Koonz excited about WVU’s youthful group of linebackers

“It’s been a really productive spring,” stated Koonz, who arrived at West Virginia in 2020. “For the first since I’ve been here, we’ve got the most competition and the most plays returning from one year to the next. It’s been fun.

“As a unit, we’re definitely more explosive and definitely faster than where we finished last season. That’s a testament to Mike (Joseph, WVU’s special team coach) and his staff.

“The challenge from when we came back in January is to start not where we left off in the Mayo Bowl but another two steps beyond that,” added Koonz, whose father, also named Jeff Koonz, was a long-time and highly-successful junior college coach. “I think we’ve accomplished that.”

The Mountaineers did lose Lee Kpogba, their leading tackler in each of the past two seasons, from the linebacker unit, but they have six other scholarship inside ‘backers this spring, most of whom have a good deal of college game experience.

Ben Cutter (6-0, 225 lbs., Soph.) started seven games at linebacker last year as a true freshman and finished fourth on the team in tackles with 56.

Caden Biser (6-0, 232 lbs., Jr.) saw action in all 13 games last season, starting the Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory over North Carolina when Cutter was slowed by a hamstring injury.

Jairo Faverus (6-0, 224 lbs., Jr.) has played in 23 games during his Mountaineer career, though he’s recovering from an injury that has kept him off the practice field this spring.

Reid Carrico (6-2, 232 lbs., Jr.) is the newcomer to the unit, having transferred to WVU from Ohio State this past January.

Two other very promising linebackers — Trey Lathan (6-1, 226 lbs., Soph.) and Josiah Trotter (6-2, 238 lbs., RFr.) — are both back on the field now after sustaining significant leg injuries last year.

Lathan started the first five games of 2023 before suffering a broken leg at TCU. A four-star recruit from Pennsylvania powerhouse St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia, Trotter enrolled at WVU in January of 2023 but sustained a knee injury that spring that kept him out of the lineup the entire fall.

Lathan and Trotter are back on the practice field now, though, which may be astounding to some but not to their position coach.

“They were both ahead of schedule (in terms of their rehab), so I’m not surprised whatsoever,” said Koonz, who is a 2004 graduate of Auburn. “That’s a testament to all the staff members who got them where they needed to be.

“They’re playing fast,” the coach added of Lathan and Trotter. “There might have been some mental things early on, but after about a day or two, it was full speed, and they’ve been phenomenal and have had no hitches or hiccups since.”

Lathan was off to a strong start in his redshirt freshman season last year, recording 27 tackles and seven quarterback hurries in the first four-and-a-half games before his injury sidelined him for the rest of the fall.

Josiah Trotter, whose father, Jeremiah Trotter, Sr., was an All-Pro linebacker who spent most of his 12-year NFL career with the Philadelphia Eagles, didn’t get to participate in any game action last year, but he brings much more than just a enticing pedigree into his redshirt freshman season.

“He’s a physically imposing guy. He can find the ball and finish plays,” Koonz said of the younger Trotter, whose older brother, Jeremiah Trotter, Jr., was an All-American linebacker at Clemson. “He’s a bigger-body guy than we’ve had, so he stands out because of his sheer size. He also has good instincts.

“The thing he does a great job of to this point, in my opinion, is if he makes a mistake, he makes it full speed and he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. He gets it fixed. That’s the same M.O. for our entire room; if we make a mistake, we get it fixed and it doesn’t happen two or three times.”

Cutter and Biser both return with plenty of experience from last season, as each participated in all 13 games in 2023. Koonz feels both have progressed this spring.

“Ben is definitely one of those guys who is quicker, more explosive and faster,” explained the coach of the Denver, North Carolina, native. “His weightroom numbers have definitely increased, and he was already a weightroom guy before he got here.

“Ben has taken his (pass) coverage to another level this spring. He’s decreased his number of missed tackles, which was a point of emphasis for him. I couldn’t be more pleased with him.”

Koonz also is impressed by the improvement Biser has shown.

“Caden is faster, he’s quicker, he’s more explosive and diagnoses really well,” the coach said. “He’s made some plays in coverage, had some picks, had some PBUs while also fitting (the run) a little faster than last year, and this is a guy who started in the bowl game and played well there.”

Carrico is the newcomer to the linebacking group. A four-star recruit coming out of Ironton (Ohio) High School in 2021, he played in 22 games during his three seasons at Ohio State, mostly on special teams, before deciding to transfer after the conclusion of the 2023 campaign.

“Reid is a welcome addition to the room, and he fits the culture of our program,” stated Koonz. “It’s been phenomenal to have him with us. He’s a mature guy, an older guy, and he’s gravitated to the other players.

“Reid is physical and can run. It has been an adjustment for him because our system is completely different from what he was accustomed to the last three years (with the Buckeyes), but he’s done a great job improving on that every day.”

Koonz, who also is WVU’s special teams coordinator, deals defensively with the Mountaineers’ two inside linebacker positions — middle (mike) and weak-side (will). The coach notes that he’s cross-training his linebackers so they can play either spot.

The flexibility and depth the Mountaineers enjoy this year at linebacker gives Koonz luxuries he’s not had in the past.

“You look at our room right now, and I could have as many as six guys who have played meaningful snaps in Power Four football, and that’s invaluable,” stated Koonz, including Trotter in that experienced group.

“I want to be able to rotate and keep fresh bodies on the field. Also, when teams want to get big on us, this will allow us to use subpackages and be bigger. We can take guys from my room and put them out at outside linebacker or visa versa. We’re teaching a lot of scheme-things. This will give us the ability to have as many as three (linebackers) on the field at a time, if not more.

“Also we want to be able to rotate guys and keep them fresh. There were times last year where I felt we were just hanging on at the end of games because of our limited depth.

“That also showed on special teams. I’m not just saying that because I’m also the special teams coach, but when you play linebacker, like if you play tight end or you play defensive back, you had better be a special teams contributor as well if you want to play this game for a long time.

“So, now with this much depth in the room, it will also bleed over into special teams where guys can play on two units instead of maybe just one,” the coach concluded. “There is a universal effect to having more talent and more bodies in the room.”