Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Patchwork Mountaineer Defense Ready For Next Challenge Against Texas
October 28, 2018 06:26 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –West Virginia University junior linebacker David Long Jr. said he felt like the Mountaineer defense lost a little respect a week and a half ago when Iowa State put 30 points on the scoreboard in a 16-point Cyclone victory.
"We went out there to take that back," he said.
Mission accomplished. The Mountaineer Dawgs got some of their mojo back Thursday night against Baylor.
The Bears came into Morgantown averaging 33.1 points and 475 yards per game, but they left 19 points and 188 yards fewer than their season average.
By halftime, Baylor had only 87 total yards and failed to run a single play on the Mountaineer side of the field. WVU generated interceptions on two of Baylor's first three offensive possessions, picking off three in all, and forced the Bears to punt the six other times they had the ball.
Starting quarterback Charlie Brewer, ranked in the middle of the pack among Big 12 passers, bore the brunt of it by completing just 1-of-8 passes for 22 yards with all three interceptions before he was lifted late in the second quarter with an undisclosed injury.
West Virginia finished with a season-best 12 tackles for losses, including five sacks, for the second time this year and the fourth time over the past two seasons. Those are one off the 13 the Mountaineers racked up against Pitt seven seasons ago.
"We were bringing a lot of heat early," West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson explained. "I thought our linebackers played really well getting downhill and our twos came in there and got a few TFLs at the end and that was really good."
For the second straight game, junior Shea Campbell stepped in for Dylan Tonkery at middle linebacker and was credited with three tackles, a tackle for a loss and an interception that led to West Virginia's fourth touchdown and a 34-0 lead.
Campbell, from Morgantown High, has really been a pleasant surprise for a WVU defense that is nearly out of healthy linebackers. The Mountaineers were down two linebackers before the season even started when Brendan Ferns and Quondarius Qualls went down with knee injuries during spring football practice.
Then, starting Sam linebacker Charlie Benton suffered a year-ending knee injury during the first half of West Virginia's 40-14 win over Tennessee in the first game of the season, forcing Gibson to reshuffle his deck.
What he ended up doing was discarding his trump cards for pairs, eventually settling on converted safety JoVanni Stewart at Benton's Sam linebacker spot paired with converted safety Dylan Tonkery in the middle and safety-sized linebacker Long Jr. on the weakside.
With Stewart at 5-feet-8 and 195 pounds, Tonkery in the middle at 227 pounds and Long Jr. standing 5-feet-11 and weighing 223 pounds, it's probably the smallest Power 5 linebacker corps in the country.
The group actually got bigger when Campbell, standing 5-feet-11 and weighing 235 pounds, replaced the injured Tonkery at Iowa State.
After reviewing the game tape, the defensive staff felt Campbell played well enough against Baylor to award him player of the game honors, which Gibson tweeted out earlier today.
"I like him," he said. "That kid just keeps making plays."
Gibson said the plan at the start of the season was to utilize Campbell as his utility guy at all three linebacker positions.
"When Charlie was healthy with David and Tonk, Shea was kind of that next guy that I always thought, 'Okay, I can put him at Sam, Mike or Will if we start to struggle,'" he said. "When Charlie went down I thought, 'Oh boy, Shea has got to be our Sam.' But Shea is more of a natural Mike linebacker than he is a Sam just because he's physical and plays downhill, and I like a little more length out there at Sam."
And Gibson clearly doesn't have that right now with Stewart, probably the shortest starting linebacker in major college football.
"Obviously, playing JoVanni there we lost all of that, but that's the one spot that we can plug JoVanni Stewart into that he can help his football team," Gibson mentioned.
Which he has.
Stewart is presently seventh on the team in tackles with 26 while also showing 4 ½ tackles for losses and a pair of sacks. Campbell, in his starts against Iowa State and Baylor, is already just three tackles shy of Tonkery's season total of 22 stops while complimenting Long Jr. on the outside.
Gibson said the decision to start Campbell against Baylor wasn't made until pregame warmups when Tonkery couldn't go.
"(Tonkery) was a game-time deal," Gibson explained. "He practiced early on in the week and looked really good, but he couldn't go. (The team medical staff) made that decision."
