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WVU LB Arndt: Size 'Just a Number'
August 30, 2016 11:16 PM | Football
There are a few new names at the top of West Virginia’s depth chart heading into Saturday’s season opener, and one of those new guys on the defensive side of the ball just happens call the Mountain State his home.
Justin Arndt, the pride of Martinsburg located in the state's Eastern Panhandle, is slated to get the starting nod at sam linebacker on Saturday afternoon when the Missouri Tigers come to Morgantown. The former Martinsburg High standout has spent the last four years playing mostly special teams for the Mountaineers.
Of the 35 games he’s appeared during his WVU career, the vast majority of the snaps he’s defended have either been with the football traveling high in the air while covering kickoffs or when the games have already been decided in a mop-up role.
Well, Saturday is going to be a vastly different deal for the senior. In fact, Arndt will have probably played more defensive snaps at linebacker by halftime than he played all last season.
He’s not the biggest guy in the world, standing 5-feet-11 inches and weighing a couple bacon cheeseburgers more than 200 pounds, but the coaches love his toughness, his intelligence and the way he is able to get around on the football field.
Keep in mind, college football coaches are not into charity, so he’s definitely paid his dues and earned his stripes heading into the season opener.
“You go through a lot in five years,” admitted Arndt Tuesday afternoon. “Now, toward the end of my career, you see things finally paying off - all the extra time you spent here, all of the hard work you put in - it’s awesome to see.”
It is awesome, and it’s something he’s been preparing a long time for, going back to the days when he used to watch hometown boy Nate Sowers suit up for the Mountaineers playing on those nationally-ranked Rich Rodriguez teams a decade ago.
Arndt said he will be proudly waving the state flag on Saturday afternoon.
“People from my hometown like Nate Sowers who played here, you look up to him,” he said. “Seeing him have success here you root for him just like kids back home are probably doing the same thing now for me - just giving them the confidence to know that they can do what I’m doing now.”
Judging from the number of reporters surrounding Justin during Tuesday afternoon’s player media session, there will be a lot of eyes on West Virginia’s No. 30 in gold on Saturday.
It’s also a pretty safe bet that Missouri’s offensive coaches will have a pretty good idea where No. 30 is lining up on the field as well.
Many years ago, in 1993, when West Virginia faced a Miami defense loaded with a bunch of future NFL Pro Bowl players, the Mountaineers chose to focus much of their attention on the Hurricanes’ 205-pound outside linebacker Rohan Marley, patiently waiting for him to wear down.
He did - in the fourth quarter during West Virginia’s winning touchdown march. The tiring Marley took a poor angle on an off-tackle running play, used his wrong shoulder to take on the blocker, and speedy running back Robert Walker got to the outside for the go-ahead score, much to the delight of the 70,222 fans stuffed inside Mountaineer Field that frigid November afternoon.
But that was years ago when the game was played much differently. Today, football is predominantly played in space and offensive coaches typically don’t have the patience to attack certain areas of the defense multiple times during a game.
Thirteen years ago, when Morgantown’s Scott Gyorko played the outside linebacker position at 205 pounds, the game was beginning to transition to the space game it has become today.
Gyorko said it was important for him to conserve his energy to be able to hold up in the fourth quarter when teams were more likely to run right at him.
“We have to exert a lot more energy when we are hitting those big guys,” he explained. “We’d use our explosiveness, pop them, and get off. But if they got their hands on me, though, it was over.
“I couldn’t get off them.”
In order to stay fresh late in games, Gyorko said he would use his head and conserve his energy when he knew plays were going away from him or ones that he couldn’t get to.
At other times, he was free to use his speed, agility and intelligence to get past much bigger - and much slower - blockers in order to make plays.
And that’s exactly how Arndt plays the sam linebacker position.
“I think everything is about angles,” Arndt noted. “It helps being at sam on the outside taking angles and getting leverage on blockers, especially when you are going up against a guard as opposed to a fullback. You have to know what to do in each situation.”
He continued.
“It’s all about filling gaps. The way I look at it is give the blow as opposed to receiving it. That helps being undersized.”
Arndt said he is well aware of his small stature, but it’s only a number and not a true measure of the type of player he is.
“I’ve been hearing it for five years now and it definitely puts a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “People just think I’m too small, I guess, but I don’t think so.”
Nor do his West Virginia coaches.
Late Saturday afternoon, we’ll have a better idea what Missouri’s coaches think.
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