The word of the day was defense at Kidd Brewer Stadium on Saturday as the Mountaineers suited up for an intra-squad scrimmage for the second consecutive weekend. Overall, Spring Football is just the beginning of a new season, with lots of training, position battles, and headlines still to come. That being said, the defense is already rounding into form.
“Our defense had great energy, forced turnovers.” Coach Drinkwitz said. “We’ve got some rangy players, long, athletic guys who can play in space. They do a nice job against stopping the run, forcing the ball laterally, and then chasing it down.”
The Mountaineer defensive unit recorded three interceptions on the day, and did a great job controlling the line of scrimmage and keeping the offense behind the sticks which led to some errant throws.
Perhaps the play of the day came on one of those throws when DB Desmond Franklin jumped the route, intercepted the ball and returned it for a touchdown.
“Our coaches teach us to stay patient in man coverage and I got a feel of the route he (the receiver) was running and I saw the ball and just played the ball.” Franklin said.
The rising senior had a great day individually and feels the new defense in place will bring continued success on the field.
“I feel like it (the new scheme) is gonna help a lot because teams don’t know what to expect.” He said. “Like the last couple of years teams play App, they know what coverages are coming, what our base coverages were…now everything is new so teams are gonna really have to game plan for our defense.”
Despite the defense dominating the day, the offense was still able to take some positives away from the scrimmage.
“It was a good day to learn.” Junior wideout Thomas Hennigan said. “We may not have had the most successful explosive plays we were looking for, but there’s always something in the film you can take from it. Maybe the stats weren’t there to prove it but there were some good things out there today.”
Although it was a down day offensively, the new look offense has high aspirations for the coming season.
“We were one-hundredth in passing offense last year” Hennigan said. “And so just to see as an offense bump that up to top 20 in the country is what we’re aiming for. I think it’s very doable with Zac (Thomas), the offensive line we have, as well as the backfield and it’s always gonna come down to receivers needing to make plays.”
Coach Drinkwitz reiterated the positive take from Hennigan and said even though the offense isn’t coming along as quickly as the defense, there is no need to panic.
“Our number one goal is individual improvement.” He said. “So I’m not going to get too concerned about you know whether or not the offense is behind the defense…what I am going to be concerned about is not being able to control the controllables, things that we control. Whether it’s penalties, pre-snap penalties, or not knowing your assignments.”
