Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Positive Outlook Yielding Positive Results For Emerging Pass Rusher Bartlett
September 21, 2021 05:05 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Sometimes in the face of a personal tragedy things can get put into proper perspective.
West Virginia University sophomore bandit linebacker Jared Bartlett believes that's been the case for him after dealing with the tragic loss of his older brother, Richard, a victim of a fatal hit-and-run in Johns Creek, Georgia, this summer.
Jared said his brother had such a positive outlook on life.
"That's useful in the game of football," Bartlett said earlier today. "When you focus just on the negative it's hard to improve."
Richard's positive approach is what Jared said he has taken away from his older brother's life. As for getting the unvarnished truth - which is also sometimes needed - that comes from his older half-brother Stephon Tuitt, who now stars for the Pittsburgh Steelers. By the way, their mother Tamara Tuitt-Bartlett is a deputy sheriff in the Gwinnett County Sheriff's office.
After producing a career-best 11 sacks in 2020, Tuitt is starting this season on the injured reserve/return list with an unspecified knee injury. That has allowed Stephon some more free time to critique his younger brother's play at WVU.
"I try and talk to him about football as much as I can so I can grow my understanding," Bartlett admitted. "Usually, it starts off with a little bit of criticism then he tells me what I can do to fix my mistakes to where I can use my skillset to produce the most and be the most productive."
Whatever advice Stephon is giving Jared he might want to bottle it up and sell it because his little brother is coming off an amazing performance in last Saturday's 27-21 victory over Virginia Tech.
Bartlett sacked Hokie quarterback Braxton Burmeister three times, forced a fumble that he recovered and had five tackles in easily the best effort of his young career. Bartlett became the first Mountaineer since Darius Stills (2019 at Baylor) to have three sacks in a game, coming up one shy of the school-record four accomplished four different times, most recently by Julian Miller against Pitt in 2011.
Bartlett was named the Big 12's Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, and earlier today the Football Writers Association of America named him its Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week.
In a matter of just 60 minutes of game time, Bartlett has now nearly doubled his career sack total of 6½ in 17 career games.
It's a remarkable turnaround for a guy who a couple of weeks ago hardly got any snaps at all as the team's No. 3 bandit behind starter VanDarius Cowan and emerging redshirt freshman Lanell Carr. Bartlett is the lightest of the three, but he also possesses the most pure speed coming off the edge.
"Jared had a great summer and a really good fall camp and then he just did not play as well the first two games, for whatever reason," coach Neal Brown said. "Last week, he had great Tuesday and Wednesday practices so you could see he was getting better.
"Did I think he was going to go out and have three sacks, five tackles and a forced fumble? Probably not," Brown added.
Bartlett actually took matters into his own hands when he got into the game against the Hokies last Saturday. After one particular defensive series early in the game, Bartlett came over to the sideline and told defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley that he could beat the man who was blocking him.
"He said, 'Coach, I've got a mismatch with these guys on the edge,' so I trusted him," Lesley said.
Sometimes, something as simple as listening to what your players have to say and trusting them can work wonders. It certainly did in this instance. From that moment on, all Jared had to worry about was getting up field and going after the quarterback.
Bruce Irvin once made a great college career out of doing just that in Jeff Casteel's West Virginia defense. When Irvin first arrived at WVU from junior college, he didn't really have enough time to master the specifics of the defensive scheme so Casteel just simplified things and told him to go get the quarterback. The guys playing behind him were responsible for cleaning things up.
What Casteel chose to do with Bruce ended up making Irvin millions of dollars in the NFL.
It was a similar deal with Gary Stills in the late 1990s. These guys were so fast and so explosive coming off the edge that it just made sense to put them in situations where they could shine on obvious passing downs.
Bartlett is not nearly as big as Irvin nor Stills - he's more similar body-type wise to former WVU outside linebacker James 'Dirty" Davis or possibly an Eric Striker or a Corey Moore, but big doesn't always necessarily mean better for edge rushers.
Ask any tackle what they fear most and they will tell you a smaller, faster edge guy they can't get their hands on. And the wider these guys line up they scarier they look.
Lesley said edge pass rushers are typically born, not made.
"When you watch kids, there is always a knack for that," he explained. "It's almost like watching a really good basketball player, maybe a big point guard or a forward and just their natural movements. Take Akheem (Mesidor); the first time he had no clue what he was doing and a lot of it was just reacting to what the guy was doing in front of him in a one-on-one situation.
"That's just natural ability and natural reaction, which is what pass rushing really is – a reaction of what's in front of you. Then, he has to react to different things and that's where you get to the teaching side of it," Lesley added.
It was Mesidor's play Saturday pushing the pocket back into Burmeister's face that kept him in an area where Bartlett could reach him. Otherwise, he would have just slid forward and let Bartlett fly by.
"Jared got those sacks, but those sacks don't happen if there is room for Burmeister to move up in the pocket and there simply wasn't," Brown noted. "Akheem Mesidor is playing at an extremely high level and he may not show up on the stat sheet sometimes, but trust me, he is playing at a high level. There wasn't any room for Burmeister to move up, which allowed Bartlett to come off the edge and get him.
"But Bartlett did a good job winning those battles."
Bartlett is in agreement with his coach.
"We have great pressure from the inside and that keeps the quarterback from sliding into the B-gap and it makes it easier for me to turn the corner because he can't move from the spot he drops," Bartlett explained. "When we also have contain on the other side with Taijh (Alston) he has to stay where he is, or come back to me basically."
"I was proud of him," senior middle linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo added. "I hosted him for his first visit, so I've known him since he was a senior in high school. The steps and the leaps he's taken have come together to help him become the football player you see today. It's actually amazing, honestly."
