West Virginia has options with personnel at bandit

The bandit position is historically one of the most productive positions in the defensive scheme used by West Virginia, but there’s a lot of different ways it can be used.

When former defensive coordinator Vic Koenning started the scheme at Troy, he had DeMarcus Ware who was more of a standup pass rusher. That was in large part because of how Koenning believed that he saw better, and his ball get off improved in that position.

When Brown returned to Troy as the head coach, the Trojans had a player at that position named Rashad Dillard who was the Defensive Player of the Year in the Sun Belt. He was more in the role of an edge rusher as well that could come off and create havoc with pass rush.

But the versatility in the position comes when the next bandit, Hunter Reese, was more in the mold of a traditional linebacker. He also finished as a first-team all-Sun Belt player but was quite different than how the Trojans had used Dillard before him.

“More of a linebacker type that we used in the box and we blitzed him inside probably more than we did outside,” Brown said.

And now fast forward a few years later and Brown is trying to see what type of skill set the Mountaineers have at that position with both VanDarius Cowan and Jared Bartlett. The two have been limited over their careers with Cowan dealing with injuries and Bartlett youth.

Cowan has only played 179 snaps over the past two seasons due to various injuries, while Bartlett has bounced around between spots and played 362 over the past two years. That makes this spring critical in seeing what each can do and where they excel.

“We’re trying to figure out what the strengths of VanDarius and Bartlett. And they’re both different players,” Brown said. “They play the box a little better and we’re working this spring and spending a lot of time on it as being edge rushers.”

That’s not to say there aren’t edge rushers at the position as Eddie Watkins fills that role although he is still learning how to play at this level and the program signed Ja’Corey Hammett in the last recruiting class. But there is still a lot to figure out to maximize the position.

The good news is there is the flexibility there to do it.

“We can form the scheme around what we’re asking that bandit to do and it really depends on their individual skills,” Brown said.

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