Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Mountaineer Defense Will Be Just Fine With Koenning Overseeing Things
August 03, 2019 03:57 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Asking your defensive coach to talk about his players two days into fall training camp when nobody is wearing pads is about like trying to get your dog to drive you to work.
It's almost pointless.
But Vic Koenning stood behind a podium inside the team room at Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday afternoon and spent 10 minutes going over the unknowns that will continue to remain unknowns until the pads finally come on sometime next week.
In this regard, he sort of comes off like the great general Dwight Eisenhower, who later became the great president Dwight Eisenhower.
In 1954, when Eisenhower was confronted with the first Taiwan Strait Crisis and the world was on edge that he might be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend the island of Formosa, Ike was at his very best.
State Department personnel were particularly concerned that Eisenhower might slip up and say something to make the crisis much worse when he was scheduled to meet with the press to explain how he planned to handle the situation.
He simply brushed off their concerns and told them not to worry, "I'll just confuse them," he said.
Eisenhower went on to give a long, meandering press conference that left people both wondering what he had just said but at the same time feeling very reassured that everything was going to be okay. His basic message: General Eisenhower has the situation under control and everything will turn out fine.
That's sort of the impression you get when you listen to Koenning talk about West Virginia's young and inexperienced defense this year.
Somehow, some way, everything is going to eventually turn out fine because Coach Koenning has got the WVU headsets on.
"The first most improved thing that we are is we're a better team," he began when asked some throwaway question that usually begins these things. "I just happened to catch the end of that movie The Replacements the other night and it struck home to me about the old heart deal and the team deal is we're way, way, way better than we were at any time in the spring. So that's going to give us a way better chance than we had beforehand."
He continued.
"I think the guys had a pretty good summer. There are some habits that need to be corrected. You get into a habit defensively of not running to the football in the summer because there is nobody hollering at you in the summer to run to the football so you have to get that going.
"When you practice against a tempo team all the time then what happens to you, defensively, is those D-linemen are going to take three steps and they're saying, 'Well, they're going to make that tackle out in the flat' so they go get ready to get lined up. But if you get to the ball like we need to do then they're going to be up ready to snap the ball," he said.
And there's more.
"Now that's in practice and everything is hurried up. In a game you just have to manage that. But to give you a better answer, we have to continually practice all getting to the ball. Ten guys or 11 guys tackle a whole lot better than one or two guys," he said. "I think they've got a better understand, and what we're able to do now in our meetings is to take the next step.
"Some of our guys are now learning the difference between one-back and two-back, so we're able to discern the difference between one backs and two backs so we're making strides there. To answer your question with a real long answer, we are making a lot of strides in a lot of areas."
See, I told.
A moment later, Koenning was asked if he was worried about what he was left to work with on defense when he took over last winter.
"No, I was more worried about day-to-day dealing with things you shouldn't have to deal with," he replied. "A lot of that is not an issue any more so we're way better in that area. That was more the concern for me was just getting them to buy in and that stuff that Coach (Neal) Brown has worked so hard to get our team to do. We're at a place now where we can go forward, without a doubt."
In terms of personnel, Coach Vic has got some unexpected remodeling to do in the secondary where he is now without All-Big 12 safety Kenny Robinson and promising South Charleston native Derrek Pitts, two late-spring departures.
Senior corner Josh Norwood was asked to move to help with depth at the safety position.
"It was kind of a necessary deal," Koenning said. "He gets after you and he practices hard. Josh has got all of those attributes and when you think of that you don't think of corner. You think of a safety.
"Is he going to be a Ronnie Lott? No. But I think he's going to be able to help us with his coverage skills. When you look at the teams in our conference most of them are playing with corner types at safety anyway. There are not a bunch of hammer guys, so he's going to have to help us and we're going to use what he does best a lot," Koenning explained.
"We're not going to be blessed with a plethora of depth there but we've got enough guys," Koenning said. "We've got to be smart and the next thing is if we go 80 plays, they've got to give us 40 and 40 because they've got to be real good on special teams as well."
In front of the safeties, Koenning believes he's got a standout performer in the making in sophomore outside linebacker Josh Chandler.
"Of all the guys on the team, and it's not quite to his nature yet, but he's going to be a guy (opposing offenses) are going to need to find," Koenning said. "By the middle of the year they're going to have to try and find out where he's at."
As for Michigan graduate transfer Reuben Jones, Koenning left us with this little nugget: "It's like getting an IV when you're dehydrated. You start feeling a lot better, and I feel a lot better watching him run around out there."
