DUNLAP RECALLS '96 D
June 01, 2011 01:24 PM | General
During a recent conversation with assistant head coach Steve Dunlap about Canute Curtis, our conversation soon turned to Dunlap's great '96 defense that Curtis was a part of.
After some visits with Dick LeBeau and Marvin Lewis when both were working together in Pittsburgh, Dunlap in the mid-1990s became one of the first defensive coordinators in college football to adopt the zone blitzing schemes popularized by the Steelers.
In fact, the zone blitz and Canute Curtis were two of the reasons why Dunlap’s defense allowed a ridiculous 217 yards per game in 1996. That ’96 defense is the one that every good Mountaineer defense since is measured up against.
What Curtis gave Dunlap in ’96 was a dominant pass rusher coming off the edge.
“The rush linebacker was kind of the star position in that defense,” Dunlap recalled. “You had to be an up and down player. We played a four-man front back then, but it was really a 3-4 a lot of times.”
Dunlap got a whiff of just how good that defense was early in the season during a 13-0 shutout victory over Maryland at Mountaineer Field.
“I remembered looking up at the scoreboard at the start of the fourth quarter and looking at Maryland’s stats and they had 25 yards of offense,” Dunlap said. “That’s just unheard of.”
In addition to having great players such as Curtis, Mike Logan and John Thornton, Dunlap also had extremely intelligent players who understood how the entire defense worked.
“Those kids were so bright,” Dunlap said. “There was nothing we could think of that those kids couldn’t do.”
An example of that was against Purdue that season when the Boilermakers only managed to get on the scoreboard late in the game during a 20-6 Mountaineer victory. Back then Purdue was utilizing multiple sets and operated a fairly sophisticated offense, but the West Virginia players were able to identify from formations exactly what the Boilermakers were going to do on each play.
“We hardly had to call any coverages,” Dunlap marveled.
The assistant head coach noted that the ’95 and ’96 defenses combined to have more than 100 sacks, with Curtis accumulating 26 ½ of those during that two-year period.
“Canute was such a strong player,” Dunlap said. “That was just an exceptional defense.”
After some visits with Dick LeBeau and Marvin Lewis when both were working together in Pittsburgh, Dunlap in the mid-1990s became one of the first defensive coordinators in college football to adopt the zone blitzing schemes popularized by the Steelers.
In fact, the zone blitz and Canute Curtis were two of the reasons why Dunlap’s defense allowed a ridiculous 217 yards per game in 1996. That ’96 defense is the one that every good Mountaineer defense since is measured up against.
What Curtis gave Dunlap in ’96 was a dominant pass rusher coming off the edge.
“The rush linebacker was kind of the star position in that defense,” Dunlap recalled. “You had to be an up and down player. We played a four-man front back then, but it was really a 3-4 a lot of times.”
Dunlap got a whiff of just how good that defense was early in the season during a 13-0 shutout victory over Maryland at Mountaineer Field.
“I remembered looking up at the scoreboard at the start of the fourth quarter and looking at Maryland’s stats and they had 25 yards of offense,” Dunlap said. “That’s just unheard of.”
In addition to having great players such as Curtis, Mike Logan and John Thornton, Dunlap also had extremely intelligent players who understood how the entire defense worked.
“Those kids were so bright,” Dunlap said. “There was nothing we could think of that those kids couldn’t do.”
An example of that was against Purdue that season when the Boilermakers only managed to get on the scoreboard late in the game during a 20-6 Mountaineer victory. Back then Purdue was utilizing multiple sets and operated a fairly sophisticated offense, but the West Virginia players were able to identify from formations exactly what the Boilermakers were going to do on each play.
“We hardly had to call any coverages,” Dunlap marveled.
The assistant head coach noted that the ’95 and ’96 defenses combined to have more than 100 sacks, with Curtis accumulating 26 ½ of those during that two-year period.
“Canute was such a strong player,” Dunlap said. “That was just an exceptional defense.”
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