The Times West Virginian

WVU Sports

July 17, 2009

HERTZEL COLUMN: Mountaineers taking notes from Steelers

By Bob Hertzel

MORGANTOWN — While most people around Morgantown spend their time watching such movies as “Bruno,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” there is a far bigger hit showing daily in the defensive film room at the Puskar Center.

In a way it could carry the title “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”, for this truly is the story of the revenge of the fallen, the fallen in this case being the Pittsburgh Steelers and their revenge being a Super Bowl victory over Arizona.

This movie stars a far bigger star than Sacha Baron Cohen.

In the starring role is Troy Polamalu, with a supporting cast that is headed by James Harrison.

Whenever the West Virginia University defensive players, most notably safety Sidney Glover and linebacker J.T. Thomas, have some time on their hands, they get themselves a large box of buttered popcorn, a box of Junior Mints and a Coke and sit down and watch the film, even though they know how it is going to come out.

OK, I lied about the buttered popcorn and Junior Mints and the Coke, but it’s no lie that the Mountaineer defense is doing a good bit of studying of the Steelers defense this summer.

While the basic scheme that the Steelers run differs from the 3-3-5 stack that the Mountaineers play, defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel knows there are lessons to be learned from the way the world champions disguise their defensive coverages and blitzes.

Planning to pull out all the stops this year in an effort to get to the quarterback, the Mountaineers are serious about increasing their rather pedestrian total of 25 quarterback sacks last season, and there’s no one more serious about blitzing than the Steelers and no one better at confusing the offense than Polamalu.

Ask Glover, a junior spur safety out of Warren, Ohio, who will be playing the Polamalu role in the WVU defense this year, and his answer is right on point.

“Hopefully me,” he said, wasting neither words nor time.

And if Glover plans to be Polamalu’s double, Thomas has designs on playing the role of Harrison in the Mountaineer defense.

“He’s one of the best, and I watch him a lot,” Thomas said. “Watching the way he plays gives you motivation, something to strive for.”

Certainly it makes sense to watch these two do their things. If you want to learn to hit a baseball, watch film of Ted Williams. If you want to learn to hit a golf ball, Tiger will show the way. If you want to learn to ride a racehorse, watch Calvin Borel.

And if you want to learn how blitz a quarterback, Polamalu or Harrison will do just fine.

“Polamalu never lets the offense know what the defense is doing,” Glover said. “Watch him. He’ll walk up from the safety spot so he’s there with the linebackers, then he’ll back off just when the ball is being snapped.”

The idea is to mess up blocking schemes and pass patterns. You think safety is blitzing and he’s back in pass coverage.

Glover sees himself being able to do a lot of the same things Polamalu does as he covers the entire field, wrecking havoc on the offense.

When offenses try to attack the Mountaineer defense, they have to figure out what the three safeties are going to do on any given play. One of them is almost sure to blitz, or at least move into a linebacking spot so that the 3-3 becomes in essence a 3-4.

“I enjoy being the guy they have to game plan around,” Glover said. “I want to be that guy.”

The reality is Thomas and Glover are probably the two most devastating forces on the defense.

There is every reason to believe that Thomas could blossom this year into one of the Big East’s top defensive players.

“I’m getting close to 230 pounds,” said Thomas, who was listed at 224 at the start of spring practice but now is at 228. “I’ve been working this year on being more explosive, more flexible.”

Bigger, more flexible, more explosive, fast as ever and now incorporating some of what he’s learned from James Harrison, Thomas is ready to get out there and try some of it out.

“He mixes his moves and keeps the tackle guessing,” Thomas explained. “If I can threaten the tackle with speed and get him on his heels, he won’t be hard to push over.”

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

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