Listening to Coach Vic speak, you get that same impression about West Virginia's defense, somehow, some way.
It's almost pointless.
But Vic Koenning stood behind a podium inside the team room at Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday afternoon and spent 10 minutes going over the unknowns that will continue to remain unknowns until the pads finally come on sometime next week.
In this regard, he sort of comes off like the great general Dwight Eisenhower, who later became the great president Dwight Eisenhower.
In 1954, when Eisenhower was confronted with the first Taiwan Strait Crisis and the world was on edge that he might be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend the island of Formosa, Ike was at his very best.
State Department personnel were particularly concerned that Eisenhower might slip up and say something to make the crisis much worse when he was scheduled to meet with the press to explain how he planned to handle the situation.
He simply brushed off their concerns and told them not to worry, "I'll just confuse them," he said.
Eisenhower went on to give a long, meandering press conference that left people both wondering what he had just said but at the same time feeling very reassured that everything was going to be okay. His basic message: General Eisenhower has the situation under control and everything will turn out fine.
That's sort of the impression you get when you listen to Koenning talk about West Virginia's young and inexperienced defense this year.
Somehow, some way, everything is going to eventually turn out fine because Coach Koenning has got the WVU headsets on.
"The first most improved thing that we are is we're a better team," he began when asked some throwaway question that usually begins these things. "I just happened to catch the end of that movie The Replacements the other night and it struck home to me about the old heart deal and the team deal is we're way, way, way better than we were at any time in the spring. So that's going to give us a way better chance than we had beforehand."
He continued.
"I think the guys had a pretty good summer. There are some habits that need to be corrected. You get into a habit defensively of not running to the football in the summer because there is nobody hollering at you in the summer to run to the football so you have to get that going.
"When you practice against a tempo team all the time then what happens to you, defensively, is those D-linemen are going to take three steps and they're saying, 'Well, they're going to make that tackle out in the flat' so they go get ready to get lined up. But if you get to the ball like we need to do then they're going to be up ready to snap the ball," he said.
And there's more.
"Now that's in practice and everything is hurried up. In a game you just have to manage that. But to give you a better answer, we have to continually practice all getting to the ball. Ten guys or 11 guys tackle a whole lot better than one or two guys," he said. "I think they've got a better understand, and what we're able to do now in our meetings is to take the next step.
"Some of our guys are now learning the difference between one-back and two-back, so we're able to discern the difference between one backs and two backs so we're making strides there. To answer your question with a real long answer, we are making a lot of strides in a lot of areas."
See, I told.
A moment later, Koenning was asked if he was worried about what he was left to work with on defense when he took over last winter.
"No, I was more worried about day-to-day dealing with things you shouldn't have to deal with," he replied. "A lot of that is not an issue any more so we're way better in that area. That was more the concern for me was just getting them to buy in and that stuff that Coach (Neal) Brown has worked so hard to get our team to do. We're at a place now where we can go forward, without a doubt."
In terms of personnel, Coach Vic has got some unexpected remodeling to do in the secondary where he is now without All-Big 12 safety Kenny Robinson and promising South Charleston native Derrek Pitts, two late-spring departures.
Senior corner Josh Norwood was asked to move to help with depth at the safety position.
"It was kind of a necessary deal," Koenning said. "He gets after you and he practices hard. Josh has got all of those attributes and when you think of that you don't think of corner. You think of a safety.
"Is he going to be a Ronnie Lott? No. But I think he's going to be able to help us with his coverage skills. When you look at the teams in our conference most of them are playing with corner types at safety anyway. There are not a bunch of hammer guys, so he's going to have to help us and we're going to use what he does best a lot," Koenning explained.
"We're not going to be blessed with a plethora of depth there but we've got enough guys," Koenning said. "We've got to be smart and the next thing is if we go 80 plays, they've got to give us 40 and 40 because they've got to be real good on special teams as well."
In front of the safeties, Koenning believes he's got a standout performer in the making in sophomore outside linebacker Josh Chandler.
"Of all the guys on the team, and it's not quite to his nature yet, but he's going to be a guy (opposing offenses) are going to need to find," Koenning said. "By the middle of the year they're going to have to try and find out where he's at."
As for Michigan graduate transfer Reuben Jones, Koenning left us with this little nugget: "It's like getting an IV when you're dehydrated. You start feeling a lot better, and I feel a lot better watching him run around out there."
Listening to Coach Vic speak, you get that same impression about West Virginia's defense, somehow, some way.
Players Mentioned
LB
/ Football
DL
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S
/ Football
CB
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