Let's Get Physical
1 year 2 months ago #407
by wvu4u2
Let's Get Physical was created by wvu4u2
morgantown — Historically, the Big Ten has always defined what physical play was like in college football.
There was never really anything fancy about it. It was Dick Butkus and Bubba Smith, Alan “The Horse” Ameche and Bronko Nagurski, Bruce Smith and Ron Dayne.
If the conference had a face, it was that of former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes.
If it had a slogan it was “Three yards and a cloud of dust.”
Yes, the game has changed over the years from Butkus and Bubba, Woody and Bronko, but if the SEC brought speed to the game, if the Big 12 went crazy through the airwaves, the Big Ten retained its physical image. It was a cold, snowy day in Ann Arbor, a power run game in Wisconsin, it was fullbacks at Ohio State in the minds of America.
And, you can bet, that was very much on the mind of West Virginia’s Neal Brown when he declared before this off-season began that he would do what he could to bring physical football back to the Mountaineers.
With the coming of Dana Holgorsen, combined with rules changes that emphasized safety and were aimed at taking savage blocks and tackles out of the game, the nature of the game changed.
When Neal Brown came in, he had his own version of the game and, quite honestly, it changed the face of Mountaineers football.
They seemed to lose their edge and now, with them mired at the bottom of their conference in preseason predictions and with his job at stake, Neal Brown realized that toughness in blocking and tackling with a powerful running game is what West Virginia wants to be.
It is what West Virginia football has to be.
“This definitely was the most physical camp we’ve had in our five years here,” Brown said.
He had tired of defensive film sessions turning into tackling horror shows, of backs not breaking tackles to turn 5-yard gains into 50-yard touchdowns.
He didn’t expect every run to be Quincy Wilson’s run through the Miami Hurricanes in his heyday or every tackle to be a Karl Joseph hit, but it was going to be a different brand of football.
“We worked hard on tackling every day and we started working on Penn State in the middle of last week. We know this game will be physical, so we had to be physical in camp,” he said.
“Will it pay off?” he asked, adding “We’ll see, but we know our guys are going to get challenged and we wanted to make sure they were prepared. We have to be ready to go and that is how we have gone about it in fall camp. We aren’t easing into this.”
The victory-starved fans are welcoming the thought of it, but not nearly as much the players, who are eager to turn loose their frustrations.
Take Avery Burks, the leader of the secondary from his safety spot, when asked how he would describe himself as a player.
“I’d say ‘Head Honcho,’” he answered. “I’ll tell you why I say ‘Head Honcho.’ It’s because I like to tackle people. I don’t get uncomfortable coming down and hitting someone hard. But also, I like trolling the defense as far as being our voice.
“When the defense looks at me, when my teammates look at me, I want them to know I can tell you what to do. When you need help, I can tell you want to do.”
If Burks can’t get the point across alone, he now has Georgia Southern transfer safety Anthony Wilson to help him. Wilson is just 5-10 and 200 pounds, but he plays bigger and tougher. His idol has been the aforementioned Joseph and he uses a picture of his vicious sideline hit of Oklahoma’s Dede Westbrook saved to his computer.
He’s getting the point across by his actions, according to safeties coach Dontae Wright, who saw him deliver a similar hit in practice early in camp.
“I ran down there and told him ‘Whoa, that’s your teammate and you need him on Saturday,’” Wright said. “He threw everything he had at him, and I took off and sprinted toward him.”
This is what he was greeted with when he arrived.
“We were allowed to do that at our old school,” he said.
“Well, we don’t do that here. We are going to take care of each other,” Wright said.
He wasn’t asking him to cease that kind of play, just to save it for Saturday while WVU has enough offensive players left to play in the game.
And so they have tackled every day, knowing Penn State brings in a powerful running game and capitalizes on broken tackles as well as anyone in the country.
“One of the big components for us to be successful is going to be our ability to be mentally and physically tough,” Neal Brown said. “So, the only thing I know how to do is go out and practice that.”
Way back in early July, at Big 12 Media Day, he let his middle linebacker and leading tackle, Lee Kpogba, know what was in store.
“I told him we’re going to do a lot more 11-on-11 work and we’re going to be more physical,” Brown said. “The issue for us is not going to be that we didn’t tackle in fall camp. That’s not going to be a reason why we’re not significantly better. My conversation with him was about needing to buy in from the top.
“He’s a seeker of contact, so that was music to his ears. But he’s done a good job of enthusiastically selling that because we have to do it. We were thin last year and had some injuries, but when you look back, we have to be more physical.”
