Mulbah’s Emergence in the Middle a Key for Mountaineer Defense
November 14, 2024 09:00 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If you happened to watch Fatorma Mulbah's Monday afternoon interview on West Virginia University's official YouTube Channel, it's hard not to notice his massive arms and shoulders that were exposed outside of the cut-off, West Virginia football t-shirt he was wearing.
Veteran newsman Bob Hertzel certainly noticed, and he couldn't help himself but to ask Fatorma about them.
"How in the hell do you buy clothes?" he said.
"I wear all West Virginia gear," Mulbah answered, laughing.
"Amen to that!" murmured every Mountaineer football fan watching.
What a revelation the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, senior has been to the Mountaineer defense this year!
The former Penn State transfer appeared in all 13 games in 2023, including a season-high 25 snaps in the Oklahoma loss, but his contributions last year could be mostly filed under the category of complementary.
He had a tackle here, two tackles there, a tackle for loss in one game or a sack in another, but nothing that would indicate the type of season he would enjoy in 2024.
But then, regular defensive lineman Edward Vesterinen was lost for the year during West Virginia's blowout victory over UAlbany, requiring others to step up their games.
Among those guys making a leap was Mulbah, credited with an eye-opening 13 total tackles in last Saturday's 31-24 victory at Cincinnati. Keep in mind, this is coming from a nose guard who spends his entire afternoon fighting off double teams in an odd-front defense!
That led to another obvious question that was posed to Fatorma, "How in the hell did you do that?"
"I would say effort and just chasing the ball," he explained. "There wasn't anything crazy happening out there."
Except, of course, for a nose getting 13 tackles in a defense that is designed to funnel plays to its linebackers and safeties.
"The defense really isn't built for your nose to get tackles," coach Neal Brown pointed out. "It's built for (Josiah) Trotter and (Anthony) Wilson to get tackles, but you've got to win one-on-ones, and the thing that's unique about him is he won his one-on-ones and played his responsibility.
"It wasn't like he was out of his gap or anything," Brown continued. "Some of that was fortune where the ball just hit, and some of it was Sean (Martin) funneling things back toward him, and I think the message with Fatorma is if you prepare the right way and you play fundamental football, the ball will find you."
"We have a saying, 'The play doesn't care who makes it.' There is one ball and 11 defenders. Everybody has to do their part," interim defensive coordinator Jeff Koonz said.
"The nose did his job at an elite level, and when the ball was run between the tackles … they ran the ball 43 times on us Saturday, both designed runs and passes, and if he's not doing his job then we're going to have a long day," Koonz elaborated. "He did it and he did it elite and 13 plays happened to come to him."
There were some indications that this might be coming from Mulbah.
He logged eight tackles against Iowa State and was marked down for four stops each against Penn State and Kansas State. A couple of weeks ago, he was singled out by the defensive coaches for being the most consistent player on the Mountaineer defense.
Brown said that's really been the case since the Big 12 opener against Kansas.
"He's played really well now since we've been in Big 12 play," he admitted. "I thought he dominated in the middle. He did a really good job just holding his point, playing his gap and his responsibilities, and he was rewarded on the stat sheet."
Through nine games, Mulbah now shows 35 tackles, a sack and three tackles for loss. His performance against the Bearcats was probably the most dominant statistically by a Mountaineer nose since consensus All-American Darius Stills had 10 tackles and three sacks at Baylor in 2019 playing alongside his younger brother Dante, now in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals.
Perhaps teams running away from Dante, or Dante funneling plays to Darius helped, just as Martin aided Mulbah last Saturday, but the fact of the matter is they made the plays.
"They put a huge emphasis on getting their run game started, and I knew it was going to be a challenge," Mulbah explained. "We knew that we had to stop the run and that was part of our game plan.
"Good stuff happens when you run to the ball," he shrugged.
Indeed, just as we saw last Saturday with the entire unit. Heavy pressure on Bearcat quarterback Brendan Sorsby led to two defensive touchdowns, the first time the Mountaineers have done that in one game in 23 years.
Mulbah admits there was a renewed emphasis on getting to the football and trying to take it away during practice last week.
"When you build that habit during the week of taking the ball away, getting picks in practice, it shows up in games," he noted.
Hopefully it continues.
Mulbah and his teammates will have another great challenge on Saturday against 5-4 Baylor. The Bears are averaging 285 yards per game on the ground during their last three victories against Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and TCU, and redshirt-freshman Bryson Washington had a season-high 196 yards on 26 carries with four touchdowns against the Horned Frogs.
