MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – WVU inside linebackers coach Jeff Koonz admitted earlier today that it has taken a while to find enough players to get his area to where he wants it, but he is beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.
 
Koonz said he now has six players with meaningful power conference football experience when you add Ohio State transfer Reid Carrico and injured Jairo Faverus to the mix.
 
Last year, there were times when he was struggling to put two healthy players on the field at the same time.
 
"It's taken a few years to get this exactly how we want it - to get the body types, to stack classes in recruiting and to be able to develop guys and retain them - but you are seeing that now," he said.
 
The linebacker position took a big hit last spring when touted freshman Josiah Trotter sustained a season-ending knee injury. Then, things took a turn for the worse when promising redshirt sophomore Trey Lathan broke his leg in the fourth quarter of the TCU game and was done for the year. 
 
Lathan's injury came at a time when he was really beginning to come into his own, which took away another important piece of the equation.
 
Consequently, guys like Ben Cutter and Caden Biser were forced to play more snaps than anticipated, which caused a ripple effect that trickled down to the coverage units on special teams. After all, kick coverage units are comprised mostly of linebackers and safeties, and when you are running out of them, that creates major problems.
 
Now, Koonz believes he has enough players to adequately fill those spots on special teams, and of equal importance, to rotate guys on defense to keep everyone fresh.
 
"When teams want to get big on us, we're going to have the ability to use sub packages and be bigger," Koonz explained. "We're teaching a lot of scheme-things here, so it's going to give us the ability, at times, to have as many as three guys on the field, if not more. 
 
"There were times last year when I think we were hanging on a little bit at the end of games just because of the limited depth that we had," he said.
 
The lack of depth really showed up on kickoffs, particularly toward the latter half of the season when the Mountaineers gave up three returns for touchdowns, two coming in the regular season finale against Baylor.
 
"When you play linebacker, running back or tight end, you better be a special teams contributor as well if you want to play this game for a long time," Koonz explained. "Now, with this much depth in the room, that's also going to bleed over into special teams. There is a universal effect that having more talent and more bodies in the room is going to do."
 
Koonz said the key to improving the linebacker depth has been getting the right types of players in the program. This year's recruiting class includes Rickey Williams, from Archbishop Hoban High in Akron, Ohio, and Curtis Jones Jr., from Cabell Midland High whom the WVU coaches think might have been the best overall player in the state last year.
 
That's two more quality performers that will be arriving later this summer.
 
"I think we're hitting the nail on the head with what we're recruiting and what we're taking," Koonz noted. "We've got two talented guys coming in this year that we signed in Rickey Williams and Curtis Jones. They fit the size dimension, they fit the character dimension, they fit the leadership dimension and they fit the physicality dimension.
 
"In this defense, if you don't strike, if you don't pull the pin as we say, diagnose and run through people and play this game with an edge, you are not going to be recruited here," he continued. "Those characteristics … for three years in a row, we've stacked those classes going back to Lathan three years ago. That's what we're looking for. I agree with coach (Brown), we're probably one more (class) away. That's what the elite programs are doing. They're stacking these classes. They have competition, and they find ways to get their best 11 guys on the field from any down and distance."
 
Overall, Koonz said his group is still going to be fairly young this fall with two juniors, two sophomores, two freshmen and two true freshmen, but he believes the blueprint for success is beginning to crystalize.
 
In Trotter, the son of former NFL standout Jeremiah Trotter, many insiders believe Koonz could have a potential star in the making. Not only does he have great football instincts, but at 6-feet-2 and nearly 240 pounds, he's got good size to match.
 
The Mountaineers will have a middle linebacker this fall big enough to match the teams that want to play physical in the run game.
 
"Now, it's just a matter of continuing to push those guys and get them better and better," Koonz said.
 
The fifth-year WVU coach believes an improved linebacker depth will also benefit the Mountaineers' kick coverage units as well.
 
"You look at some of our issues last year on kickoff coverage, the last half of the year we were rotating people and trying to find fixes and we were searching a little bit whereas if we didn't have some of those guys go down with injuries … if we have Trotter, Lathan and some of these guys that we lost for the year, now you have more options," he said.
 
"That is how important it is to find and get talented mid-skills – the linebacker, running back, and tight end types that carry over to special teams as much as anything else," he concluded.
 
West Virginia wrapped up spring practice No. 10 in full pads inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility this morning. A threat of some late morning storms in the Morgantown area forced the team to go indoors.
 
The Mountaineers have practices scheduled for Wednesday and Friday to conclude the week, with coach Neal Brown available to the media following Wednesday's practice and select players available after Friday's practice, which should include some heavy scrimmage work.