Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
WVU's Defense Effective in Saturday's Tennessee Victory
September 02, 2018 09:57 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Veteran defensive coordinator Tony Gibson told us frequently during training camp that he liked the guys he had to work with this year.
Now we can see why.
The defense West Virginia put on the field Saturday against Tennessee was much different than the one we saw last year that got gashed at times by bigger, more physical offenses.
The Volunteers tried to do the same thing yesterday afternoon with bigger personnel packages in an effort to outmuscle the Mountaineers by playing SEC-style football.
Well, Gibson's answer to that was to insert an extra defensive lineman at times - the same 4-2-5 look Bud Foster has used so successfully for years at Virginia Tech.
And why not?
Gibson's got the defensive linemen to pull it off this year.
"No. 1, we're deep up front," Gibson said afterward. "No. 2, we've got linebackers that we're really counting on playing … two of them (Brendan Ferns and Quondarius Qualls) didn't make the trip and then one went out (Charlie Benton) in the first quarter. So, I knew if we had an injury that was going to be an issue."
Defensive end Reese Donahue said the versatility defensive line coach Bruce Tall preaches really helped with the switch to a four-down look on Saturday.
"Obviously, you saw a lot of rotation between me, Zeke (Rose) and Jabril (Robinson) and what we decided to do was to throw everybody in there at the same time when Kenny (Bigelow Jr.) was playing the nose," Donahue, who recorded one of West Virginia's two sacks, said. "Really, that four-down, anyone can play any position. We're not limited to me and Kenny playing inside because if we have to we can put Kenny at end because he knows exactly what to do."
When WVU went back to its regular three-man look, Morgantown's Shea Campbell got the linebacker reps playing Benton's outside linebacker spot, and Gibson thought he held up reasonably well when he was in there.
"Shea missed a few things, but that kid was a walk-on who traveled half the time last year and he had some big eyes going on out there at first, and I wanted to slow it down for him," Gibson admitted. "He made a couple of plays, and he missed a couple of plays, which is to be expected."
Gibson said tweaking from their usual three-man front to a four-man line was not that big of a deal to his guys because he is keeping it pretty simple right now.
"There's not a lot of thinking with it," he explained. "And they schemed us up a little bit with our three-down in the second half. They were running some inside zone, and they got that off of Oklahoma. That was what Oklahoma was doing to us a year ago, and once we made our adjustment then we kind of took it away in the fourth quarter."
Overall, the defense gets good marks for the way it played against a Volunteer offense that, admittedly, wasn't very good last year but is filled with four- and five-star players.
"That's an SEC football team with some big football players on it," Gibson pointed out.
The bulk of Tennessee's 301 total yards came on three offensive possessions when West Virginia was protecting leads.
Tennessee had one long drive in the second quarter consisting of 17 plays that consumed 8:47 of the clock, and another 75-yard march late in the third quarter when Gibson had some of his backups in the game.
Then, a third Volunteer march ended at the WVU 2 when the defense came up with a goal-line stand. That was pleasing for Gibson to see after he felt his guys relaxed a little bit when Will Grier got hot and led the offense to three straight touchdowns in the third quarter.
"I guess that's part of it," Gibson shrugged, "and they kind of took a deep breath. Well, Tennessee wasn't quitting. That's when we got them back over (to the sideline) and I got on them a little bit."
"That's kind of a natural response to think you have a little breathing room, but at the same time, you can't do that," Donahue added.
Other than those three possessions, Tennessee struggled the rest of the afternoon to sustain anything against Gibson's changing fronts and aggressive schemes. The Vols' first offensive possession went backwards 15 yards, thanks to USC transfer Kenny Bigelow Jr.'s quickness at the nose, and two other three-and-out possessions netted just seven yards.
For the most part, West Virginia was also successful on third down by limiting Tennessee to just a 35.7-percent success rate.
"When they had success, it was when they had success on first down," Gibson said. "When they didn't then they were three-and-out or we got big stops."
Added all up, it was a very successful opening-game performance for Gibson's defense. He said afterward there is a lot to build on, including his new four-man front.
"We want to keep working with that, and as the weeks go on we need to keep building our packages out of the four-down," he concluded.
That's pleasing to his players, including the guys playing behind them.
"I like it," senior safety Dravon Askew-Henry said. "It's a different look for us. I feel a lot of teams won't be ready for it, and we've got four dominant defensive linemen down there trying to be disruptive, and that's key."
At the very least, the four-down look is one more thing for which next week's opponent, Youngstown State, and the rest of the teams West Virginia faces this year will have to spend extra time preparing.
