MORGANTOWN — Back there in the midst of the dark clouds that hung over West Virginia University when Rich Rodriguez abandoned his alma mater and his players for his Michigan adventure, a decision was made to hand the football team over to Bill Stewart.

Lacking in head coaching experience, Stewart was the calming force that the school needed, but there were questions about whether he could handle all that went with running the program. To bolster his chances, the direction that was taken was to use much of the money saved by Rodriguez’s departure and put it into hiring Stewart a coaching staff that was either experienced and proven or on the rise.

As the first season begins to melt into season No. 2 under Stewart, the ability of this staff to recruit and teach has been proven, with Doc Holliday’s recruiting scheme receiving an A+ grade and defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel showing his continued growth toward stardom in the coaching academy.

While the jury still remains deadlocked over offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen’s conversion of Rodriguez’s spread offense into a more pro-like vision of his own and Stewart, there is an unsung coach who finds himself in the most critical situation.

That would be David Lockwood, who is being put squarely on the spot as the defense evolves into one that believes it must increase the pressure on the quarterback through blitzing if it is to remain a success.

Lockwood coaches the cornerbacks, and he must put them into man-to-man lock-down mode on wide receivers if the gambling blitzes are to work.

Lockwood, of course, has long been associated with Mountaineer football. He came to Morgantown in 1985 as a cornerback and helped them to the 1988 National Championship game against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

The next season Lockwood began his coaching career as so many do, serving as a graduate assistant before beginning a journey that saw him coach at Delaware, James Madison and Memphis before his former coach Don Nehlen summoned him to West Virginia in 2000.

That would prove to be Nehlen’s final season as a coach before heading non-stop for the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., which also was Lockwood’s next stop when Rodriguez failed to hire him.

Lockwood coached Notre Dame’s corners for a year, moved to Minnesota, then Kentucky, then returned to WVU when Stewart summoned him as he put together a Nehlen-oriented staff that included himself, Lockwood, Holiday, defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich and safety coach Steve Dunlap.

Lockwood had no easy task. His No. 1 project upon arriving was to take the talented Brandon Hogan and move him from offense to corner, a position he had never played. He also brought along another former quarterback, Keith Tandy, to join Keith Richardson, Guesly Dervil and converted running back Eddie Davis for depth.

Under Nehlen, sacks were a regular occurrence. Canute Curtis set the school record with 16.5 in 1994, a season when the Mountaineers collected 59 sacks. That was down to Johnny Holmes leading the Mountaineers with five individual sacks and the team recording only 25.

But to turn those pass rushers loose and to give them time to operate, the corners have got to be inside the receivers’ jerseys, and Lockwood believes in Hogan and Tandy, just as they have learned to believe in him.

He’s taught them how to react alone on that island, how to read routes, how to backpedal as fast as they can run forward, and how to leave a memory by delivering a hard blow.

He must be doing it the right way.

“I talked to Ellis (Lankster, last year’s starting corner, now with Buffalo),” Hogan said. “He let me know when he went to the Senior Bowl that they taught a lot of the same stuff that Lockwood gives us.”

Lockwood emphasizes technique over athleticism. It’s great if you have closing speed if you make a mistake, but more important is to not make that mistake, to be in position to make a play.

“It’s about technique and confidence,” Tandy said. “Yeah, you need to be athletic, but your technique and confidence are what carry you.”

Most important, Lockwood teaches the toughest lesson of all, the mind game.

Converted last year, Hogan was scorched for a touchdown in a shocking loss to East Carolina in the season’s second game.

“I was really down,” Hogan admitted.

Lockwood came to him and sat him down.

“You’ve got to have a short memory and get on with the next play,” Lockwood told him.

Hogan bought into that, and more than anything else, that allowed him to improve to the point that they now envision great things out of him.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.