COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Marquis Goodwin lying knocked out on the turf at Texas.
Oklahoma’s Justin Brown playing the body in a body-slam.
BJ Catalon stumbling toward TCU’s sideline with a concussion.
All made wobbly by one missile of a man: West Virginia safety Karl Joseph.
The Big 12’s fiercest hitter savors a reputation he built blow-by-bruising blow over the past three seasons. After all, what 5-foot-11 college football player wouldn’t like to be feared? Among Joseph’s 264 career tackles, a lot of ballcarriers have nearly swallowed their mouthpieces.
Improving his NFL draft stock, however, might mean fewer highlight hits as a senior. Becoming a better safety could require—dare we suggest it?—tapering some of that aggression.
His position coach, Joe DeForest, explains:
“Karl’s good in the box, really good, and he makes big hits. But with everything spread out, he’s got to be under control. Not everything has to be a thump or a big hit. There are times where you just have to get him down. It’s OK—it doesn’t have to be on your highlight reel.”
“Karl’s good in the box, really good, and he makes big hits. But with everything spread out, he’s got to be under control. Not everything has to be a thump or a big hit. There are times where you just have to get him down.” — WVU safeties coach Joe DeForest
Joseph wound up making Jonathan Gray’s highlight reel in Austin last season, whiffing badly on a play the Texas running back took 39 yards for a touchdown.
“I probably think about the tackles I miss more than the tackles I make,” Joseph admitted this week. “Whew, Texas last year.”
DeForest recalled the touchdown right away; said it probably bothered the All-Big 12 defender more than any play of 2014. “It was out in the open and everybody saw it.”
Whereas Joseph has repeatedly detonated screen-plays and blown up runners in traffic (sometimes wounding his own teammates with friendly fire), the slight wiggle from Gray left him lunging, off-balance and unable to get a finger on the runner.
“That’s not doing what we call ‘shimmy compress,’” said DeForest. It’s an open-field technique where tacklers break down into choppy steps, keeping eyes-over-thighs, and waiting until the ballcarrier is within inches before exploding to finish the tackle. It teaches tacklers to avoid launching too early, though in this instance Joseph raced up, guessed wrong and let Gray loose in the secondary.
“He’s cognizant of it and we’ve worked on it,” DeForest said. “But for any DB, open-field tackling is tough. There’s a lot of space, and there’s just a dude with the ball and you.”
WVU typically uses tackling circuit drills to begin each practice, and Joseph said he’s putting extra emphasis on these. That must be quite an emphasis for a player who already ranks 13th on the West Virginia career list with 193 solo tackles, and by remaining healthy for the duration of this season, could crack the top five.
His college career might have ended with 193 solos if not for some mediocre draft grades handed out by NFL scouts last December. The feedback that kept Joseph in school was a call to improve his man coverage and open-field tackling—facets that overlap during practice drills.
“There’s nothing different to open-field tackling than playing man coverage—it’s one-on-one in space,” DeForest said. “Those are two things we’ve worked on and those are two things we’re going to get better at.”