The Sack is Back
November 05, 2005 09:33 AM | General
November 5, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The sack is back at West Virginia University. The Mountaineers put Connecticut quarterback Dennis Brown on the ground seven times during last Wednesday’s 45-13 win and they now show 25 for the season – one shy of the Rich Rodriguez-era high of 26 established last year. The school record for sacks in a season is 59 set by Don Nehlen's No. 1-rated 1996 defense.
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| West Virginia defensive tackle Keilen Dykes had a pair of sacks against Connecticut and now shows five to lead the team.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Junior defensive tackle Keilen Dykes credits a slight alignment change as one of the reasons WVU was able to get to the passer more frequently Wednesday night.
“We put a new scheme in and lined up wide outside of the tight end and that let us come off the edge and get on their outside shoulder. It came together for us,” he said.
Rodriguez says sacks are important because it forces the offense’s hand.
“When you get a second down and 15 or a third-down and 20 what they can do offensively is limited,” he said. “Now we can put our nickel or dime defense in there and let them catch a 10-yard out and then have them punt.”
Dykes, known mostly as a run-stopper his first two years in the Mountaineer program, has become the team’s most effective pass rusher with a team-best five sacks through eight games. The 6-foot-4-inch, 295-pound Youngstown, Ohio, resident also shows seven tackles for losses and 22 total tackles.
“I said after the spring that I wanted to work on (pass rush) and it’s been coming along,” he said. “I’m starting to get it going and hopefully this wider alignment can help me get on the outside shoulder and create more problems for them.”
Dykes joked that he’s working on a new spin move that he plans on unveiling against Cincinnati. “It’s the Keilen Dykes spin move,” he laughed, adding quickly that he hasn’t cleared it yet with defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich.
Turning more serious, Dykes said the reason the defense has been so effective this year is because players understand their roles and are willing to do what is best for the team.
“You’ve got to do what you do but you’ve got to do it within the scheme of the defense. The one thing about this team is that it’s very unselfish,” he said. “Everybody is working in the scheme of the defense and it’s been paying off this year.”
According to Dykes, sacks are the defensive equivalent to offensive touchdowns.
“It’s the best thing in the world. If you’ve never experienced getting a sack on third down … it’s something else,” Dykes said. “I know I get charged up about it and I’m sure everyone else gets charged up about it. On third down you want to get there and make the big play.”
Big plays are becoming a trademark of a Mountaineer defense that ranked ninth in the country before last Wednesday night’s game against the Huskies. In addition to its seven sacks, West Virginia had 12 tackles for losses to accumulate 19 negative yardage plays. In eight games West Virginia has managed 81 negative yardage plays, or an average of more than 10 per game. Dykes credits some of that with experience.
“After being in the defense for three years you know the scheme, you know how to get the tackle turned and get up field. When you do the little things right you can make a whole lot of plays,” he said.
On Wednesday, West Virginia’s defense appeared a step or two faster and Dykes credits that to the 18-day layoff that enabled several nicked up players to get healthy.
“I was bruised and banged up from the Louisville game and it was much needed,” he said. “I would have loved to have gone down and played South Florida but the hurricane ruined that and it gave us the extra break I think we needed.”
Defensive line depth has also been a big benefit to West Virginia. Dykes believes the Mountaineers can easily rotate seven or eight quality players during the course of a game.
“John Dingle played a good game. As soon as Andrae Wright gets back from his ankle he’s going to be a good player for us,” Dykes said. “We’ve got Craig Wilson and Warren Young is coming on strong so we’ve got a lot of depth. We can take players in and out when we need to.
“I’d love to play every down but you just can’t do that. It’s nice to have some role players come in off the bench and contribute to the team,” he said.
Dykes admits he was first a skeptic of West Virginia’s 3-3-5 stack defense not knowing for sure that he could operate in a three-man defensive front going up against five offensive linemen.
“I was like, three down linemen?” he said. “There were always four, five and even six in high school but it’s coming along. I have adjusted to it and a lot of teams are going to a three-man front and even the NFL is starting to use the three-man front.”
Now that he’s seen how it works and more importantly, that it can work, he’s become a believer. He has even turned the fact that he’s outnumbered by offensive linemen at the point of attack into a personal challenge each time the ball is snapped.
“You’re always getting double-teamed and chipped by one guy but it is fun and I like it,” he said. “It’s you against the world out there – all you’ve got is your two buddies with you. The guys like playing the three-man front and sticking their nose in there.”
Dykes admits if he ever coached football he’d probably use a defense similar to the one he’s playing now.
“Nobody in the country really runs what we run. You come to WVU it’s something different. Our offense is different than a lot of other teams and the defense is different. If I was coaching in high school it’s something I’d run because I’d confuse the hell out of anybody, probably even my own players, too,” he laughed.
Fortunately for West Virginia, the players running this scheme know what they’re doing. That was never more evident then last Wednesday night against Connecticut.
Briefly: West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said Friday that running backs Steve Slaton and Owen Schmitt should be able to play against Cincinnati. He also mentioned that running back Jason Gwaltney is out for the Bearcats and he’s still not sure about the return of tight end Josh Bailey, sidelined with an ankle sprain … Saturday’s practice will be similar to a Tuesday practice in full gear.
