MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia defensive lineman Dante Stills has seen the fruits of labor and the pits of despair early on in his college career.
The Fairmont native has shown flashes of what made him a highly-touted 4-star recruit out of Fairmont Senior — it’s continually putting those pieces together that coach Neal Brown wants to see from the sophomore Stills.
“He’s a work in progress,” Brown said. “If we were talking about Dante Stills as a redshirt freshman instead of as a sophomore, it’s a whole different story. Does that make sense?”
Stills was too dynamic as a true freshman last season to redshirt, especially at a position of need along the defensive line. Now, a year later, Stills is nearly halfway through his eligibility, and Brown wishes he had back that one extra year to develop Still into the player he knows he can become.
He has 14 tackles, including four sacks and a forced fumble, but those sacks all came in September. So far throughout October — three games against Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma — Stills only has two total tackles, none for a loss.
He didn’t get onto the stat sheet at all vs. the Cyclones.
With the amount of rotating the defensive line did last season under the former coaching staff, Brown doesn’t think Stills was able to get his footing playing major college football, and now that he’s being relied on to be of the top guys on the defense, Stills’ inconsistencies are showing.
“I think of Dante a lot,” Brown said. “He played more as the year went on last year but wasn’t really ‘the guy’ last year. This year, he got to be ‘the guy’ for the first time, so in my mind, I think of him as a redshirt freshman even though he isn’t. There’s still some highs and lows. He played better against Oklahoma. He did not play his best against Texas and Iowa State but there was a reason. He got real sick against Texas but he played through it. Iowa State, he was OK.”
Stills shares the same position as Reese Donahue, who may be playing the best football of his career right now as a senior. Donahue has gotten sacks in two-straight games, and along with his play, he’s an emotional leader.
With Donahue playing well, it’s cutting into Stills’ snaps, but it’s not an indication that Brown is losing confidence in his potential star, it’s simply part of the process.
“He’s improving,” Brown said. “Everyone wants to snap their fingers and say he’s an NFL player. I think he is developing and I am highly encouraged by his demeanor and his work ethic. He has matured as a person. He won his share and he lost his share. The better he gets, and a lot of that has to do with his physical development and getting to understand things better. The longer he’s here, the more he is going to win against the top level guys in our conference.”
Stills and the Mountaineers will travel to Baylor for a Halloween night matchup Thursday.
