Tyler puts best foot forward in free safety competition

It was almost a case of déjà vu and not in a way that head coach Dana Holgorsen and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson want to remember.

“We about puked,” Holgorsen said.

For the second year in a row West Virginia lost the leader of the secondary, and arguably the defense when junior Dravon Henry sustained a season ending knee injury. That follows senior Karl Joseph suffering the same season-ending injury to his knee in practice last season.

In Henry, the Mountaineers lose a player that has started every game since stepping foot on campus two years ago but after the initial shock and heartbreak the focus shifted to the next man up.

Opportunity is the buzz word that comes to mind and senior Jeremy Tyler made the most of his in the first scrimmage of the fall making the move from bandit to free safety. Over the course of the open period, the Georgia native was constantly standing out by flying to the ball and even making two interceptions with the first team unit, both of which would have been returned for touchdowns.

“I expect that. He’s an older guy that’s played a bunch,” Gibson said.

Tyler was initially recruited as a free safety when he arrived on campus but the positional nomad has bounced around to all three of the different safety spots over his four years.

Before Henry became a household name, it was Tyler that took him to the wire in a back-and-forth positional battle for the starters role at free safety two years before. And while Henry would emerge from the fight victorious, the experience helped prepare Tyler for the future.

Earlier in camp he had played both the bandit and SPUR but when asked to make the move back to free safety there was little hesitation from the senior.

“It’s not really a tough change because I came in as a freshman playing that position so I’m familiar with it,” he said. “It’s not too different from the bandit spot. You’re rolling to the post; you’re playing man-to-man but the only thing is you’re not coming down in the box area to play the run.”

On his two interceptions Saturday, Tyler read the play and responded when he noticed that senior quarterback Skyler Howard had made a check at the line of scrimmage. From there, it was green grass in front of him after making a break on the ball.

Tyler understands that if he remains at free safety he is the last line of defense in the West Virginia defense so making sure he handles his duties is paramount to the unit’s success.

“If the ball gets past me it’s bad,” Tyler added.

Now the job has not been anointed to Tyler quite yet and there are other challengers in the mix such as sophomore Toyous Avery but he did his best to make a strong statement on his candidacy. Position coach Matt Caponi realizes that while he did lose some valuable experience in the backend, there is still a number of players that have seen game action over their careers.

And by now he will move forward with a committee until one emerges.

“We have some really good athletic players who understand what we’re doing, so we can rotate some guys around and move some guys around. Nothing is set in stone right now,” Caponi said.

But Tyler hopes when the musical chairs comes to an end that he has a starting spot in his final season.