MORGANTOWN — There were points throughout last season that if West Virginia needed to put in a new linebacker, they might have started scouring the stands for any able-bodied individuals that would fit in a uniform.
Okay, things never got quite that bad, but it was close.
Season-ending injuries to Josiah Trotter and Trey Lathan nearly put WVU’s already-thin linebacker room on life support. True freshman Ben Cutter was pressed into service and played nearly every snap next to senior Lee Kpogba over the final two months of the season.
“There were times last year when I thought we were hanging on at the end of games just because we were limited with depth,” WVU linebackers coach Jeff Koonz said Monday.
Koonz feels like the room is in much better shape this spring as Trotter and Lathan are both back and fully healthy this spring.
“They’re playing fast. I think there might have been some mental things early on, but after about day one or two, it was back to full speed,’ Koonz said. “They were both actually ahead of schedule, so I’m not surprised.”
After having just two players play the majority of snaps last year, Koonz believes he has enough able-bodies to have a full-blown rotation at linebacker.
“If you look at our room right now, we could have as many as six guys play meaningful snaps in Power 4 football and that’s invaluable,” he said.
Along with Trotter, Lathan and Cutter, the team has Jairo Faverus, who also missed time with injuries last year, Caden Biser, who benefitted from an increased role like Cutter, and Ohio State transfer Reid Carrico.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve got the most competition and the most players returning from one year to the next,” Koonz said. “The challenge for them was to start spring football not where we left in the Mayo Bowl, but two steps beyond that, and I think they accomplished that.”
The group starts with Trotter, despite the fact he has yet to actually play a snap of college football. He was on track to earn a starting role as a freshman last season before suffering a season-ending injury in the spring.
“He’s a physically imposing guy; he also has good instincts,” Koonz said. “He’s played a lot of football — if you go back to his high school career, he played early and he played for a program that went deep into the playoffs every year.”
Trotter, a redshirt freshman from Philadelphia, Pa, garnered a lot of attention last spring and is turning even more heads this year.
“I think Josiah Trotter is going to be an absolute headache for offenses to deal with,” tight end Treylan Davis said. “He’s physical, he’s smart and he spends so much time on the game. He loves the game; it just reeks off of him.”
“Trotter’s a dog,” Lathan added. “He has the biggest upside out of anybody in the room. He just has a nose for the football.”
Lathan was first in line to replace Trotter last season and did well. He started the first five games of the season before breaking his leg at TCU.
“I felt like I was getting better each and every week,” Lathan said. “A lot of things were starting to become clear once I started playing more and getting more snaps.”
When Lathan went down, Cutter got his chance. He started the final eight games of the season, finishing with 56 tackles, six tackles for loss and two sacks.
“Ben is one of those guys who is quicker, more explosive and faster,” Koonz said. “He’s taken his coverage to another level this spring. He’s decreased his missed tackles, which was a point of emphasis, and I couldn’t be more pleased.”
Carrico, a redshirt junior, was brought in from Ohio State this offseason to add a veteran presence to an otherwise young room. He played three seasons for the Buckeyes but struggled to see the field, totaling five tackles across 16 games.
“He’s done a phenomenal job of adjusting to our culture here at West Virginia,” Koonz said. “The thing about Reid was he wanted to be here. He definitely was a welcomed addition to the room, but he fit who we are as a program.”
Biser, a former walk-on, also saw an increased role last season. He played in all 13 games and made 23 tackles.
Faverus has played in 20 games over three seasons with WVU. He began his career as a safety before switching to linebacker and has mainly been a special teams contributor.
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