The Shadow
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – I couldn’t help but think of a story former West Virginia assistant coach Bill Kirelawich once told me about Steve Slaton while listening to senior linebacker Chase Wilson talk to media two days ago and then hearing senior linebacker Reid Carrico talk earlier today.
Kirelawich said of all the years he spent recruiting, he never encountered a more thoughtful and intelligent football player than Slaton. The perceptive questions he was asking Kirelawich made him feel like Steve was recruiting him instead of the other way around.
You get that same impression after listening to Wilson and Carrico field questions from reporters.
Of course, we’re still learning about defensive coordinator Zac Alley, his schemes and the way he wants to play football, but we know quite a bit about coach Rich Rodriguez and some of the linebackers that have played for him here at West Virginia in the past.
I think about Scott Gyorko, an engineering student here in the early 2000s who today is enjoying a successful career working locally for March-Westin. Jay Henry was a magna-cum-laude-type student who used his brains and brawn to help West Virginia win a Sugar Bowl in 2006.
Jay is now working for Pamlico Capital, a private equity firm in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Reed Williams was another highly intelligent linebacker who was named defensive MVP of West Virginia’s great Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma in 2008. Reed, a 2009 National Football Foundation Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete, recently joined the board of directors for Hardy Telecommunications.
These guys could think really fast on their feet, and Wilson and Carrico seem to fit the same mold.
The reasons Carrico transferred from Ohio State to West Virginia a couple of years ago still apply today, despite playing for a new coach in a new scheme with a bunch of new teammates.
By the way, Carrico says this is the fourth different defensive system he’s had to learn since he signed with Ohio State out of Ironton High in Ironton, Ohio, back in 2021.
“Everybody has personal goals, and it’s just another challenge, mainly,” he says of his current situation. “I think if you are not challenged, then you are not getting better. From that regard, going from Ohio State to here, it’s just been trying not to focus too much on what happened in the past.
“I’m a new football player. Coach (Rodriguez) says he’s a better coach than he was 20 years ago, and I’d like to say I’m a better football player now than I was a true freshman at 18 years old and didn’t know what I was looking at,” he said.
When you count spring ball, Carrico has roughly 23 practices under his belt playing Alley’s defense. He says he’s much farther along than he was last March but admits there is still lots to learn in a short amount of time.
“I wouldn’t say I’m fully adjusted yet. We’re still going through some installs, and that’s why fall camp has been so pivotal is to get everybody ready to go and get all the calls in,” he explained.
“As a linebacker, you’ve got to know a little bit about what everybody does, if not all of it,” he added. “It’s kind of a complementary deal. Coach Alley’s scheme can be a lot, especially if you don’t study. Linebackers study all the time. When you do Alley’s scheme along with coach Rodriguez’s tempo at the same time, and there are a lot of moving pieces there, it’s moving really fast. If you are not on top your game and you don’t study a little bit at night that little amount of time you have at your own place, then you can get left behind.”
Consider that and then throw in all of the new players West Virginia has added through the transfer portal. Carrico and the other returning players are outnumbered three-to-one right now.
“It can be a little bit tough maybe for the first couple of practices, but after you get everybody out there rolling, everything starts to smooth out,” he noted. “The newer players and the guys who weren’t here in the spring, they’ve got to study a lot, too. Everybody has to study a lot and be on top of their game because there can be some miscommunication and when that happens it is a big play.”
As far as playing in four different defensive schemes during his college career at Ohio State and West Virginia, he said it’s basically just a matter of learning new terminology.
Last year, he played for two different defensive coordinators in the same season and is now on coordinator No. 3 at WVU.
“From a fundamental standpoint, it’s like there are only so many ways you can run cover three or play man-to-man coverage,” he explained. “At that point, it’s just all fundamentals and learning the way that coach Alley wants to do it, rather than what I’ve been taught in the past.
“There are certain little pieces that you can keep like as far as where you put your eyes in man coverage, but the main thing is terminology, and what he calls this route and this pass play, that sort of thing,” he said.
Explaining further, he added, “People who grow up playing football know that ‘smash’ is the slot running a seven-cut and there is a hitch on the outside. That’s kind of universal, and there is some universal stuff in football.”
The senior believes there is a lot to like about Alley’s equal-opportunity defense.
“What’s really cool about coach Alley’s scheme is there are certain calls that benefit the linebackers, there are certain stunts that benefit the D-line, and there is a call in the defense that will set every position up to make a play,” he explained. “For instance, take a corner blitz. As a will linebacker you might be like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to protect the corner here to the flat because that’s the hot throw.’ Putting the shoe on the other foot, if the linebacker is blitzing and the safety might know that he’s got to get down in the box a little bit to protect the little hot throw, the check down or whatever.
“Coach Alley’s scheme is very multiple, and it’s one of the things I’m excited for. I can see how it can be very, very hard to prepare for as an opposing offensive coordinator,” he observed.
Overall, Carrico said he’s adjusted pretty well to the fast pace of West Virginia’s high-energy, two-hour football practices.
“Back in the spring, it was a little chaotic and maybe through the second practice of fall camp, but as long as you are sprinting to the ball and sprinting to get lined up, and you’ve got your eyes to the sideline (getting the ball), then you’ll be fine.
“As long as you know your stuff.”
Regarding his teammate Wilson, a Colorado State transfer playing his sixth season of college football this year, the two are almost like clones out there.
Wilson stands 6-feet-1 and weighs 230 pounds, give or take a few, while Carrico is listed at 6-feet-2 and weighs 229 pounds. Wilson is wearing jersey No. 30 while Carrico is sporting No. 33.
“He’s an older guy, a veteran who has played a lot of snaps,” Carrico said of his teammate. “He’s a high-IQ guy who studies a lot, and he’s one of the leaders on defense – as he should be. He’s in year five or year six, and I’m in year five. Having two older guys who played in different schemes is definitely beneficial to the defense. He’s a good communicator and that sort of thing.
“I (transferred) last year, too. It is what it is. I think it’s part of the game now,” he continued. “You’ve got to be able to adjust if you want to play this game for a long time. How many NFL guys play five or six years in the league with five or six different teams? I just look at it as a challenge, so you’ve just got to rise to the occasion.”
In today’s game, Carrico believes all linebackers are clones to a certain degree based on what they are required to do defending modern offenses.
“You think about a guy like Dick Butkus,” he pointed out. “That guy was playing in a different era where you had to be 265 pounds because you were plugging the same A gap all the time. Well, in today’s game, you might be lined up between the slot receiver and the corner and you might have to hold off this RPO and then get in there and fit the run.
“I think linebacker is an interesting position because you have to be able to do so much, and that’s why linebackers are pretty valuable on special teams because there are so many different jobs that you have to be able to do as a linebacker.”
It also doesn’t hurt to be extremely intelligent, either.
The team practiced in shorts this morning and will have another full-contact workout on Thursday.