The responsibility for slowing down Washington and Baylor's improved rushing attack starts up front with the guy who logged 13 tackles last Saturday at Cincinnati.
Veteran newsman Bob Hertzel certainly noticed, and he couldn't help himself but to ask Fatorma about them."How in the hell do you buy clothes?" he said.
"I wear all West Virginia gear," Mulbah answered, laughing.
"Amen to that!" murmured every Mountaineer football fan watching.
What a revelation the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, senior has been to the Mountaineer defense this year!
The former Penn State transfer appeared in all 13 games in 2023, including a season-high 25 snaps in the Oklahoma loss, but his contributions last year could be mostly filed under the category of complementary.
He had a tackle here, two tackles there, a tackle for loss in one game or a sack in another, but nothing that would indicate the type of season he would enjoy in 2024.
But then, regular defensive lineman Edward Vesterinen was lost for the year during West Virginia's blowout victory over UAlbany, requiring others to step up their games.
Among those guys making a leap was Mulbah, credited with an eye-opening 13 total tackles in last Saturday's 31-24 victory at Cincinnati. Keep in mind, this is coming from a nose guard who spends his entire afternoon fighting off double teams in an odd-front defense!
That led to another obvious question that was posed to Fatorma, "How in the hell did you do that?"
"I would say effort and just chasing the ball," he explained. "There wasn't anything crazy happening out there."
Except, of course, for a nose getting 13 tackles in a defense that is designed to funnel plays to its linebackers and safeties.
"The defense really isn't built for your nose to get tackles," coach Neal Brown pointed out. "It's built for (Josiah) Trotter and (Anthony) Wilson to get tackles, but you've got to win one-on-ones, and the thing that's unique about him is he won his one-on-ones and played his responsibility.
"It wasn't like he was out of his gap or anything," Brown continued. "Some of that was fortune where the ball just hit, and some of it was Sean (Martin) funneling things back toward him, and I think the message with Fatorma is if you prepare the right way and you play fundamental football, the ball will find you."
"We have a saying, 'The play doesn't care who makes it.' There is one ball and 11 defenders. Everybody has to do their part," interim defensive coordinator Jeff Koonz said.
"The nose did his job at an elite level, and when the ball was run between the tackles … they ran the ball 43 times on us Saturday, both designed runs and passes, and if he's not doing his job then we're going to have a long day," Koonz elaborated. "He did it and he did it elite and 13 plays happened to come to him."
There were some indications that this might be coming from Mulbah.
He logged eight tackles against Iowa State and was marked down for four stops each against Penn State and Kansas State. A couple of weeks ago, he was singled out by the defensive coaches for being the most consistent player on the Mountaineer defense.
Brown said that's really been the case since the Big 12 opener against Kansas.
"He's played really well now since we've been in Big 12 play," he admitted. "I thought he dominated in the middle. He did a really good job just holding his point, playing his gap and his responsibilities, and he was rewarded on the stat sheet."
Through nine games, Mulbah now shows 35 tackles, a sack and three tackles for loss. His performance against the Bearcats was probably the most dominant statistically by a Mountaineer nose since consensus All-American Darius Stills had 10 tackles and three sacks at Baylor in 2019 playing alongside his younger brother Dante, now in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals.
Perhaps teams running away from Dante, or Dante funneling plays to Darius helped, just as Martin aided Mulbah last Saturday, but the fact of the matter is they made the plays.
"They put a huge emphasis on getting their run game started, and I knew it was going to be a challenge," Mulbah explained. "We knew that we had to stop the run and that was part of our game plan.
"Good stuff happens when you run to the ball," he shrugged.
Indeed, just as we saw last Saturday with the entire unit. Heavy pressure on Bearcat quarterback Brendan Sorsby led to two defensive touchdowns, the first time the Mountaineers have done that in one game in 23 years.
Mulbah admits there was a renewed emphasis on getting to the football and trying to take it away during practice last week.
"When you build that habit during the week of taking the ball away, getting picks in practice, it shows up in games," he noted.
Hopefully it continues.
Mulbah and his teammates will have another great challenge on Saturday against 5-4 Baylor. The Bears are averaging 285 yards per game on the ground during their last three victories against Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and TCU, and redshirt-freshman Bryson Washington had a season-high 196 yards on 26 carries with four touchdowns against the Horned Frogs.
The responsibility for slowing down Washington and Baylor's improved rushing attack starts up front with the guy who logged 13 tackles last Saturday at Cincinnati.
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