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NFL Draft Big Boost to WVU Football Recruiting
April 27, 2016 01:29 PM | Football
 Dillon |
 Joseph |
 Kwiatkoski |
 Smallwood |
 Worley |
The five West Virginia University football players likely to go in this year’s NFL Draft are not the only ones eagerly anticipating this year’s extravaganza, which begins Thursday night at 8 p.m. in Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre on ESPN and the NFL Network.
Mountaineer defensive coordinator Tony Gibson will be paying close attention as well.
That’s because four of those five potential Mountaineer draft picks are defensive guys - something Gibson has frequently had to contend with whenever he’s on the recruiting trail. Negative recruiters frequently bring up West Virginia’s 3-3 stack scheme and its inability to send players to the pros.
Specifically, they say the scheme doesn’t utilize a true defensive end.
Well, Gibson sent defensive end Shaq Riddick to the league last year, and the stack produced third-round pick Will Clarke in 2014, and first-rounder Bruce Irvin in 2012.
All three are still playing in the NFL, by the way.
In fact, since 2005 when the Tennessee Titans took corner Pacman Jones in the first round, West Virginia’s 3-3 stack defense has developed 13 NFL draft picks - eight of whom are still active in the league.
There’s Riddick, Clarke and Irvin, Jones, linebackers Najee Goode and J.T. Thomas and defensive backs Ryan Mundy and Keith Tandy.
And, based on everything you read on the Internet, four more Mountaineer defensive players are about to join them, including potential first-rounder Karl Joseph.
“Heck, they may all be done by the second day,” Gibson pointed out.
He’s right, and Joseph is a particularly interesting story because his senior season at WVU ended last fall during a Tuesday afternoon practice before the Oklahoma State game with a torn ACL. Some thought Joseph’s dreams of being a high NFL draft pick also ended that day, but that doesn’t appear to be the case now.
One mock draft has the free safety going to the Washington Redskins with the 21st pick in the first round, and almost everyone has him ranked among the top 50 prospects in this year’s draft, meaning he will be taken before the end of the second round at the latest.
NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. has Joseph ranked as the draft’s 13th-best prospect, Todd McShay has Joseph rated No. 24 overall while NFL.com NFL Draft expert Mike Mayock rates Joseph the No. 1 safety in this year’s class.
When Joseph first got injured, Gibson had no doubt he would put the time and effort in to work his way back to the top of everyone’s draft lists.
“It’s unbelievable what that kid has done, and how many players would do what he did?” Gibson said. “He got hurt in practice and he could have bailed out the first week of October and taken money but he said, ‘Look, I’m not dealing with any agents until I graduate.’”
Three other West Virginia defenders are projected to go sometime before Saturday - linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, safety KJ Dillon and junior cornerback Daryl Worley, who opted to leave school with a year of college eligibility remaining.
If all four defenders are picked, as expected, it will be the first time since 2011 that West Virginia has had four defensive players with their names called on draft day. Additionally, it could mean as many as 12 WVU defensive players will be in the league at the same time - something Gibson will assuredly use when he makes his next home visit.
“The kids’ motivation right now is playing time and money,” he said. “We can’t pay ‘em but we can play ‘em. The thing about it is they all want to get to that next level. Every kid we are recruiting thinks they are playing in the NFL, which we can say, ‘Hey, we had four kids at the combine, four guys drafted and maybe a couple more go as free agents.’”
Where West Virginia’s scheme really pays dividends in the eyes of the pros is at the spur and bandit safety positions, where Gibson puts a lot on their plate. These guys have to cover speedy Big 12 receivers in space, they’ve got to be able to play a lot of man coverage and they’ve got to be physical enough to play at the line of scrimmage in run situations.
WVU defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said the number of players the Mountaineers are now putting in the pros helps them in recruiting (All-Pro Photography Dale Sparks photo).
When pro scouts put on the tape and watch West Virginia’s safeties doing all these things, it removes any mysteries or doubts about their skills and abilities.
“The draft experts say that’s why our safeties are where they are in the draft because of the scheme they play in,” Gibson admitted. “It’s been said numerous times that West Virginia’s safeties do more than any other safeties in the country with as much man, blitzing, run (support) and all the stuff we ask them to do.”
More than anything, Gibson said he’s happy that four deserving young men are about to get the opportunity to fulfill their childhood dreams.
“Those guys have represented our University so well with everything that they’ve done - the interviews at the combine, the Senior Bowl; they’ve just been tremendous,” he said. “We’re so proud of them for that as much as everything else they’ve accomplished. Every coach that comes in - every GM or scout - talks about the character of these guys and what great young men they are and how much they enjoy talking to them.
“That really means a lot to us.”
Running back Wendell Smallwood, rated among the top 200 prospects in this year’s draft, could also hear his name called before the draft concludes on Saturday afternoon.
If all five are selected, it will be the most coach Dana Holgorsen has sent to the league since his arrival at WVU in 2011, and the most since six Mountaineer players were taken in the 1999 NFL draft.
Holgorsen has had 12 players picked since 2012, plus, three additional guys have signed free agent contracts who ended up making NFL rosters, meaning he’s sent 15 players to the league since 2012.
More impressively, of those 15, 14 are still on active rosters; the other, wide receiver Stedman Bailey, is currently on the NFL’s Non-Football Injury list. That’s 93 percent of the guys who Holgorsen has sent to the league still on active rosters, and that’s impressive.
It means the players choosing to play for Dana Holgorsen’s West Virginia football program are being taught how to play like pros, no matter whether they line up on the offensive or defensive side of the ball.
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