The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

That’s Gross!

April 7, 2017 by Mike Casazza

Marvin Gross, everybody! Instead of saying something along the lines of, “If somebody would have told you a year ago …” I’ll instead say this: “Nobody would have told you this a year ago.” For all we knew, he was just a guy, and we weren’t even allowed to talk to him.

West Virginia has some rules for who is and is not allowed to talk to reporters. The baseline sometimes moves, but Gross was seemingly past every obstacle — not a freshman, not a junior college transfer, not a first-year player, he’d played in a game, he wasn’t injured, etc. — but every request was met with a rejection. The remaining explanation is the coaches made a call and decided he hadn’t done enough to merit outside attention. Think about all the — no offense — fringe players you’ve read about and heard from here and there. Gross was beyond the fringe.

As recently as August, people were reservedly respectful of Gross — honestly, everyone knew Kyzir White was the guy there — but Gross had a solid junior season on defense and especially on special teams. Then White broke his hand against Iowa State. Gross started against Baylor and was the Big 12 defensive player of the week, and only then were we allowed to talk to him. What a story he was.

Gross hasn’t been caught up in his own rise or by White’s healthy hand this spring. The reservedly respectful are now outright complimentary, including the head coach, who concurs Gross is in a good place now.

Should, he’s a fifth year senior. Guys who have been on campus doing things for five years should get better. It was good to finally see him do some things on defense. I thought he really made a difference last year special teams wise. He plays the same position as (senior safety) Kyzir White, so whether it’s him doing that kind of stuff on defense, which we know he can. I’d like to get those same reps out of him on special teams too to make a difference in that area. He made a lot of plays special teams wise last year. It’s good to have two of those bodies at that one position to be able to get more special teams reps out of those guys.

Special teams is where Gross will and must make the biggest splashes, and it’s not a surprise at all that Holgorsen played the special teams card here. Special teams work is the evergreen focus this spring.

https://twitter.com/Holgorsendana/status/850345282525114368

The Mountaineers have coordinated an overhaul from instructors to instruction.They came in with so many concerns that a steady diet of reps were needed to address the tactics and the personnel involved with kickoff and punt returns but also kickoff and punt coverage, and they went out of their way to put a plan together before they got started.

“We reached out and talked to different people,” assistant coach Scott said. “We studied a bunch of different teams that were some of the best in the country at kickoff coverage, at punt return. We’re kind of adopting some of the things we learned off that to continue to progress.”