West Virginia's Boom or Bust Pass Defense

In the pass happy Big 12, West Virginia is faced with a weekly conundrum. Modern spread offenses force defenses to either be outnumbered in the box, or yield space to athletes outside to work against single coverage. As I described in my analysis of West Virginia's approach to run defense, defensive coordinator Tony Gibson's 3-3-5 scheme floods the box with athletic defenders. A pair of hybrid safeties (spur and bandit) along with three active linebackers disguise coverages and provide for a multiple attack. On any given play, West Virginia may drop eight into coverage and rush only three, zero blitz, or anything in between.

Though the aggressive calls and blitzes often leaves those tasked with coverage on islands, the approach mirrors Bud Foster's ideal that an offense will struggle to be efficient and sustain drives against pressure and tight coverage.

West Virginia must replace the thick end of their secondary. Spur Kyzir White (No. 8, SR, 6-2, 216) started the 12 games he played in. Free safety Dravon Askew-Henry (No. 6, R-JR, 6-0, 198) started every game of his career, but he missed the 2016 season with a knee injury. After that, there's limited experience for the Mountaineers. However, WVU replaced a large number of starters from the previous season and still found success last year. Of the cornerbacks, Mike Daniels (No. 4, SR, 5-11, 204) and Elijah Battle (No. 19, SR, 6-0, 193) have some experience, but both CBs coach Doug Belk and Gibson indicated that newcomer Hakeem Bailey (No. 24, R-SO, 6-0, 193) has stood out in practice.

"Hakeem [Bailey] is a guy that keeps making play after play," Gibson said. "He's had a few picks."

"Hakeem has done very well," Belk said. "He's very skilled. He's long and athletic. He did well in the spring and he's doing well now. He's fighting for a starting spot."

All three are former JUCO players.

Bringing the House

The Mountaineers already flood the box in order to stop the run, and those linebackers and safeties are perfectly situated to come on a variety of blitzes. The Mountaineers generate more pressures from their linebackers and spur than their front three. Even more staggering, Gibson noted in 2016 that 10 of 11 defenders may blitz on any given play.

"Everyone on defense there's a blitz for except the field corner," Gibson said, noting the field corner, who plays on the wide side of the field, has too much ground to cover to be an effective blitzer. "Everyone else, you can see them coming at one point or another."

All week throughout practice quarterbacks get drilled on the importance of getting passes off quickly, and that pressure in the face of getting the ball out quickly can cause a QB to rush or not step into throws.

"People know what we're doing, but I bet you 30 percent of the third-down stops we get when we're good is on quick throws when they throw it deep too far, when they throw it out of bounds or throw it short and we get off the field," Gibson said last August via the Charleston Gazette-Mail. "That's a sack for us. You're affecting the quarterback. He's seeing it."

West Virginia's corners in 2016, especially former Mountaineer Rasul Douglas, did a really good job of disguising leverage and jumping routes.

On this play, TCU QB Kenny Hill doesn't step into the throw against the blitz, even though he has a pretty good pocket holding up. Douglas, a former JUCO recruit who was drafted in the third round by the Eagles, is playing outside leverage and reading the quarterback.

Douglas knows that when the receiver plants his outside foot, Hill will look to make the quick throw against the blitz. Hill doesn't step into the throw and floats the ball to the inside. Douglas picks it off and takes it to the house.

When you watch West Virginia play, a vast majority of snaps feature seven players moving towards the line of scrimmage with four back in coverage. The Mountaineers are bringing heat and singled up in coverage almost the entire game. However, they do try to throw off the quarterback by rotating coverages and changing up the defensive backs that are flying into the box. On this Baylor third-and-six, the Mountaineers bring the spur and sam at the snap. The mike comes late, and the will LB drops back underneath to spy the quarterback.

By changing the angles, it is difficult for timing-based spread offenses to settle into a rhythm. In particular, running backs often found themselves out of position to pick up blitzes.

The Big Change Up

Frequently flooding the box really exposes the Mountaineers' corners in one-on-one coverage. Gibson is counting on the offense's inability to make quick throws and beat his tight coverage efficiently enough to overcome the negative plays the blitzing will generate during long drives. Again, this is very similar to Bud Foster's philosophy. Sidebar: Hokies' cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell came from the West Virginia system, so the transition from a coverage perspective was fairly seamless last year.

Quarterbacks can get into a flow against man-to-man. Eventually, that man-to-man coverage will break down. When a quarterback starts to get into a rhythm, Gibson will make a radical change to throw off the offense's timing. He will essentially concede the run by rushing their three defensive linemen and play cover 3 while flooding the underneath zone with their linebackers and two safeties. This approach takes away quick timing throws and floods the zone with athletes so a quarterback can't break a long run on a broken play.

