COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In the aftermath of West Virginia clocking Georgia Southern 44-0, defensive line coach Bruce Tall watched and graded his guys’ performances.
Then came the double-check. It seems he couldn’t fathom grades so high.
But the film don’t lie, and in this case it didn’t.
“I didn’t know we’d be that productive,” Tall admitted.
The coach’s first game back at West Virginia exceeded expectations, and for one night at least, a unit ID’d as 2014’s weak link turned mighty formidable. (For the half-empty crowd, yes, Georgia Southern was replacing four starters on the offensive front. But in that case, just imagine the pessimism if WVU hadn’t owned the point of attack.)
Nose tackle Kyle Rose made six stops—one off his career-high—despite ceding several series to backup Darrien Howard. Tall called it “almost unbelievable” that Rose impacted one of every three snaps, considering nose guards typically serve as cloggers so that linebackers can rack up tackles.
Turns out Tall has a stat for clogging, too. Calls them “two-fers.” And they’ve quickly become Rose’s favorite new metric.
“That’s my thing—if I can take up two blockers and let a linebacker scrape over the top and make a play, I’ve done a good job,” he said. “We take a lot of pride in two-fers. It’s a new stat that I’ll try to lead the defensive line in. Maybe not TFLs or sacks, but two-fers.”
Upon learning that the hard-scoring Tall credited him with eight two-fers, Rose interpreted it to mean he had “probably 10 or 12 honestly.” The kid recognizes a motivational ploy when he sees one, and said Tall strikes the perfect balance.
“He doesn’t give you too many compliments, but he notices when he needs to stroke you. Every guy needs to be stroked once in a while,” Rose said. “It would be unfair to say us as Division-I athletes don’t have egos. You want your coach to notice that you did a good job, because you don’t want to do everything for nothing. I don’t want to have to stick my neck out and take on two blocks for Coach not to realize what I’m doing.”
Georgia Southern certainly realized the job Rose and Howard were doing. Before the first quarter had ended, the Eagles were shuffling in a backup center to relieve junior Andy Kwon.
“Any time we wear a center out to where they’re subbing in the first 15 plays, that’s pretty good for us,” Rose said.
The Eagles finished 0-of-4 on fourth-down tries, none more desperate than a second-quarter gamble from their own 29. Rose burst through the gap to drop L.A. Ramsby for no gain.
“You know, it’s fourth-and-1 in the middle of the field,” he said. “If they want to go for it, then shame on them.”
Bruce Tall had to double-check his D-line’s film grades, because he couldn’t fathom grades so high. But the film don’t lie, and in this case it didn’t.
Defensive end Noble Nwachuckwu pried loose one fumble, and Christian Brown’s penetration into the face of quarterback Favian Upshaw resulted in an option pitch hitting the turf. Brown later saw his first career sack negated when he grabbed Upshaw’s facemask.
“I’ve got to watch my hands more,” Brown said, “but it was kind of the way he was going down that led me to grab it. It was kind of messed up.”
Mess-ups were rare on opening night. Eric Kinsey, rotating in behind Brown, made five tackles—one for lost yardage. Redshirt sophomore Jon Lewis saw his first significant action on defense spelling Nwachukwu.
“We had bodies coming in and out,” said Brown.
The grading sheets handed out Sunday morning revealed satisfactory reviews, and Rose understood why Tall wasn’t completely generous.
“He doesn’t want us to get complacent in that we had a great game against Georgia Southern and now we’re going to be lackadaisical against Liberty. We can’t have that.”