Creating Turnovers No. 1 Goal
“It’s not earth shattering,” DeForest said recently. “Football has been around for (many) years and it’s not like we’re going to come in here and make something up. We’re going to go out and try and get our kids to play hard, create turnovers and we’ll be successful.” This spring DeForest is introducing a more traditional 3-4 defensive alignment, meaning those hybrid safeties recruited for the 3-3 stack will now become outside linebackers. DeForest said he will take the first couple of practices to evaluate players to see where they fit best. “The first three or four days we will know more about where everybody is going to play,” he said. “All we did was put them on a depth chart and tell them this is where you’re going to start. It’s not where you are going to finish.” DeForest will handle the safeties. Keith Patterson, Pitt’s defensive coordinator last year, will coach the inside linebackers, Daron Roberts moves over from offense to guide the corners, Steve Dunlap will handle the outside linebackers and Erik Slaughter has been brought in to work with the defensive linemen. Patterson also worked with Todd Graham at Tulsa where he has prior experience running the 3-3 stack. Because the Mountaineers are remaining in an odd-front defense, Patterson believes the transition to a slightly different alignment will not be as difficult as it was last year when he installed the odd front at Pitt. “West Virginia has been an odd front - has done it for years and done a tremendous job - and I have a tremendous respect and admiration for the job they’ve done defensively where Pitt was a 4-3, quarters concept team going in so it was probably more of a transition going from a 4-3 to a multiple 3-4,” Patterson said. “About four or five games into the season we made some drastic changes from where we were in fall camp at Pitt.” DeForest, Patterson and Slaughter have all worked in highly successful defensive systems in the past. Last year, Oklahoma State was No. 2 in the country in interceptions and the Tulsa defense Patterson coordinated two years ago ranked second in the nation in turnover margin. Plus, Slaughter’s defensive line at Stephen F. Austin last season helped the Lumberjacks rank first in the country in sacks averaging 4.36 per game and 14th in total defense. “You’ve got to be disruptive,” said Slaughter. “You’ve got to be able to take people out of their comfort zone.” Having worked in the Big 12 Conference at Oklahoma State since 2001, DeForest understands what that league is about and what it’s going to take to defend the teams in it. “In the league we’re going to we’ve just got to be able to run,” he said. “We’re a lot bigger here in the secondary than we were at the previous place I was at, but we could run. I think in that league you’ve got to be able to run and if you can run, and you enjoy contact, then you can play in this defense.” “The ball just doesn’t come to the A-gap anymore,” added Slaughter. “You’ve got to go get it so I want guys who can run and can change direction. I want explosive players who can make plays in space. It’s an explosive, in-space type of game now.” DeForest says he has already developed a motto for this year’s defense: EAT - effort, attitude and turnovers. “We’re going to measure your effort, we’re going to watch your attitude and measure that and the bottom line is turnovers so that’s going to be our shtick on defense,” he said. In the short time they have been able to sit down as a staff and study the current players they are inheriting, all three coaches agree that West Virginia’s most impressive attributes on defense have been its overall toughness and playing with great effort and enthusiasm. “We want to build upon what has made the defenses great here in the past. It’s been the effort and you see that when you watch these guys play and I have great respect for that,” said Patterson. “We’re going to accomplish the same thing.” Patterson, who also holds the title of co-defensive coordinator, says his role in that capacity will become more defined in time. “Those are things we will work through,” Patterson said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Joe and what he did at Oklahoma State - and Dana as well - and what they’ve been able to do during their careers. It’s like anything else, you figure out what your role is and you fit into that role as best as you can. I just want to do everything I can to help us win and play great defense.” Slaughter says the wheel is not going to be reinvented this spring. “We’re going to line up sound, stop the run, and we’re going to get after the quarterback,” he said. “It’s the same things (the previous coaching staff) tried to do. The difference from the naked eye won’t be that big of a deal.” That process begins today with the start of spring drills. |
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