On this play, the Baylor quarterback Zach Smith believes he has typical man-to-man coverage from West Virginia, with the free safety on the slot and the field corner playing man on the receiver split wide. Said wideout blows past the field corner (who is actually playing a cover 2) and Smith reads that he is open. Instead, the free safety rotates over the top and the spur, Marvin Gross Jr. (No. 18, R-SR, 6-2, 202), White's backup, has the slot on the post. The post is wide open, but Smith throws right into the double coverage.

West Virginia does a terrific job in disguising these coverages. They don't show the coverage pre-snap, and will suddenly drop into the soft zones even on traditional running downs. They are very difficult to pattern. Because the quarterback is so accustomed to throwing quickly when West Virginia has a 7-man pressure (most snaps), he often rushes throws right into this soft coverage.

Given Josh Jackson's inexperience, a huge key for Tech will be protecting the football. In 2016, I didn't think West Virginia did as good a job at disguising their leverage technique in man coverage. However, watching some 2015 film gave me cause for pause. Against Oklahoma State, the Mountaineers gave the Cowboys and QB Mason Rudolph fits by disguising coverage and messing up his initial read. Here is an example.

It's a play-action and Rudolph wants to throw deep to the receiver at the top of the screen. Before the snap, the West Virginia boundary corner shows square leverage and man-to-man.

As Rudolph's eyes drop to take the snap, the corner turns his hips into an outside leverage technique and starts bailing out into a deep cover 3/cover 2 zone posture. It's obvious Rudolph wants to fire down the field, but he can't because the coverage is deeper than his deepest receiver. Reluctantly, Rudolph tucks it and picks up a marginal gain.

It is critical that Jackson make the safe, expected play in a similar situation. However, the Mountaineers' coaching staff disguises the defense very well, especially when a quarterback gets into a rhythm throwing quickly. Rudolph was safe because he had been burned earlier in the first quarter. This time, the Cowboys ran a hurry up play after getting a first down. Rudolph doesn't have time to eyeball the boundary corner.

The corner again bails out, but Rudolph doesn't see him. Rudolph fakes the handoff and hoists an arm punt for a pick. By changing things up, the Mountaineers can really take advantage of teams wanting to go up-tempo.

The Key Play: Manipulating the Safeties

If the Hokies had their 2016 offensive personnel, I believe Tech's wide receivers would have a distinct advantage over the Mountaineers' secondary. Tech consistently excelled against man coverage. With the quarterback and wide receiver spots full of unknowns, a key to success in the passing game will be establishing credible run action and using it to take WVU's centerfield free safety out of position. In my run preview, I showed how Oklahoma used jet sweep motion to pull the free safety out of position for a screen.

The Hokies' offense is tailormade for similar success. If Virginia Tech can establish the threat of the jet sweep and quarterback keeper off that sweep, they can trap the Mountaineers inside the box. Justin Fuente has made a significant effort in identifying offensive weapons that can generate yards after the catch on screens, slants, and quick hitches on the outside. Against West Virginia, those playmakers will have plenty of opportunities to take short passes and turn them into big plays.

West Virginia's island coverage also means that the Hokies will get favorable one-on-one matchups, especially in the slot. There has been a ton of talk about Cam Phillips moving on the outside this season. While I think long term that is a good plan, against West Virginia I would love to see Phillips in the slot. Phillips made a killing on quick curls and slants against nickel corners last season. Brad Cornelsen should get plenty of opportunities to get Phillips matched up with Kyzir White in the slot. White is a heck of an athlete who is great in run support and blitzing. However, he struggled in man coverage against good wide receivers. Even when Gibson called soft coverage, White couldn't stay with quick slot receivers despite having deep help. You will notice how White struggles to shift from outside leverage when the slot receiver crosses his face.

I think Phillips and C.J. Carroll have a distinct advantage when they can get this match up. It also presents a relatively easy read for an inexperienced quarterback on run pass options.

The ability to challenge West Virginia's corners is a bit of a crapshoot. From a personnel perspective, their level of talent is a bit of a mystery due to the lack of recent film. I don't know if the young outside receivers for the Hokies have the ability to win those one-on-one matchups, and I have no idea if West Virginia's new corners can hold up in their first action as starters. Gibson has a reputation of taking lightly regarding junior college corners and making them very effective going back to Brian Mitchell's tenure in Morgantown. If the Hokies are having success on the outside, consider it a good barometer that the future is bright in Blacksburg.