Sunday Sound
Now we can see why.
The defense West Virginia put on the field Saturday against Tennessee was much different than the one we saw last year that got gashed at times by bigger, more physical offenses.
The Volunteers tried to do the same thing yesterday afternoon with bigger personnel packages in an effort to outmuscle the Mountaineers by playing SEC-style football.
Well, Gibson's answer to that was to insert an extra defensive lineman at times - the same 4-2-5 look Bud Foster has used so successfully for years at Virginia Tech.
And why not?
Gibson's got the defensive linemen to pull it off this year.
"No. 1, we're deep up front," Gibson said afterward. "No. 2, we've got linebackers that we're really counting on playing … two of them (Brendan Ferns and Quondarius Qualls) didn't make the trip and then one went out (Charlie Benton) in the first quarter. So, I knew if we had an injury that was going to be an issue."
Defensive end Reese Donahue said the versatility defensive line coach Bruce Tall preaches really helped with the switch to a four-down look on Saturday.
"Obviously, you saw a lot of rotation between me, Zeke (Rose) and Jabril (Robinson) and what we decided to do was to throw everybody in there at the same time when Kenny (Bigelow Jr.) was playing the nose," Donahue, who recorded one of West Virginia's two sacks, said. "Really, that four-down, anyone can play any position. We're not limited to me and Kenny playing inside because if we have to we can put Kenny at end because he knows exactly what to do."
When WVU went back to its regular three-man look, Morgantown's Shea Campbell got the linebacker reps playing Benton's outside linebacker spot, and Gibson thought he held up reasonably well when he was in there.
"Shea missed a few things, but that kid was a walk-on who traveled half the time last year and he had some big eyes going on out there at first, and I wanted to slow it down for him," Gibson admitted. "He made a couple of plays, and he missed a couple of plays, which is to be expected."
Gibson said tweaking from their usual three-man front to a four-man line was not that big of a deal to his guys because he is keeping it pretty simple right now.
"There's not a lot of thinking with it," he explained. "And they schemed us up a little bit with our three-down in the second half. They were running some inside zone, and they got that off of Oklahoma. That was what Oklahoma was doing to us a year ago, and once we made our adjustment then we kind of took it away in the fourth quarter."
Overall, the defense gets good marks for the way it played against a Volunteer offense that, admittedly, wasn't very good last year but is filled with four- and five-star players.
"That's an SEC football team with some big football players on it," Gibson pointed out.
The bulk of Tennessee's 301 total yards came on three offensive possessions when West Virginia was protecting leads.
Tennessee had one long drive in the second quarter consisting of 17 plays that consumed 8:47 of the clock, and another 75-yard march late in the third quarter when Gibson had some of his backups in the game.
Then, a third Volunteer march ended at the WVU 2 when the defense came up with a goal-line stand. That was pleasing for Gibson to see after he felt his guys relaxed a little bit when Will Grier got hot and led the offense to three straight touchdowns in the third quarter.
"I guess that's part of it," Gibson shrugged, "and they kind of took a deep breath. Well, Tennessee wasn't quitting. That's when we got them back over (to the sideline) and I got on them a little bit."
"That's kind of a natural response to think you have a little breathing room, but at the same time, you can't do that," Donahue added.
Other than those three possessions, Tennessee struggled the rest of the afternoon to sustain anything against Gibson's changing fronts and aggressive schemes. The Vols' first offensive possession went backwards 15 yards, thanks to USC transfer Kenny Bigelow Jr.'s quickness at the nose, and two other three-and-out possessions netted just seven yards.
For the most part, West Virginia was also successful on third down by limiting Tennessee to just a 35.7-percent success rate.
"When they had success, it was when they had success on first down," Gibson said. "When they didn't then they were three-and-out or we got big stops."
Added all up, it was a very successful opening-game performance for Gibson's defense. He said afterward there is a lot to build on, including his new four-man front.
"We want to keep working with that, and as the weeks go on we need to keep building our packages out of the four-down," he concluded.
That's pleasing to his players, including the guys playing behind them.
"I like it," senior safety Dravon Askew-Henry said. "It's a different look for us. I feel a lot of teams won't be ready for it, and we've got four dominant defensive linemen down there trying to be disruptive, and that's key."
At the very least, the four-down look is one more thing for which next week's opponent, Youngstown State, and the rest of the teams West Virginia faces this year will have to spend extra time preparing.
Sunday Sound
Players Mentioned
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