West Virginia University
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December 02, 2020 12:54 PM | Football
West Virginia Game Notes | Iowa State Game Notes
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Do you remember a decade ago when West Virginia was once considered one of the most unorthodox college football teams around?
That unique, no-huddle, spread offense designed to get speedy playmakers out in space, or that weird 3-3 stack defense that made offenses work backwards from the exceptions first to the rules last?
Well, 7-2 Iowa State today has developed a similar formula based on their unorthodoxies that has proven to be very successful.
Besides Notre Dame, how many other teams out there are using three tight ends in a game at the same time? It’s so unique that veteran defensive line coach Jordan Lesley said some of the three-tight end formations they get into don’t even have names yet.
Who plays defense the way Jon Heacock does with all of those safeties running around like a swarm of killer bees? You think you see one thing and they give you another in their cat-and-mouse version of offense-defense.
“Credit their staff,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “They’ve created two niches.”
First, those tight ends, which Brown calls collectively “one of the best units in the country.”
When Matt Campbell came to Iowa State five years ago, he had to build that position from scratch. He has always preferred big pass-catching targets and in his early years at Iowa State he got it done with large, physical outside receivers such as Allen Lazard and Hakeem Butler.
And by the time those guys cycled through the program he had built up the tight end room to the point where he had enough of them to showcase them in his offense. So this Saturday, we are likely going to see a heavy dose of 6-foot-6, 257-pound Charlie Kolar, 6-foot-7, 240-pound Chase Allen and 6-foot-6, 251-pound Easton Dean out there.
“They are different than anyone in our league,” Brown said earlier this week. “They are going to operate with two and three tight ends in the game at the same time. They motion and shift on every play, so getting lined up is going to be critical.”
When those tight ends are not running around catching passes they are setting the edge in the run game for the Big 12’s top rusher, Breece Hall, whose 1,260 yards are 393 more than West Virginia’s Leddie Brown heading into this weekend’s action.
“Breece Hall gets yards after contact,” Brown said.
Then, when defenses bring extra guys into the box to try and stop Hall in the run game, those tight ends release off the line of scrimmage down the middle of the field where they are matched up against defenders five or six inches shorter than them.
“Their advantage at tight end is not going to go away – they are not going to go from 6-7 to 6-3 before Saturday,” Lesley explained. “It’s something we are going to have to deal with, and we’ve got to make those contested plays. The thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to affect the throw more than anything, as opposed to putting a special type of defender on those guys.”
When you’ve got targets that big it you can still be a little off and still complete passes to them.
Junior quarterback Brock Purdy makes it all work.
West Virginia got its first dose of Purdy in 2018 in its 30-14 loss to the Cyclones in Ames. Purdy looked like the second coming of Drew Brees, scrambling and pump-faking his way to 254 yards and three touchdowns through the air and an additional 39 yards on the ground.
WVU did a much better job against Purdy last year in Morgantown, but the Cyclones still managed to pull away with a 38-14 victory.
Hall was the big weapon that afternoon with 132 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries.
Stopping Hall in the run game has to be objective No. 1. Affecting Purdy’s downfield passing is a close second.
On the other side of the ball, the biggest issue is going to be figuring out where those safeties are going to end up once the ball is snapped.
“The first challenge is old-school teaching would say, ‘Hey, it’s drop eight, three-man front so run the football.’ But those (safeties) are not that far away so they fit the run really well out of those drop-eight looks,” West Virginia offensive coordinator Gerad Parker explained. “They close to the football very well because everyone sees it because it’s mostly zone concepts so there are a lot of eyes on the football.”
Parker said it will be important for quarterback Jarret Doege to make sure what he is seeing is actually what Iowa State is giving him.
“There is a lot on him,” Parker admitted. “He doesn’t have an easy job.”
“It’s built to stop the run game because they give you this false perception that they have a light box, but really, they are getting an extra hat every time to the box and then they want to keep the pass game in front of them, for sure,” Brown added.
Only four teams have managed to rush for more than 100 yards against Iowa State’s defense this year – Louisiana (118), Oklahoma (114), Oklahoma State (226) and Texas (145).
In Iowa State’s other games against TCU, Texas Tech, Kansas, Baylor and Kansas State, those teams are averaging just 74.8 yards per game.
Heacock’s scheme is effective, and he’s also got good players who are good tacklers in space.
Brown is high on junior strongside linebacker Mike Rose, a 6-foot-4, 245-pounder, who leads the Cyclones with 76 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and four interceptions. Iowa State is good at funneling plays to Rose’s area of the field.
Weakside linebacker Jake Hummel is another effective playmaker with 57 tackles and four tackles for loss in nine games. Middle linebacker O’Rien Vance is third on the team in tackles with 51 and also has four TFL.
The most active safety is senior free safety Lawrence Wright IV with 46 stops, an interception and a pass breakup.
Freshman Isheem Young and senior Arnold Azunna share time at Iowa State’s star safety position where they have combined for 61 tackles.
Texas last week and TCU in week two had success throwing the ball against Iowa State. The Longhorns passed for 303 yards in last week’s 23-20 loss and the Horned Frogs put up 399 through the air in a 37-34 loss back on Sept. 26.
Iowa State’s two defeats this year came against Louisiana in the opener when they had a couple of special teams breakdowns that led to two long touchdowns in the return game, and against Oklahoma State in week five when the Cowboys managed to have a balanced attack against the Cyclones.
Oklahoma State ran for 226 yards and passed for 235 in a 24-21 victory.
It has been 18 days since West Virginia last played a football game on Nov. 14 against TCU, a 24-6 Mountaineer win.
West Virginia got 156 yards rushing from Leddie Brown and a pair of touchdown receptions from wide receiver T.J. Simmons in the 18-point win over the Frogs.
WVU’s defense limited TCU to just 295 total yards for the afternoon.
“We’re going to be fresh and ready to go,” Brown said. “Our guys were excited for the opportunity to play Oklahoma last week. It didn’t come and now we will channel that excitement to go on the road to play an Iowa State team that’s already qualified for the Big 12 championship.”
The Mountaineers (5-3) come into Saturday’s game ranked first nationally in pass defense giving up 161.5 yards per game, fourth in total defense allowing 274 yards per game and 14th in scoring defense permitting 17.8 points per contest.
Iowa State’s best defensive category is red-zone defense where it ranks 14th by allowing opponents just a 73.1% success rate inside the 20.
Saturday’s game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN (Dave Pasch, Mike Golic Sr. and Paul Carcaterra). Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday will begin at noon.
West Virginia leads the all-time series 5-3, but the Cyclones have claimed the last two. WVU is 3-1 in games played at Jack Trice Stadium.
We’re going to be fresh and ready to go. Our guys were excited for the opportunity to play Oklahoma last week. It didn’t come and now we will channel that excitement to go on the road to play an Iowa State team that’s already qualified for the Big 12 championship.-- West Virginia coach Neal Brown