It's the type of performance that certainly warrants more playing time for Jared Bartlett in the future, for sure, which is so inspiring and uplifting coming on the heels of his family's unfortunate recent tragedy.
West Virginia University sophomore bandit linebacker Jared Bartlett believes that's been the case for him after dealing with the tragic loss of his older brother, Richard, a victim of a fatal hit-and-run in Johns Creek, Georgia, this summer.
Jared said his brother had such a positive outlook on life.
"That's useful in the game of football," Bartlett said earlier today. "When you focus just on the negative it's hard to improve."
Richard's positive approach is what Jared said he has taken away from his older brother's life. As for getting the unvarnished truth - which is also sometimes needed - that comes from his older half-brother Stephon Tuitt, who now stars for the Pittsburgh Steelers. By the way, their mother Tamara Tuitt-Bartlett is a deputy sheriff in the Gwinnett County Sheriff's office.After producing a career-best 11 sacks in 2020, Tuitt is starting this season on the injured reserve/return list with an unspecified knee injury. That has allowed Stephon some more free time to critique his younger brother's play at WVU.
"I try and talk to him about football as much as I can so I can grow my understanding," Bartlett admitted. "Usually, it starts off with a little bit of criticism then he tells me what I can do to fix my mistakes to where I can use my skillset to produce the most and be the most productive."
Whatever advice Stephon is giving Jared he might want to bottle it up and sell it because his little brother is coming off an amazing performance in last Saturday's 27-21 victory over Virginia Tech.
Bartlett sacked Hokie quarterback Braxton Burmeister three times, forced a fumble that he recovered and had five tackles in easily the best effort of his young career. Bartlett became the first Mountaineer since Darius Stills (2019 at Baylor) to have three sacks in a game, coming up one shy of the school-record four accomplished four different times, most recently by Julian Miller against Pitt in 2011.
Bartlett was named the Big 12's Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, and earlier today the Football Writers Association of America named him its Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week.
In a matter of just 60 minutes of game time, Bartlett has now nearly doubled his career sack total of 6½ in 17 career games.
It's a remarkable turnaround for a guy who a couple of weeks ago hardly got any snaps at all as the team's No. 3 bandit behind starter VanDarius Cowan and emerging redshirt freshman Lanell Carr. Bartlett is the lightest of the three, but he also possesses the most pure speed coming off the edge.
"Jared had a great summer and a really good fall camp and then he just did not play as well the first two games, for whatever reason," coach Neal Brown said. "Last week, he had great Tuesday and Wednesday practices so you could see he was getting better.
"Did I think he was going to go out and have three sacks, five tackles and a forced fumble? Probably not," Brown added.
Bartlett actually took matters into his own hands when he got into the game against the Hokies last Saturday. After one particular defensive series early in the game, Bartlett came over to the sideline and told defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley that he could beat the man who was blocking him.
"He said, 'Coach, I've got a mismatch with these guys on the edge,' so I trusted him," Lesley said.
Sometimes, something as simple as listening to what your players have to say and trusting them can work wonders. It certainly did in this instance. From that moment on, all Jared had to worry about was getting up field and going after the quarterback.
Bruce Irvin once made a great college career out of doing just that in Jeff Casteel's West Virginia defense. When Irvin first arrived at WVU from junior college, he didn't really have enough time to master the specifics of the defensive scheme so Casteel just simplified things and told him to go get the quarterback. The guys playing behind him were responsible for cleaning things up.
What Casteel chose to do with Bruce ended up making Irvin millions of dollars in the NFL.
It was a similar deal with Gary Stills in the late 1990s. These guys were so fast and so explosive coming off the edge that it just made sense to put them in situations where they could shine on obvious passing downs.
Bartlett is not nearly as big as Irvin nor Stills - he's more similar body-type wise to former WVU outside linebacker James 'Dirty" Davis or possibly an Eric Striker or a Corey Moore, but big doesn't always necessarily mean better for edge rushers.
Ask any tackle what they fear most and they will tell you a smaller, faster edge guy they can't get their hands on. And the wider these guys line up they scarier they look.
Lesley said edge pass rushers are typically born, not made.
"When you watch kids, there is always a knack for that," he explained. "It's almost like watching a really good basketball player, maybe a big point guard or a forward and just their natural movements. Take Akheem (Mesidor); the first time he had no clue what he was doing and a lot of it was just reacting to what the guy was doing in front of him in a one-on-one situation.
"That's just natural ability and natural reaction, which is what pass rushing really is – a reaction of what's in front of you. Then, he has to react to different things and that's where you get to the teaching side of it," Lesley added.
It was Mesidor's play Saturday pushing the pocket back into Burmeister's face that kept him in an area where Bartlett could reach him. Otherwise, he would have just slid forward and let Bartlett fly by.
"Jared got those sacks, but those sacks don't happen if there is room for Burmeister to move up in the pocket and there simply wasn't," Brown noted. "Akheem Mesidor is playing at an extremely high level and he may not show up on the stat sheet sometimes, but trust me, he is playing at a high level. There wasn't any room for Burmeister to move up, which allowed Bartlett to come off the edge and get him.
"But Bartlett did a good job winning those battles."
Bartlett is in agreement with his coach.
"We have great pressure from the inside and that keeps the quarterback from sliding into the B-gap and it makes it easier for me to turn the corner because he can't move from the spot he drops," Bartlett explained. "When we also have contain on the other side with Taijh (Alston) he has to stay where he is, or come back to me basically."
"I was proud of him," senior middle linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo added. "I hosted him for his first visit, so I've known him since he was a senior in high school. The steps and the leaps he's taken have come together to help him become the football player you see today. It's actually amazing, honestly."
It's the type of performance that certainly warrants more playing time for Jared Bartlett in the future, for sure, which is so inspiring and uplifting coming on the heels of his family's unfortunate recent tragedy.
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