West Virginia takes a different approach with DBs
ShaDon Brown has 17 years of experience under his belt coaching the secondary and has placed a total of 18 players in the NFL during that time.
And while he doesn’t want to give away any of his secrets instructing the back end there is one area that West Virginia does differently than many programs.
That is how the defensive backs are coached to play through the wide receiver to the ball instead of looking back at it.
“We teach body position. When you can and when you can not,” Brown said. “That’s just been trial and error.”
Brown points to what unfolded with cornerback Beanie Bishop last season and the improvements that he made as far as attacking the football in the air. It elevated his game from a strong defensive back, to a consensus all-American that is now on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster.
“He had ten pass breakups in four years and 21 in one season,” Brown said. “He always wanted to go back to the ball and shoulder the ball where he saw everything from the front and you got to be able to play the ball up over the top and not having your shoulders back to the ball.”
It didn’t happen overnight and is something that takes time to adjust to but if players can consistently make those plays on the ball down the field it opens things up on the defensive side.
And those improvements helped to lure some others into the program such as Northwestern transfer cornerback Garnett Hollis who saw the production increase out of Bishop last season. It’s the area where he has started to improve and put that on display in practice with a nice play on a deep ball.
“One of the reasons why he came here. He saw the production of Beanie and what we do and how we teach it,” Brown said. “He had a big flash play today on the field where he played the ball.”
Brown compares it to playing with your back to the basket in basketball and if the ball is coming behind the player and they’re always trying to turn their body to the ball it leads to trouble.
“That’s where you get pushed and nudged,” Brown said. “We try to play through the receiver a little more and it’s worked for me over the years.”
It’s a different way of teaching but one that has certainly led to some good results in the back end.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
