Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Healthy Qualls Looking To Give Mountaineers Production Off The Edge
August 13, 2019 05:32 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The biggest difference between junior college and Power 5 football? For West Virginia University senior linebacker Quondarius Qualls, it's definitely the food.
He says the food menu for the players at Northwest Mississippi Community College was not always very appetizing.
"One day we had chicken strips and peaches on top of each other," he recalled earlier this week. "The peaches were on top! That's all we had to eat that day so I had to eat it."
Qualls says he's done with chicken strips and peaches forever.
As for rushing opposing quarterbacks, he's still got plenty of that left in him before he leaves Milan Puskar Stadium for the last time.
And a position switch from defensive end to bandit linebacker could give him an opportunity to spend a lot more time in opposing backfields this fall. Linebackers coach Blake Seiler, who once tried to recruit Qualls when he was a senior at Union Parish High in tiny Farmerville, Louisiana, believes bandit is the perfect spot for Qualls.
"Our bandit position really needs to be a disruptive guy – a guy with some twitch and some explosiveness to him and a good pass-rusher type guy," he said.
Qualls checks all of those boxes.
Back when Quondarius was in high school, Seiler was willing to offer him a scholarship when he was Kansas State's defensive coordinator.
"The coaches in the area were talking about him so I made a special trip down to see him," Seiler recalled. "He's from a real small town; I watched his film, and he was all over the place. He played everywhere – special teams, offense, defense – and anybody who could run like that and play football like that you had to take a hard look at."
Qualls wasn't just a good football player, either. He was a 10.8 sprinter in the 100-meter dash and that's where he believes his great get-off comes from.
"I've got a knack for it, I guess," he says.
The holdup in getting a Division I offer out of high school wasn't Qualls' weight, which was just 185 at the time, but rather a low SAT score that ultimately forced him to take the junior college route.
"I'm glad I went to juco because it humbled me," Qualls said. "Everything's not easy, and you've got to go through certain struggles in life to get to where you want to be."
Eventually, despite those chicken strips and peaches, Qualls managed to boost his weight from 185 to 215 by the time he was ready to give major college football another try following an outstanding sophomore season at Northwest in 2016.
This time, his options were West Virginia, Baylor, Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech and, yes, Troy, where Neal Brown was rebuilding the Trojan program.
Troy called but Qualls never visited. His sights were set on playing Power 5 football. Because his junior college games were played on Thursdays, he was able to sit in his dorm and watch all of the big-time college football games on Saturdays.
He wanted to play on the biggest stage and West Virginia gave him that opportunity.
A year playing primarily on special teams gave Mountaineer fans a brief glimpse of what he could do. Much more was expected of Qualls in 2018 until he seriously injured his knee last spring during a non-contact drill. All he could get out of his junior season was an assisted tackle against Syracuse in the Camping World Bowl.
"I was trying to get back as fast as I could, but I had to be patient," he explained. "I didn't want to rush it.
Now totally healthy, Qualls is ready to let it rip in 2019. He says he really likes the new scheme defensive coordinator Vic Koenning is running this year.
"It fits me way better," Qualls said. "I get to rush off the edge more."
Seiler says he likes the move, too.
"He's done a really nice job. I like what he's done," Seiler said. "I feel a lot better moving Quondarius (to bandit linebacker) and having true freshman Jared Bartlett there now. Quondarius has had a full summer now so we went from a position that was unnatural from the defensive scheme that they had and didn't have a whole lot of depth to having a pretty decent amount of depth right now."
As for Quondarius' weight, he's got that up to 240 pounds now.
"When I saw him here I didn't recognize him at first," Seiler admitted. "He's totally changed his body."
The Mountaineers were off today and will resume practice Wednesday morning. The second officiated scrimmage of fall camp is slated for Friday morning.
He says the food menu for the players at Northwest Mississippi Community College was not always very appetizing.
"One day we had chicken strips and peaches on top of each other," he recalled earlier this week. "The peaches were on top! That's all we had to eat that day so I had to eat it."
Qualls says he's done with chicken strips and peaches forever.
As for rushing opposing quarterbacks, he's still got plenty of that left in him before he leaves Milan Puskar Stadium for the last time.
And a position switch from defensive end to bandit linebacker could give him an opportunity to spend a lot more time in opposing backfields this fall. Linebackers coach Blake Seiler, who once tried to recruit Qualls when he was a senior at Union Parish High in tiny Farmerville, Louisiana, believes bandit is the perfect spot for Qualls.
"Our bandit position really needs to be a disruptive guy – a guy with some twitch and some explosiveness to him and a good pass-rusher type guy," he said.
Qualls checks all of those boxes.
Back when Quondarius was in high school, Seiler was willing to offer him a scholarship when he was Kansas State's defensive coordinator.
"The coaches in the area were talking about him so I made a special trip down to see him," Seiler recalled. "He's from a real small town; I watched his film, and he was all over the place. He played everywhere – special teams, offense, defense – and anybody who could run like that and play football like that you had to take a hard look at."
Qualls wasn't just a good football player, either. He was a 10.8 sprinter in the 100-meter dash and that's where he believes his great get-off comes from.
"I've got a knack for it, I guess," he says.
The holdup in getting a Division I offer out of high school wasn't Qualls' weight, which was just 185 at the time, but rather a low SAT score that ultimately forced him to take the junior college route.
"I'm glad I went to juco because it humbled me," Qualls said. "Everything's not easy, and you've got to go through certain struggles in life to get to where you want to be."
Eventually, despite those chicken strips and peaches, Qualls managed to boost his weight from 185 to 215 by the time he was ready to give major college football another try following an outstanding sophomore season at Northwest in 2016.
This time, his options were West Virginia, Baylor, Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech and, yes, Troy, where Neal Brown was rebuilding the Trojan program.
Troy called but Qualls never visited. His sights were set on playing Power 5 football. Because his junior college games were played on Thursdays, he was able to sit in his dorm and watch all of the big-time college football games on Saturdays.
He wanted to play on the biggest stage and West Virginia gave him that opportunity.
A year playing primarily on special teams gave Mountaineer fans a brief glimpse of what he could do. Much more was expected of Qualls in 2018 until he seriously injured his knee last spring during a non-contact drill. All he could get out of his junior season was an assisted tackle against Syracuse in the Camping World Bowl.
"I was trying to get back as fast as I could, but I had to be patient," he explained. "I didn't want to rush it.
Now totally healthy, Qualls is ready to let it rip in 2019. He says he really likes the new scheme defensive coordinator Vic Koenning is running this year.
"It fits me way better," Qualls said. "I get to rush off the edge more."
Seiler says he likes the move, too.
"He's done a really nice job. I like what he's done," Seiler said. "I feel a lot better moving Quondarius (to bandit linebacker) and having true freshman Jared Bartlett there now. Quondarius has had a full summer now so we went from a position that was unnatural from the defensive scheme that they had and didn't have a whole lot of depth to having a pretty decent amount of depth right now."
As for Quondarius' weight, he's got that up to 240 pounds now.
"When I saw him here I didn't recognize him at first," Seiler admitted. "He's totally changed his body."
The Mountaineers were off today and will resume practice Wednesday morning. The second officiated scrimmage of fall camp is slated for Friday morning.
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