MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — David Long may not wear big shoes, but he still leaves big ones for West Virginia’s linebackers to fill this fall.
There’s no easy way to make up for the absence of his team-leading 111 tackles, but the Mountaineers will need to figure out how to do so while Long embarks on his NFL career with the Tennessee Titans.
A schematic change that relies more on the defensive line making tackles rather than primarily engaging offensive linemen will be part of that process.
Even though they won’t be asked to replicate the Big 12 defensive player of the year, there seems little question that each WVU linebacker will need to take his game up a notch in 2019.