offensive tackle from Morgantown, a kid who came as a walk on, who worked his way into a scholarship, into playing time, into a starting position, into an important cog in the only college he ever wanted to attend.

Senior Day means everything to Nick Malone and to his family, to his mother, Nancy, who has been a big part of his rise.

It has been quite a journey from the days of youth football, through junior high and high school. He came with Neal Brown in 2019 and at 3:30 p.m. Saturday he will walk out onto the field with his family and be honored before WVU and Central Florida kick off an important game to both schools.

There are bowl implications but there is so much more, and to the WVU seniors it marks their last game before a home crowd at Milan Puskar Stadium.

“Over the last few weeks, it’s definitely hit, but I don’t think it will truly hit until I hear my name called and dap up Coach Mike and dap up Coach Brown and run out there. I think that’s when it will truly set in,” Malone said on Monday.

This one is for Malone and for his mother, Nancy, who has been his biggest booster through social media, for his father, Wayne, and his two sisters and brother.

No matter when or where he played, his mother was there and the support did as much as any bit of coaching he got along the way.

“She’s definitely a big part of it, especially starting in little league for Evansdale Tigers. I never went to practice with dirty pads, pants, nothing, jersey, everything was washed. Any sport, like I said, football, basketball, always been a big part of it, big supporter of it,” Malone said.

The family’s dedication to him helped lead to his dedication to the teams upon which he played and to the fans who followed him.

“It’s kind of the same aspect when you were young you always want to improve and impress them, so I kind of went along with it now. I just play for my family, play for them because without them I wouldn’t be here, and I always want to put on a performance that will really impress them because if I do good for them, it’s really all that matters,” Malone said.

Like most who walk on he had a long way to go when he arrived. The road was filled with detours, but he made his way through each.

“Did that basic freshman duty of scout practice and did a lot of stuff. Learned a lot from Colton McKivitz in the early years, and then COVID hit, and then we had the COVID year, so that was kind of a lot more learning, a lot less doing as well,” he recalled.

“Then kind of as the years gone on, that’s when the special teams roles came upon me and I did that, did the field goal, did punt. And then the past year did a lot of more offensive line stuff, extra tight end, tackle, that kind of stuff,” he said.

Each year he got bigger and better. This year he learned more and appreciated more what he had.

“And then now is the grand finale, the big role, starting and actually doing more. So, it’s been a ride,” Malone said.

He did it all feeling he was carrying the burden of being a hometown kid, a West Virginian. It added to the pressure but will make that walk on Saturday even more meaningful.

“I feel there’s a lot more pressure, especially being from Morgantown and being from the state. As people on the team, being from West Virginia, you want to be able to represent your state in a way that we win, we do well,” he said.

“I feel like there’s definitely more pressure on us because you don’t want to have a bad showing and be like, ‘Oh, West Virginia can’t produce, they can’t do this and that.’ I feel like there’s a heightened pressure, but I feel like we’ve done pretty well in that area.”

He’s developed into something special. He has played 709 snaps this season, second on the offensive line, and he leads the team by a wide margin in knockdown blocks, 14 more than any other offensive lineman.

He has given up only one sack all year, second only to Wyatt Milum, who is considered by many the best offensive tackle in college football and who has given up none.

But it isn’t any of those on-field accomplishments that he will take with him the most. What has been most meaningful is what frames just what kind of person Malone is and why Senior Day seems to have been made for him.

“I think one of the biggest things is when we go to the Children’s Hospital on Fridays before games, that is there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world, and there’s a lot less things that are bad going on, and we’re just playing football,” he said.

“People over there have real struggles and things going on and kind of bringing light to them and kind of being the sunshine in their day, that’s one of the highlights that we’ve done,” Malone said.