Ligonier Valley's Spiker, Hempfield's Graham form strong combo on St. Francis (Pa.) O-line

They grew up playing football for school districts just a few miles apart, but Wylie Spiker and Cole Graham had no connection. The first time they encountered one another was at the Lineman Challenge at Norwin.

Spiker’s Ligonier Valley team faced off against Graham and Hempfield in tug-o-war. Graham does not have fond memories of the outcome.

“Yeah, unfortunately, Ligonier came away with the win in that one,” he said.

These days, Spiker and Graham are pulling together on the offensive line for St. Francis (Pa.). After Saturday’s 44-14 road win over Sacred Heart, the Red Flash remained tied with Merrimack atop the Northeast Conference at 5-0. The performance of the offense — and the offensive line in particular — has been a driving force behind SFU’s success.

St. Francis has allowed the fewest sacks (eight), leads the NEC in rushing offense and ranks second in passing offense.

“It’s kind of shifted,” Graham said about the O-line’s performance. “Last year as a whole, the line was a lot smaller, a lot weaker than we are now. We really went in that training room in the offseason to get our weight up, get our strength up to where we can really run the ball, but we can also sit back and give the quarterbacks time.”

Both sophomores, Graham and Spiker arrived at St. Francis just in time for the pandemic to cancel what would have been their freshman season in 2020. It turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise, as the coaching staff was able to do a lot more focused work with their position groups.

“We really got a little bit more hands-on from the coaches, knowing we didn’t have a season,” Spiker said. “It was a lot less stressful for them to teach us everything, and it wasn’t such a time crunch for us to learn everything before the season started.”

In 2021, Spiker (6-foot-3, 310 pounds) appeared in 10 of SFU’s 11 games, and Graham (6-6, 315) made six starts in the nine games he played. They started this season lined up next to each other, Graham at right tackle and Spiker at right guard.

They have forged a strong connection playing together the past year and a half.

“Most of the time, I don’t even have to make a call for wherever our combos go,” Spiker said. “He just knows what we’re doing. We’re always hanging out outside of football, so we know each other pretty well. We know how each other operate.”

Said Red Flash coach Chris Villarreal, an 11-year NFL offensive lineman: “Them being great friends and knowing how to communicate with each other and knowing what each other brings to the table, I think that’s huge. … They really have jelled together, and they really have built that camaraderie you need to be great offensive linemen.”

Their partnership has been broken up temporarily. An injury to starting left guard Jesse Ramil, a redshirt freshman, has moved Spiker into his spot. Redshirt junior Bailey Iboleon slid into Spiker’s role.

Regardless of the configuration, the Red Flash line hasn’t skipped a beat. Spiker credited the older linemen for helping him and Graham adapt quickly.

It also doesn’t hurt having a former NFL offensive lineman as their head coach. Villarreal sometimes supplements offensive line coach Ryan Wilson’s teachings with some of his own experiences.

“He’s definitely an awesome resource to have here,” Graham said. “And even our tight ends coach, Coach (Zach) Morehead, had played tackle in college up at Cal (Pa.). There’s a lot of resources to pull from here, people from different perspectives. They might know what works better for one person than another.”

The Red Flash are heading into what Graham called the toughest part of their schedule. After a nonconference game against Georgetown on Nov. 5, St. Francis will close with a home game against rival Duquesne and a road game against Merrimack that could decide the NEC title.

Spiker and Graham expressed confidence in their team’s ability to win the NEC. And regardless of what happens this fall, they have two more years together and two more chances at some NEC hardware.

“These two guys are willing to learn and want to become students of the game,” Villarreal said. “I always say that: You’ve got to become a craftsman when you’re an offensive lineman. They have the willingness to do it, they have the knowledge to do it and they have the strength to do it. … They can go as far as they want to go.”

Graham might want to go for a rematch of that tug-o-war.

“I think if we went back now with the same people,” he said, “I think Hempfield would get the win.”