MORGANTOWN — Sophomore bandit linebacker Jared Bartlett always knew he was fast, and his coaches have told him just as much. Defensive coordinator and position coach Jordan Lesley wanted Bartlett to use his speed to his advantage.
It all came together Saturday against Virginia Tech with a three-sack performance, blowing past the Hokies’ tackles and crushing quarterback Braxton Burmeister.
Bartlett had just 3 1/2 sacks all last season in 10 games.
“I was just rushing with speed off the edge,” he said. “I’m not going to put down their tackles, but by advantage in pass rush is speed on the edge and that really helped me out today.”
Crowd shows up
For the first time since August 2019, there were at least 60,000 fans inside Milan Puskar Stadium, with an announced attendance of 60,022.
WVU head coach Neal Brown applauded the enthusiasm, especially early and late in the game.
“The crowd was electric and we appreciate them,” Brown said. “They made a difference — I thought they really made a difference early and they made a difference late on that final drive. [Virginia Tech] was having a tough time communicating, and on the final drive of the first half, they had a tough time communicating.”
Senior safety Alonzo Addae transferred to WVU from New Hampshire, so prior to joining the Mountaineers, he didn’t play in front of big crowds. Last year in his first year playing at WVU, crowds were limited to 25% at most.
This was his first time playing in front of a big home crowd, and it’s something he’ll never forget.
“It was crazy, this is the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of here,” Addae said. “It was great, it was a crazy atmosphere and I was able to stay and talk to some of the fans after the game. The love that people in this town bring … it was just crazy.”
Governor Justice, Babydog do pregame coin toss
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and his bulldog Babydog did the pregame coin toss, which was won by the Mountaineers.
Babydog has become the face of COVID-19 vaccination awareness over the last few months, and an announcement was made for fans to get vaccinated.
This week, it was announce West Virginia leads the nation in number of COVID cases per 100,000 people (106) and is also fifth in hospitalizations per 100,000 (50).
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