Hide and Seek
July 20, 2009 02:17 PM | General
July 20, 2009
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If you want to know what’s going on with West Virginia’s defense, you might want to pay close attention to where Sidney Glover lines up on the football field. That’s because the teams the Mountaineers are facing this fall will certainly be keeping tabs on the playmaking junior.
A typical scouting report on West Virginia’s defense requires teams to locate where the spur safety (Glover’s position) is at all times. Where the spur lines up offers clues as to how teams must block West Virginia’s unorthodox alignment.
In simple terms, where Glover goes determines whether the 3-3 stack becomes a nickel defense when he lines up deep, or the stack becomes a 3-4 when he walks up to the line of scrimmage.
Glover explains.
“With these three safeties you have to figure out what we’re doing,” he said. “That’s what we are working hard on is for offenses to not know what we’re doing.”
The spur safety position is what makes Jeff Casteel’s defense so unique. Sometimes that safety is an extra defensive back covering a deep third; other times he becomes a fourth linebacker over top the tight end to cover him or to provide run support. He may walk up to the open side of the field and come on a blitz, or he may come with another linebacker on the strong side. The options for what Casteel can do with the spur are limitless. It’s really a bright and innovative approach to playing defense when you’ve got the players to pull it off.
Naturally, the secret is finding a spur safety that is versatile enough to be able to do all of those things. To play the spur the way Casteel wants it played you’ve got to be fast and athletic enough to cover quick backs in space, and physical enough to man-up 250-pound tight ends.
“It’s a challenge all of the time depending upon who we play and what kind of players they have,” Glover admitted.
Glover, at 5-feet-11 and 210 pounds, has the necessary size to play spur safety. His sophomore season stat line in 2008 also shows that he has the ball-hawking ability to be an effective one, too. His 11-game totals include 61 tackles, 4 ½ tackles for losses, a sack, an interception, six pass breakups, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Glover says he wants to be the one guy on the field that teams have to prepare for.
“I want to be that guy when teams study our defense they want to game plan around me and what I’m doing. I’m working hard to be that guy on our defense,” he said.
That’s why he has been closely studying another ball-hawking safety that is liable to line up anywhere on the football field: Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu.
“We watch a lot of film on how we can disguise things better,” Glover said. “I have been checking out Troy Polamalu to learn different ways we can disguise things and not give away our coverages.”
Specifically, Glover is watching how Polamalu moves around to make teams always account for where he’s at. Sometimes he could sneak up to the line and give the quarterback the impression that he is supporting the run. Then right before the ball is snapped he drops back into coverage. Or, he could be back in coverage before flying up at the last second on a blitz.
“They do a lot of stemming and moving,” Glover explained. “We study a lot how they try and cause confusion, how they are stemming and moving and trying to get a feel for what they are doing and how they are trying to do it.”
Glover says it’s really a case of hide-and-seek. Give a team one look and do something different.
“(Polamalu) is everywhere on the field and I kind of get a chance to do that playing the spur position,” Glover said. “I could be back, I could be down over the tight end, I could walk down and line up as an extra linebacker, I could be playing man-to-man or I could be dropping into a third.”
Doing a lot of moving and stemming is great when all 11 guys know what you’re doing. The problem, Glover cautions, is making sure all 11 players are on the same page. If 10 guys are playing man coverage and the 11th guy is playing zone then there is a problem.
“We all work off each other. That’s why I have been encouraging all of the other safeties and DBs to watch more film,” Glover said. “It wouldn’t make sense for one guy to disguise something and the rest of the secondary to not be on the same page.”
The plan is for West Virginia to bring more pressure this year. That means more pressure on corners Brandon Hogan and Keith Tandy to stick with their men. Glover believes both of them are up to the challenge.
“Tandy got his chance in the bowl game and Hogan played all last year and it gives you confidence in your teammates when you see the way they are working,” Glover said. “I told Tandy a few days ago that I didn’t expect him to start in the bowl game, and when he did, I wasn’t surprised because he has worked extremely hard. He does everything he’s supposed to do. He’s a real humble guy and he has just worked his butt off. You expect people like that to play.
“For them to dial up more blitzes this year … they see the way those guys are working and just like we have confidence in them, I’m sure the coaches do, too,” Glover said.
Last year, Glover said the younger defensive players were excited about playing together. This year he wants them to take the experience they got as a unit and use it to dictate what other offenses do - rather than having to react to what offenses are throwing at them.
“This year we’re going into games knowing what to expect and knowing our assignments,” Glover said. “We are thinking about what we are doing before the play - how we are going to be moving and confusing the offense.”
The biggest issue with Glover is not what he can do on the field – it’s being able to stay on it. He missed last year’s bowl game against North Carolina with a bum knee and he has also had problems with a tender hamstring. He says both are better.
“I’m pretty close. I would say my hamstring is about 90-95 percent,” he said. “I accomplished a lot during the summer so far.
“I’ve got a couple of weeks left until camp and I’m trying to get the most out of these next couple of weeks.”
