MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia safeties coach Dontae Wright made sure to carefully choose his words Monday when asked for overall impressions from his position group over the course of spring football.
“The biggest surprise would be Scottie Young,” Wright said. “I shouldn’t say surprise. The biggest impression is Scottie Young.”
Young, a redshirt senior safety, is expected to factor heavily into West Virginia’s defensive plan in 2021.
While he’s only played in one game for the Mountaineers — a 24-21 victory over Army in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl — Young started 29 games at Arizona over his first three collegiate seasons before transferring.
“He’s had a great spring playing the spear position and also learning the free safety position,” Wright said. ”He is a terrific football player, has unbelievable instincts and he’s one of the leaders of our defense.”
Young registered four tackles in the Liberty Bowl and fit in well with the defense in his Mountaineer debut. Not only did his previous playing time for the Wildcats help prepare Young for a pivotal role on West Virginia’s defense, so, too, did his approach last season prior to the NCAA ruling him eligible to play in the bowl game.
It reminded Wright of a similar situation that fellow West Virginia safety Alonzo Addae went through in 2019 after transferring from New Hampshire.
“It was the first time in his career that he’s not been a contributor at all,” Wright said. “He handled it just like Alonzo Addae did the year before. He’s an older guy and very mature. He understands it’s not my fault at all that I’m sitting out, it’s because of rules. No matter what, I have a role.
“His role was to be on the scout team and try to learn our defense as much as he can. He took that role serious, because he was able to come back and help us in the bowl game and (there) not be a drop-off when we needed him,” Wright continued. “He handled it really, really well in terms of being a leader and teaching young guys on the scout team how to practice and be a professional.”
The 5-foot-11, 208-pound Young now hopes to combine with Addae to form one of the Big 12 Conference’s more imposing safety duos. Young had five interceptions at Arizona and was the team’s third-leading tackler with 66 stops in 2019.
West Virginia was likely already relying on Young and Addae as two of its top safeties, but with the departure of Tykee Smith last month, the Mountaineers will be asking more of both.
That includes a role on special teams, something Wright believes in from all of his safeties.
“Sean (Mahone), Scottie and Alonzo will all be on special teams,” Wright said. “We’ll start two of them. We won’t let them start any more than that because they’re starters on defense. But they’ll be big-time contributors. Safeties and linebackers have to be the core of your special teams.”