If only Olivia Newton John were around to enjoy it.
Follow @bhertzel on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook
There was never really anything fancy about it. It was Dick Butkus and Bubba Smith, Alan “The Horse” Ameche and Bronko Nagurski, Bruce Smith and Ron Dayne.
If the conference had a face, it was that of former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes.
If it had a slogan it was “Three yards and a cloud of dust.”
Yes, the game has changed over the years from Butkus and Bubba, Woody and Bronko, but if the SEC brought speed to the game, if the Big 12 went crazy through the airwaves, the Big Ten retained its physical image. It was a cold, snowy day in Ann Arbor, a power run game in Wisconsin, it was fullbacks at Ohio State in the minds of America.
And, you can bet, that was very much on the mind of West Virginia’s Neal Brown when he declared before this off-season began that he would do what he could to bring physical football back to the Mountaineers.
With the coming of Dana Holgorsen, combined with rules changes that emphasized safety and were aimed at taking savage blocks and tackles out of the game, the nature of the game changed.
When Neal Brown came in, he had his own version of the game and, quite honestly, it changed the face of Mountaineers football.
They seemed to lose their edge and now, with them mired at the bottom of their conference in preseason predictions and with his job at stake, Neal Brown realized that toughness in blocking and tackling with a powerful running game is what West Virginia wants to be.
It is what West Virginia football has to be.
“This definitely was the most physical camp we’ve had in our five years here,” Brown said.
He had tired of defensive film sessions turning into tackling horror shows, of backs not breaking tackles to turn 5-yard gains into 50-yard touchdowns.
He didn’t expect every run to be Quincy Wilson’s run through the Miami Hurricanes in his heyday or every tackle to be a Karl Joseph hit, but it was going to be a different brand of football.
“We worked hard on tackling every day and we started working on Penn State in the middle of last week. We know this game will be physical, so we had to be physical in camp,” he said.
“Will it pay off?” he asked, adding “We’ll see, but we know our guys are going to get challenged and we wanted to make sure they were prepared. We have to be ready to go and that is how we have gone about it in fall camp. We aren’t easing into this.”
The victory-starved fans are welcoming the thought of it, but not nearly as much the players, who are eager to turn loose their frustrations.
Take Avery Burks, the leader of the secondary from his safety spot, when asked how he would describe himself as a player.
“I’d say ‘Head Honcho,’” he answered. “I’ll tell you why I say ‘Head Honcho.’ It’s because I like to tackle people. I don’t get uncomfortable coming down and hitting someone hard. But also, I like trolling the defense as far as being our voice.
“When the defense looks at me, when my teammates look at me, I want them to know I can tell you what to do. When you need help, I can tell you want to do.”
If Burks can’t get the point across alone, he now has Georgia Southern transfer safety Anthony Wilson to help him. Wilson is just 5-10 and 200 pounds, but he plays bigger and tougher. His idol has been the aforementioned Joseph and he uses a picture of his vicious sideline hit of Oklahoma’s Dede Westbrook saved to his computer.
He’s getting the point across by his actions, according to safeties coach Dontae Wright, who saw him deliver a similar hit in practice early in camp.
“I ran down there and told him ‘Whoa, that’s your teammate and you need him on Saturday,’” Wright said. “He threw everything he had at him, and I took off and sprinted toward him.”
This is what he was greeted with when he arrived.
“We were allowed to do that at our old school,” he said.
“Well, we don’t do that here. We are going to take care of each other,” Wright said.
He wasn’t asking him to cease that kind of play, just to save it for Saturday while WVU has enough offensive players left to play in the game.
And so they have tackled every day, knowing Penn State brings in a powerful running game and capitalizes on broken tackles as well as anyone in the country.
“One of the big components for us to be successful is going to be our ability to be mentally and physically tough,” Neal Brown said. “So, the only thing I know how to do is go out and practice that.”
Way back in early July, at Big 12 Media Day, he let his middle linebacker and leading tackle, Lee Kpogba, know what was in store.
“I told him we’re going to do a lot more 11-on-11 work and we’re going to be more physical,” Brown said. “The issue for us is not going to be that we didn’t tackle in fall camp. That’s not going to be a reason why we’re not significantly better. My conversation with him was about needing to buy in from the top.
“He’s a seeker of contact, so that was music to his ears. But he’s done a good job of enthusiastically selling that because we have to do it. We were thin last year and had some injuries, but when you look back, we have to be more physical.”
If only Olivia Newton John were around to enjoy it.
Follow @bhertzel on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook
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