Dana Holgorsen may be watching his defensive linemen from the other side of the football, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been paying attention to what Bruce Tall’s guys are doing. And he certainly likes what he's seen so far.

 

Tall has plenty of experience coaching in the 3-3 stack, first at West Virginia under Jeff Casteel and then at Michigan working alongside current Mountaineer defensive coordinator Tony Gibson.

 

Last winter, Gibson had the opportunity to bring Tall back to Morgantown when veteran defensive aide Tom Bradley left to become UCLA’s defensive coordinator. What Tall brings to the table is a broad-based knowledge of the stack, but even more important than that, a broad-based understanding of what Gibson wants out of his players up front.

 

All defensive staffing roles are important in any given defense, but in this particular scheme no pairing is more crucial than the defensive line-linebacker coach relationship because of the unique nature of those two areas in the 3-3 stack.

 

The defensive linemen and linebackers have to work in tandem on every play to ensure all of the gaps are covered.

 

Tall explains.

 

“You always have gap integrity within your fronts, it’s just understanding the gaps that you are accountable for,” he said. “The beauty of the defense is you understand how you are going to get blocked (up front). We can teach them blocking schemes and because we are so unique, teams are going to block us similarly, so it’s going to be easy to make adjustments.”

 

Holgorsen, Tall’s No. 1 boss, has clearly noticed a difference, commenting several times this summer how much different the guys up front look from a technique standpoint since Tall’s return.

 

“The front is night and day from what it was a year ago,” Holgorsen said last week. “Bruce Tall understands this defense and how to coach it. Watching it from the other side, I can see a big difference.”

 

Tall’s vast knowledge of the defense and the techniques needed to play it are beginning to rub off on the players, too.

 

“It’s been great. I’ve learned a lot from all of my coaches from the past and Coach Tall has come in with the mindset of getting us better, plain and simple,” said junior defensive end Christian Brown.

 

“Coach Tall is teaching us new pass rushing moves I’ve never heard of or seen before,” added junior defensive end Noble Nwachukwu.

 

Tall said he’s been pretty pleased with the effort his guys have been giving him so far. Brown, Nwachukwu and Kyle Rose appear to be West Virginia’s top three guys up front right now, but senior defensive end Eric Kinsey, edge-rushing specialist Larry Jefferson and nose tackle Darrien Howard have also been performing well, as has sophomore Jon Lewis from University High in Morgantown.

 

Behind them, you are looking at young players such as redshirt freshmen Tyree Owens and Jaleel Fields, and true freshman Adam Shuler II.

 

“I’m pleased with the way all of them are working,” said Tall. “Each guy has their days and moments and we’re evaluating that every single day – and they know it. I’ve got to make sure they continue to understand that I’m coaching and teaching them, but I also want to develop their confidence, too. I don’t want to keep breaking them down to the point where they don’t develop their own confidence.”

 

Gibson said he likes where the defensive linemen are at this point, but concedes they still need to see more from the younger players before he’s willing to use more of them on a rotation basis this season.

 

“We are not going to rotate just to rotate,” he said. “We have to make sure that we have quality backups who we trust to put in the game. That’s probably the one area right now where we are a little bit short. We have to have somebody step up.”

 

In order to do that, the guys up front have to demonstrate a strong understanding of a defense that is fairly unorthodox, especially for players accustomed to performing in a traditional 3-4 or 4-3 scheme.

 

Tall is an advocate of making sure his guys understand the entire defense so he has the flexibility to move guys around as needed.

 

“I think most of the guys can play inside (at nose). We make them learn the whole defense – the whole front and calls so we can adjust and play the next best defensive linemen,” Tall explained. “We really want to hone in and solidify our two deep and develop a couple of guys that can finish a game if we get in trouble.”

 

Presently, Tall is cautiously optimistic with the health and availability of his defensive linemen, but, of course, that can change at a moment’s notice.

 

“All of a sudden you’re feeling good and then one practice later you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’” he said. “That’s why you’ve got to keep developing depth. You can never have enough. Coach (Holgorsen) asks, ‘Can you use another (defensive lineman in this year’s recruiting class)?’ ‘Yes. And I’ll take another one, and another one.’

 

“You don’t want to be greedy, but we are.”