Bruce Tall says he really likes the way his West Virginia University defensive linemen are coming along this year, and why not? What’s not to like about them?

 

He’s got one of the best pass rushers in the Big 12 in senior defensive end Noble Nwachukwu, a brick wall in the middle in 6-foot-1-inch, 297-pound nose tackle Darrien Howard and perhaps the most versatile defensive lineman he’s ever had in senior Christian Brown, a 300-pounder who can run like he weighs about half that.

 

These guys have played a lot of football for the Mountaineers and it is really starting to show up on the stat sheet.

 

Howard leads all defensive linemen with 23 tackles - just 11 shy of team leader Justin Arndt’s 34 - while contributing four tackles for losses, two sacks and a forced fumble so far. That’s impressive for 3-3 stack nose whose No. 1 job is to occupy blockers so others can roam free to make plays.

 

On one side of Howard, Brown has made 16 tackles, three tackles for losses a sack and a pass breakup and on the other, Nwackukwu has contributed 16 stops, five tackles for losses, three sacks, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry.

 

That’s 55 tackles, 12 tackles for losses and six sacks for guys who are supposed to eat up blockers.

 

The guys backing up Morgantown’s best law firm, Howard, Brown & Nwachukwu, are a promising group of freshmen with the luxury of improving at their own pace.

 

There’s Adam Shuler II, the heir apparent to Nwachukwu, who shows 16 tackles and a forced fumble so far in six games; there’s Alec Shriner, Howard’s backup at nose, and then there’s Reese Donahue, from Cabell Midland High near Huntington.

 

“He’s really getting a feel for the fits and how to play the different techniques we ask,” Tall admitted of Donahue. “Where he was last spring and fall camp he’s really starting to come along. I didn’t want to put him in a situation where he didn’t have success so we’ve been kind of slowly progressing but now he’s got a feel. Everything is working like I like to see it and I feel real confident with him.”

 

And of course, there is the always-solid Jon Lewis from Morgantown who comes in and spells Brown on occasion.

 

This group of defensive linemen is easily the best of the six Dana Holgorsen has had at West Virginia, and is probably on par with some of outstanding ones the Mountaineers had late last decade when they ranked among the best defenses in the country.

 

Tall admits this group is performing exactly the way he expected them to when the season started.

 

“I really like my room, I like my group and I think anybody would like to have one or two more guys in case something happens, but I feel really good about our group,” he said Tuesday.

 

Because he can play so many players - and without any reservations - that makes for a great environment during practice.

 

He explains.

 

“I think it’s a really well connected group,” Tall said. “You watch them in drills, you watch them talk to each other and they try to correct each other.

 

“I like playing six or seven guys,” he continued. “One, it’s great for morale. It’s like anything else, guys will practice but they will practice so they can play. When everybody’s playing, that’s great.”

 

A lot has been written and said about Nwachukwu, a preseason All-Big 12 pick who enters Saturday’s game with 14½ career sacks. He’s West Virginia’s most productive edge pass rusher since Bruce Irvin, who is now playing in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders.

 

Howard has really developed this year and has made people completely forget about the great job Kyle Rose did last year manning the nose.

 

But the guy out there packed full of potential, and who can really make a major difference because of his size and athleticism, is Brown.

 

A former Mountaineer player, who spent a number of years in the NFL, told me during fall training camp that he was really impressed with the way Brown moves around on the football field. His only concern with Brown was his motor. Sometimes it only goes to third gear when it should always be in fourth gear whenever he’s out there.

 

Tall admitted that’s coming along as well.

 

“When you are a big 300-pound guy it’s easy to take a play off, and I think I probably grade as hard as anyone,” he explained. “I’ve got different levels of what I call a loaf. I break it down specifically in how you loaf - not just that you loafed, but I’ve got a category for each type of loaf. The first thing they go to after practice is that loaf board to see if their name is on it.”

 

Tall said Christian Brown’s name is showing up less frequently there.

 

“In game situations he’s chasing the ball,” Tall said. “It’s showing up a lot more on tape, that’s for sure.”

 

What is showing up on tape are three dominant defensive linemen fighting, hustling and chasing down guys from the backside to make plays.

 

Other teams put on the tape and see how hard those guys are playing - particularly the running backs - and it makes them think twice about how they go about their business.

