MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia defensive coordinator Vic Koenning threw his head back, chuckled and raised his eyebrows when asked about all the different defensive looks he’s had to deploy this season.
“There’s two ways to look at it: At least they know we’re trying to put them in position to be successful,” he said. “There’s hope, where we can hang our hat and say this is giving us an advantage. A lot of times it does and other times it doesn’t if you can’t execute it.”
Against Baylor, the Mountaineers went with a 6-man defensive backfield look — a 3-2-6 — and found a lot of success, holding the Bears to their lowest point total of the season. The added DB, also called a “rover,” was Noah Guzman, and he finished with a game-high 12 tackles.
The following week against Texas Tech, Koenning went back to a more traditional look with a 3-4-4, but it didn’t work nearly as well — the Red Raiders scored touchdowns on their first five possessions.
So again, it was back to the drawing board last week at Kansas State. This time, with all of the injuries to the linebackers, Koenning went with four down linemen in a 4-2-5 scheme.
While almost every regular along the line was forced to play more snaps than they ever have in a game, they also found great success, getting in the backfield to push K-State quarterback Skylar Thompson out of the pocket, as well as hold the Wildcats to under four yards per carry in the running game.
“We had D-linemen play 80 some snaps — that’s crazy,” Koenning said. “That’s some courage right there. I told them the first sign of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results.”
Perhaps no one benefited more from the scheme change than defensive end Jeff Pooler, who head coach Neal Brown said would have been defensive player of the game had he been able to bring down Thompson a couple times in the first half with missed sacks.
“Man, it hurts — I literally cried some tears last week,” Pooler said. “It definitely felt good to recover from the missed sacks earlier in the first half, but it would have been lovely to collect those, as well.”
Pooler finished with two tackles — both for a loss — including a sack, but even with limited stats, he was causing problems in the K-State backfield most of the game. With a 4-man front, it allows for more one-on-one situations, which is something Pooler believes he can thrive on.
“They couldn’t double-team certain ways or open up holes certain ways, so it really set up well for us,” he said.
Norwood out
Brown confirmed Monday that senior safety Josh Norwood will miss the remaining two games of the regular season after undergoing surgery on his collarbone this week.
Norwood made a lunging interception last Saturday at Kansas State on a great play, but landed awkwardly on his side. He immediately went to the locker room and was quickly ruled out the rest of the game.
“Josh made a fantastic play,” Koenning said. “If you want to say he sacrificed his body on that play, that would not be inaccurate.”
Norwood transferred to WVU from Ohio State and appeared in 22 games the last two seasons, switching from safety to cornerback a year ago before moving back to safety this season. He currently leads the team in tackles this season, with 64, and Brown said he could be fully recovered later in December. If the Mountaineers win their final two games and reach a bowl, Norwood could return for it.
“Josh is aggressive and likes to come down hill — he plays like we need all of our guys to play like,” Koenning said. “He’s also a wildcard because his eyes aren’t always in the right spot, so you get what you’ve got. He’s had a tumultuous college career, and I’ll help him in any way that I possibly can, because he wants to be really good at something. I think being the best at something is important to him, whatever he decides to do.”
