MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As snow fell outside of the Milan Puskar Center and temperatures dipped below 20 degrees Tuesday afternoon, Noah Guzman was bundled up in a beanie and a heavy set of WVU branded sweats.
Just a day earlier, it nearly hit 70 degrees, which was more the speed for Guzman, a Los Angeles native. He was getting the full effect of a Morgantown November.
“I saw snow maybe when I was like 5 years old back home, but this is a different kind of snow here than that California snow,” Guzman said. “It’s beautiful and I like it and all — I just have to get used to the coldness.”
Guzman made the journey to West Virginia from the West Coast last summer after assistant coach Blake Seiler kept in contact with his junior college, Cerritos College, in LA. It was getting so late in the recruiting process that Guzman thought he was going to spend another season at juco in balmy Southern California, but even after reaching his goal of signing with a Power 5 program, not even he thought he’d have this much of an impact early on with the Mountaineers.
Humble beginnings
In a well-to do area of East Los Angeles, Guzman was a star wide receiver at Bishop Amat Memorial High School, recording 783 receiving yards and seven touchdowns his senior season in 2017.
Defensive back was more of a secondary position, but as his high school career was nearing its end, Guzman wasn’t getting the Division I attention he hoped he would.
“I think I was kind of just overlooked as a receiver, so I thought the best decision for me was to switch over to defense and play at the safety position,” he said. “Junior college was actually my first time playing safety, so I had to prove myself there, and I think I did that by making first team all-state and first team all-conference. I just had to continue to prove myself so I wouldn’t be overlooked again.”
Guzman finished his first season at safety with 74 tackles, including 35 solo stops, 4 1/2 tackles for loss, two interceptions, six pass breakups and forced a fumble.
West Virginia got in contact with the coaches at Cerritos because the Mountaineers were in desperate need of safety help. Starter Kenny Robinson entered the transfer portal after receiving a violation in the WVU code of student conduct, while fellow starter Derrek Pitts decided to transfer to Marshall.
That’s when Seiler reached out to Guzman personally.
“They said they’d like to bring me out for a visit, so it was all just very quick and happened just like that,” Guzman said. “Within the next week, I came out for a visit, got the offer and all that.”
Moving across the country
Coming in so late in the recruiting process, Guzman wasn’t sure how he’d fit into not only the football program, but the Appalachian culture, growing up in a major metropolitan area 3,000 miles away. After spending a few weeks in West Virginia, he realized it was all he hoped for when he decided to make the leap of faith.
“It was definitely different because I’m used to that city life,” Guzman said. “It’s definitely different, but it’s a good different, and I’m really enjoying it. I love the people, love the crowd, love this coaching staff, love the players. I feel like I’ve really connected with them even though I’m from a different part of the country. They have really good morals and I’ve bonded with a lot of the guys here.”
On-field success
The beginning of the season for Guzman started about how he thought it would — not a whole lot of seeing the field. He didn’t play at all during the first four games before finally checking in against Texas at the beginning of October.
“I haven’t really changed much of what I did coming in,” Guzman said. “I just kept working hard and trying to prove myself each and every day. I just had faith in myself and trusted the climb — moving up from the scout team to getting on some special teams,” he said.
Even against the Longhorns and the following week against Iowa State, Guzman played sparingly at safety, with his role largely being on special teams. But injuries started to pile up at linebacker for the Mountaineers and the coaching staff needed to do something to alleviate the situation, so one answer was to take a linebacker off the field and add a defensive back.
That’s the opportunity Guzman was waiting for. In a 3-2-6 defensive look, the additional safety is called a “rover,” which has multiple responsibilities in pass coverage and in the run game, playing almost a centerfield position behind the middle linebacker.
“There are some differences between rover and safety where I was playing before, but I didn’t have any trouble picking it up,” Guzman said. “I know what I’m doing and I’m getting comfortable there. I’m playing in the middle of the field and I can get to the ball. I like hitting and flying around, and getting physical. I like it because it’s free roaming. You get to see everything happening and you try to react.”
West Virginia rolled out its new scheme against Oklahoma on Oct. 19, where Guzman earned his first start, finishing with two assisted tackles. However, on Oct. 31 at Baylor, Guzman finally made the most of his opportunity, finishing with a team-high 12 tackles as the Mountaineers held Baylor, still unbeaten at 9-0, to its worst offensive output of the season.
“It’s kind of set up for the rover to make plays,” Guzman said. “You are in the middle of the field and you can get downhill and get to the ball.”
Against Texas Tech, WVU didn’t use the rover spot quite as much, thinking it had a different matchup it could exploit. With the Red Raiders scoring five touchdowns on their first five possessions, the rover could make a return Saturday at Kansas State.
Regardless, the last few weeks has proven Guzman can play at the Power 5 level, which was his goal all along. Now, his goal is to prove he’s a mainstay.
“I’ve proven I belong and that I can play here, but I do know I have to get better,” he said.