 

“I tell them, ‘Now you’ve got to understand how that is going to affect the next team we play because when they see a big 300-pound guy chasing after them he’s not cutting back. If he knows you are coming from the inside out he’s not cutting back. That’s not what he wants,’” Tall said. “When they see that on film they understand the fear they are putting into the other teams that we play.”

 

There are many reasons why this defense has performed so well of late, holding prolific offenses such as Texas Tech and TCU far below their season averages.

 

Right at the top of the list of reasons is those guys up front.

 

***

 

The road to this year’s Big 12 men’s basketball championship will, of course, once again run through Lawrence, Kansas. More specifically, it will run through Allen Fieldhouse where nobody has managed to win.

 

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins believes Kansas’ home dominance is what has really set the Jayhawks apart from the rest of the league.

 

“It comes down to three things - they’ve got a great coach (Bill Self), they’ve got great players, and they never lose at home. Until we start beating them at home … and we’ve had chances, we missed free throws and a lot of crazy things have happened at Allen Fieldhouse, so we end up losing. If we had beaten them, I think somebody else would have had a chance to maybe tie for the league championship or whatever (in 2015).

 

“But we’ve got to beat them at home,” Huggins continued. “People have to go into Allen Fieldhouse and win once in a while because the rest of us lose at home. And I think if you look at it, that’s without question the difference. That has a lot to do with the job Bill does.”

 

If there is a team in the conference that could finally stop Kansas’ Big 12 championship streak at 12, it might be West Virginia.

 

The Mountaineers might have the strongest backcourt in the conference with Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles Jr., Tarik Phillip and Teyvon Myers returning, but in order to unseat the Jayhawks, WVU is going to have to figure out a way to better protect the WVU Coliseum.

 

Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, West Virginia has lost at least two regular-season conference games at home each year.

 

Last season, it was Texas and Oklahoma, and two years ago, it was Iowa State and Baylor.

 

In both instances, had West Virginia protected its home gym, the Mountaineers would have shared the regular season title with the Jayhawks.

 

Therefore, Huggins is correct: protecting the home gym has been the big difference for Kansas.

 

***

 

Speaking of winning at home, no high-major women’s soccer program is protecting its home turf better than Nikki Izzo-Brown’s No. 1-ranked Mountaineer women’s soccer team is right now.

 

What Izzo-Brown has accomplished at Dick Dlesk Stadium over the last seven seasons is truly remarkable. Heading into tonight’s regular season finale, West Virginia has not lost a regular season conference home match since 2009 season when WVU was still a member of the Big East Conference.

 

Since then, WVU has a streak of 33 unbeaten games, including an 18-0-1 home record in Big 12 play since joining the league in 2012.

 

The only two programs currently with longer such streaks are North Texas and Boston University, which, obviously, play in lower-level conferences.

 

Included among this impressive unbeaten streak are several matches against nationally ranked opponents in two different leagues that have earned multiple NCAA tournament bids each year since 2009.

 

This current streak of success for women’s soccer compares favorably to some of the school’s most well-known streaks in all sports, including:

 

* Men’s basketball’s 57-game home winning streak at the Field House that began on March 4, 1944 and ended five years later on March 5, 1949.

 

* Rifle’s 57-match winning streak spanning eight seasons, three different coaches and six NCAA championships from 1987-94.

 

* Men’s basketball’s 56-game Southern Conference winning streak that began on February 12, 1955 and ended on January 30, 1960.

 

* Men’s basketball’s 39-game Coliseum winning streak that began on December 10, 1980 and ended on January 20, 1983.

 

* And, football’s 30-game Southern Conference winning streak that spanned six seasons ending on November 14, 1959.

 

Indeed, it’s been an historic run for West Virginia women’s soccer, specifically, these last five seasons in the Big 12.

 

If you are in town, I encourage you to get out to Dick Dlesk Stadium to catch the final home match of the regular season tonight against Oklahoma State to help celebrate one of the greatest senior classes in school history, which includes a couple of Olympic medalists in Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

***

 

And finally, you can add two more sports to the growing list of nationally ranked teams in Shane Lyons' athletic department. Coach Bob Huggins’ Mountaineer men’s basketball team will begin the season ranked 18^th in the USA Today Coaches Poll while coach Mike Carey’s Mountaineer women’s team checks in at No. 25 in the coaches poll.

 

Here are the others: women’s soccer (No. 1), rifle (No. 1) and football (No. 9). Earlier this fall, men’s soccer and women’s cross country also spent some time in the national rankings.

 

Not too shabby!

 

Enjoy your weekend.