Right next to them, Long Jr. is putting together a fantastic junior season and leads the team with 68 tackles, 12 ½ tackles for losses and three sacks. He was credited with a pair of sacks Thursday night against Baylor and continues to be one of the most impactful defensive players in the Big 12 this year.
"We stopped thinking," Long Jr. mentioned of the defense's impressive showing against Baylor. "When you start thinking you slow down and when you go out and play football you have to play fast and that's what I've been telling myself and the younger guys to do."
Gibson thought his defense looked pretty fast under the lights at Milan Puskar Stadium on Thursday night. Now, he said he's looking for some more "bubble gum and band-aids" to patch up his defense in order to get them ready for 15th-ranked Texas in Austin this Saturday.
The Longhorns dropped to 6-2 following their 38-35 loss at Oklahoma State Saturday night, but the Mountaineers haven't forgotten that Texas ruined their season last year when they doubled them up in Morgantown, 28-14.
West Virginia went into the game with a 7-3 record and ranked 24thin the country, and left without its starting quarterback, which began a three-game slide that concluded with a disappointing, 30-14 loss to Utah in the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl.
"Coming up, we know what this game brings," Gibson said. "That was kind of the demise of our season with Texas so we've got to be juiced up to be ready to go out and play another (nationally ranked team)," he said.
Gibson's just isn't sure right now who he is going to be able to put out there six days from now to slow the Longhorns.
"Who knows who we will have healthy to play next week? We're going to have to keep piecing it together," Gibson said. "I'm going to have to put them all in bubble wrap for the next seven days to make sure nobody else gets hurt."
Briefly: West Virginia jumped two spots to No. 10 in this week's coaches' poll and one spot to No. 12 in this week's AP poll … This is the first time West Virginia has been ranked in the Top 10 in November since 2016 when it lost 56-28 to third-ranked Oklahoma in Morgantown on Nov. 19 … The Mountaineers are now in a three-way tie with Oklahoma and Texas for first place in the Big 12 standings as we head into November and are one of four teams that still control where they will finish, 3-2 Iowa State being the other … Iowa State's four remaining conference games are against Kansas, Baylor, Texas and Kansas State … Quarterback Will Grier has moved into a tie with Marc Bulger for third in school history with 59 career touchdown passes … Grier has matched Bulger's TD passing total in 20 fewer games.
"We went out there to take that back," he said.
Mission accomplished. The Mountaineer Dawgs got some of their mojo back Thursday night against Baylor.
The Bears came into Morgantown averaging 33.1 points and 475 yards per game, but they left 19 points and 188 yards fewer than their season average.
By halftime, Baylor had only 87 total yards and failed to run a single play on the Mountaineer side of the field. WVU generated interceptions on two of Baylor's first three offensive possessions, picking off three in all, and forced the Bears to punt the six other times they had the ball.
Starting quarterback Charlie Brewer, ranked in the middle of the pack among Big 12 passers, bore the brunt of it by completing just 1-of-8 passes for 22 yards with all three interceptions before he was lifted late in the second quarter with an undisclosed injury.
West Virginia finished with a season-best 12 tackles for losses, including five sacks, for the second time this year and the fourth time over the past two seasons. Those are one off the 13 the Mountaineers racked up against Pitt seven seasons ago.
"We were bringing a lot of heat early," West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson explained. "I thought our linebackers played really well getting downhill and our twos came in there and got a few TFLs at the end and that was really good."
For the second straight game, junior Shea Campbell stepped in for Dylan Tonkery at middle linebacker and was credited with three tackles, a tackle for a loss and an interception that led to West Virginia's fourth touchdown and a 34-0 lead.
Campbell, from Morgantown High, has really been a pleasant surprise for a WVU defense that is nearly out of healthy linebackers. The Mountaineers were down two linebackers before the season even started when Brendan Ferns and Quondarius Qualls went down with knee injuries during spring football practice.
Then, starting Sam linebacker Charlie Benton suffered a year-ending knee injury during the first half of West Virginia's 40-14 win over Tennessee in the first game of the season, forcing Gibson to reshuffle his deck.
What he ended up doing was discarding his trump cards for pairs, eventually settling on converted safety JoVanni Stewart at Benton's Sam linebacker spot paired with converted safety Dylan Tonkery in the middle and safety-sized linebacker Long Jr. on the weakside.
