MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia's new spear safety this year is actually the old one who played in last December's Liberty Bowl victory over Army.
 
Senior Scottie Young, who was required to sit out last fall after transferring from Arizona, stepped in for Tykee Smith to produce four tackles against the Black Knights.
 
Quarterback Austin Kendall earned most of the praise afterward for his relief effort in leading the Mountaineers to their second-half comeback victory, but Young's substitute work on the defensive side of the ball was equally important.
 
WVU safeties coach Dontae Wright said Young's solid performance in the bowl game was a product of an older, more mature player who took his role on the scout team in 2020 seriously.
 
"It was the first time in his career he wasn't a contributor at all," Wright pointed out recently. "I thought he handled it just like Alonzo Addae did the year before. Obviously, he's an older guy who is very mature, and he understands, 'Okay, it's not my fault at all I'm sitting out. It's because of rules and no matter what, I've got a role.'
 
"His role was to be on the scout team to learn our defense as much as he could, and you could see he did that," Wright continued. "He took that role seriously because he was able to come back and help us in the bowl game, and there was no drop off when we needed him."
 
It was about this time last year when Young chose to play his senior season elsewhere. A three-year starting safety for the Wildcats, the San Diego, California, resident produced more than 150 tackles with seven pass breakups and five interceptions in 32 career games.
 
In 2019, he was the team's third-leading tackler with 66 stops, including six games with six tackles or more. He registered a season-high nine stops against archrival Arizona State, and he had eight tackles and a 42-yard interception return against Oregon.
 
Three years ago, his 24-yard pick six was the deciding score in Arizona's win over Cal, so what West Virginia is getting this year as Tykee Smith's replacement is very experienced Power 5 defender.
 
Young said recently that West Virginia just felt like home to him from the moment he first stepped on campus, which is somewhat surprising considering Suncrest is probably a complete 180 from San Diego.
 
"Coach (Neal) Brown is a great guy," Young explained. "I had a couple of conversations with him when I was in the portal, and coach (Jahmile) Addae recruited me as well. He's no longer here, but that hasn't made me want to leave or anything. I'm still here with my brothers. I love the decision I made. I love everybody here, so I'm happy to be here and happy to be home."
 
After listening to Wright rave about Young earlier this spring, it's obvious the feeling is mutual.
 
"The biggest impression on me has been Scottie Young," Wright said. "He's had a great spring playing the spear position and also learning the free safety position. He is a terrific football player who has unbelievable instincts. He's becoming one of the leaders of our defense."
 
A little bit of Football 101 is in order to understand the spear position Young is now playing, which is different than the cat and free safety spots in West Virginia's defense.
 
Wright explains.
 
"The spear is a little bit different because he's your hybrid corner/safety guy. He's got to play a little bit more man coverage out there on the No. 2s (receivers) and things like that," he said. "The spear to the cat and free safety is the hardest one to switch and play both of them."
 
"I didn't play much of the nickel and spear position when I was at Arizona," Young noted. "I played it a couple of games during my career, but it's completely different. I played a lot of boundary safety when I was at Arizona, and now I'm playing more in space here."
 
The techniques required to play West Virginia's spear position demand a versatile and athletic type of player, which is what the Mountaineers have in the 5-foot-11, 208-pound Young.
 
"When you are playing corner, you've got the sideline as your friend, or playing the boundary safety, you don't have to play as much space," Young explained. "At spear, you have to play a lot of space so you have to be very sound with your technique with your feet and your eyes. You don't want to see too much, so you want to focus on what you've got going on and be your 1/11^th of the defense."
 
West Virginia will most likely have three seniors manning the safety positions when the Mountaineers open the 2021 campaign at Maryland on Saturday, Sept. 4. Young will be penciled in at spear, Sean Mahone at cat and Alonzo Addae at free.
 
Behind them is Charleston's K.J. Martin, who opted out last season because of COVID-19 concerns, true freshman Davis Mallinger and sophomore Naim Muhammad. Two more talented true freshman safeties are on the way this summer in 2020 signees Aubrey Burks and Saint McLeod, and Wright said they will keep exploring the transfer portal for others who might become available.
 
"I think the development is there," Wright said. "We will have no drop off with K.J. He will be our third safety in the game right now, and if Davis Mallinger keeps improving, he will be our fourth guy in the game right now."
 
Addae and Martin are intelligent and versatile enough to play all three safety positions, and Wright said Young and Mahone are also capable of cross training, so that alone will increase West Virginia's safety depth.
 
It seems cross training is becoming the answer to so many players entering the transfer portal these days. 
 
"I am going to recruit the best safety I can possibly find," Wright admitted. "What we're hoping to get to is recruit three players that are all the same from the spear to the cat to free safety because that will help us with tempo. 
 
"In the Big 12, that's where they get you from one side of the field and having to run all the way over to the other side because (a player) is just a cat safety or just a spear. But if we can merge all of those positions together, then now we can play left and right and get ahead of it," he said.
 
Having similar types of players also helps tremendously with disguising coverages. Imagine how difficult it will be for quarterbacks to identify three safeties who all have the same body types or wear similar numbers.
 
What if the free safety starts out lined up over the football but ends up someplace else? Wright said West Virginia will be able to do more of that this year because the Mountaineers have three experienced safeties.
 
"I'm not going to go too much into detail on this, but what we're doing with our free safety you will see him over the ball a lot," he said. "He might be over the ball and then he might play cover two to the boundary, or he could be a run fitter off the back or playing cover two to the field.
 
"We are going to be able to do a lot of things off of that disguise, but also having (the cat and free safety positions) mirror and be left and right will really, really help with our disguising as well," Wright explained.
 
As will having another experienced player at spear safety this year in senior Scottie Young.
 
Season tickets are now on sale for the 2021 campaign and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.