By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — While West Virginia defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich has had to struggle for much of this year to make up for personnel shortages, he has also been spoiled with an excess of riches.
Lacking a senior defensive lineman and battling a lack of depth, Kirelawich realizes that his three starters — defensive end Julian Miller, nose guard Chris Neild and defensive tackle Scooter Berry — each has NFL potential.
“They have a chance at the NFL, but a lot has to happen,” Kirelawich said as he readied his three-man front for the final regular-season game at Rutgers at noon Saturday.
“It may be that we potentially can get there,” Neild said, “but spell it POTENTIAL-ly, with the emphasis on potential. We still have a long way to go.”
To give you some idea of just how good Neild and Berry, the two senior statesmen, are, listen to what Rutgers coach Greg Schiano had to say about them.
“It seems like they’ve been here forever,” Schiano said. “They are stout and strong.”
Since both are juniors and have a year’s eligibility left, that can be taken only as a complement, although when it was brought to Neild’s attention, he could only say “It makes me feel old. Today’s my birthday.”
The defensive line has probably not reached its full potential because it, like the defense in general, has not really been at full strength. To begin with, it has lacked the necessary senior presence.
“You can’t make up for that,” said the gregarious veteran line coach Kirelawich.
Then there was an injury to Berry, followed by a suspension when he got into a downtown disagreement with a peace officer. That stretched the defensive line to its limit, backup nose guard Josh Taylor having to move to tackle.
“It was a shock to him. He wasn’t familiar with the position,” Neild noted. “He’d just won a scholarship at nose guard.”
Now the depth was really thin, for Neild had no real backup and Miller, the prime pass rusher, was playing every down.
“Julian Miller has played more reps than anyone should have to play,” Kirelawich said. “It borders on child abuse, as much as I’ve had to play him.”
They did what they could do until Berry came back a couple of weeks ago, but by then teams were beginning to find running lanes against a defense that prides itself on not giving up rushing yards or 100-yard rushers.
Starting in the loss at South Florida, players were running wild against WVU.
It went like this:
South Florida: B.J. Daniels, 104 yards
Louisville: Darius Ashley, 164 yards
Cincinnati: Isaiah Pead, 175 yards
Pittsburgh: Dion Lewis, 155 yards
Now this does not necessarily reflect on the defensive line because the defense is set up for the defensive linemen to keep the offensive line away from the linebackers, who are supposed to make the tackles.
“If the linebackers are having a good game, we’re having a good game,” Kirelawich said.
Well, WVU’s top three tacklers against Pitt were cornerbacks and a safety. Against Cincinnati it was Brandon Hogan, the corner.
The one thing Kirelawich doesn’t want is teams running against his front.
“The essence of defense is being able to stop the run,” Kirelawich said. “I think of a lot of passing teams as having empty stats. You see so many teams that have a lot of yards passing, but it doesn’t translate into touchdowns and wins.
“But when you run the ball, you control the ball, you control the clock and you control the line of scrimmage.”
You establish a certain toughness, an attitude by running the ball. And the reverse is true. Stop the run and you control the flow of the game, the line of scrimmage.
It begins with toughness, something Kirelawich believes his threesome has in spades.
“It’s a table stakes poker game and toughness is what it takes to get a seat,” Kirelawich said.
He believes now that Berry has been back for three games that his front will rise up and stuff Rutgers’ running game, force them into being one-dimensional.
That would allow the Mountaineers to win an important final game of the regular season.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