With Stewart at 5-feet-8 and 195 pounds, Tonkery in the middle at 227 pounds and Long Jr. standing 5-feet-11 and weighing 223 pounds, it's probably the smallest Power 5 linebacker corps in the country.
The group actually got bigger when Campbell, standing 5-feet-11 and weighing 235 pounds, replaced the injured Tonkery at Iowa State.
After reviewing the game tape, the defensive staff felt Campbell played well enough against Baylor to award him player of the game honors, which Gibson tweeted out earlier today.
"I like him," he said. "That kid just keeps making plays."
Gibson said the plan at the start of the season was to utilize Campbell as his utility guy at all three linebacker positions.
"When Charlie was healthy with David and Tonk, Shea was kind of that next guy that I always thought, 'Okay, I can put him at Sam, Mike or Will if we start to struggle,'" he said. "When Charlie went down I thought, 'Oh boy, Shea has got to be our Sam.' But Shea is more of a natural Mike linebacker than he is a Sam just because he's physical and plays downhill, and I like a little more length out there at Sam."
And Gibson clearly doesn't have that right now with Stewart, probably the shortest starting linebacker in major college football.
"Obviously, playing JoVanni there we lost all of that, but that's the one spot that we can plug JoVanni Stewart into that he can help his football team," Gibson mentioned.
Which he has.
Stewart is presently seventh on the team in tackles with 26 while also showing 4 ½ tackles for losses and a pair of sacks. Campbell, in his starts against Iowa State and Baylor, is already just three tackles shy of Tonkery's season total of 22 stops while complimenting Long Jr. on the outside.
Gibson said the decision to start Campbell against Baylor wasn't made until pregame warmups when Tonkery couldn't go.
"(Tonkery) was a game-time deal," Gibson explained. "He practiced early on in the week and looked really good, but he couldn't go. (The team medical staff) made that decision."
Right next to them, Long Jr. is putting together a fantastic junior season and leads the team with 68 tackles, 12 ½ tackles for losses and three sacks. He was credited with a pair of sacks Thursday night against Baylor and continues to be one of the most impactful defensive players in the Big 12 this year.
"We stopped thinking," Long Jr. mentioned of the defense's impressive showing against Baylor. "When you start thinking you slow down and when you go out and play football you have to play fast and that's what I've been telling myself and the younger guys to do."
Gibson thought his defense looked pretty fast under the lights at Milan Puskar Stadium on Thursday night. Now, he said he's looking for some more "bubble gum and band-aids" to patch up his defense in order to get them ready for 15th-ranked Texas in Austin this Saturday.
The Longhorns dropped to 6-2 following their 38-35 loss at Oklahoma State Saturday night, but the Mountaineers haven't forgotten that Texas ruined their season last year when they doubled them up in Morgantown, 28-14.
West Virginia went into the game with a 7-3 record and ranked 24thin the country, and left without its starting quarterback, which began a three-game slide that concluded with a disappointing, 30-14 loss to Utah in the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl.
"Coming up, we know what this game brings," Gibson said. "That was kind of the demise of our season with Texas so we've got to be juiced up to be ready to go out and play another (nationally ranked team)," he said.
Gibson's just isn't sure right now who he is going to be able to put out there six days from now to slow the Longhorns.
"Who knows who we will have healthy to play next week? We're going to have to keep piecing it together," Gibson said. "I'm going to have to put them all in bubble wrap for the next seven days to make sure nobody else gets hurt."
Briefly: West Virginia jumped two spots to No. 10 in this week's coaches' poll and one spot to No. 12 in this week's AP poll … This is the first time West Virginia has been ranked in the Top 10 in November since 2016 when it lost 56-28 to third-ranked Oklahoma in Morgantown on Nov. 19 … The Mountaineers are now in a three-way tie with Oklahoma and Texas for first place in the Big 12 standings as we head into November and are one of four teams that still control where they will finish, 3-2 Iowa State being the other … Iowa State's four remaining conference games are against Kansas, Baylor, Texas and Kansas State … Quarterback Will Grier has moved into a tie with Marc Bulger for third in school history with 59 career touchdown passes … Grier has matched Bulger's TD passing total in 20 fewer games.
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