MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The hype train has followed WVU senior defensive lineman Darius Stills since the end of a highly-productive junior season in 2019. The Big 12 Preseason Defensive Player of the Year put his best work on film Saturday against Baylor. The Fairmont Senior High School grad was a disruptive force upfront for West Virginia, collecting 2.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss.
“Darius Stills played like the preseason hype he earned. I thought he played extremely well,” said WVU head coach Neal Brown.
“He has had two really good weeks of preparation. Darius has flashed on and off in his career on game day. Where we have been really pushing him, Coach (Jordan) Lesley number one and Mike Joseph and myself, his preparation and taking care of his body and how he practices. If he would do that, and really devote himself all week not just on Saturday, then he will be productive. And at the end of the year he will get what he wants, which is an opportunity to play at the next level.”
“I try to get better everyday at my stuff, on my craft,” Stills said. “I go in there with the game plan that the coaches put in. We trust it as a D-Line and as a team. I just started making plays. At the end of the day, we just did our job.”
Stills has made life miserable on Baylor in the last two meetings. In last year’s game in Waco, he racked up ten tackles and three sacks. WVU has allowed just 31 points in regulation to the Bears in the last two years.
“We kicked into a whole other gear,” Stills said. “I am proud of my guys for it. I am proud of the whole defense for it. At the end of the day, we just have to turn the next page on Kansas and just get back to work on Monday throughout the whole bye week.”
Stills usually occupies territory in the middle of the defensive line. On Saturday, he occasionally lined up on the edge, allowing more space to make splash plays.
“I usually play the one-tech or the zero,” Stills said. “Coach let me have a little freedom this week. I got a little love outside and I took advantage of that opportunity. And I am glad it happened because I actually got to have a little space for once to work my moves. I am grateful to the coach for putting me in a position to make plays.”
Fields of glory
Through three games, West Virginia has had the same person lead the Mountaineers in tackles. Senior transfer linebacker Tony Fields II filled the stat sheet Saturday with ten tackles (two for loss), a sack, a pass breakup and two quarterback hurries.
“He is experienced and has played in a lot of big games,” Brown said. “He has a calmness about him. He is always cognizant about how young we are and what kind of example he is setting. I appreciate that because we are in building mode.”
Brown says Fields’ contributions go far beyond his on-field output.
“We need somebody when things are going bad, they can answer the call of adversity and somebody that can show our young football players how to respond.
“His on-field play has been tremendous. But for the last three weeks-plus, his off-field contributions have been very big as well.”
Offensive inconsistencies
If the Mountaineers were unable to find a way to win in the overtime session, much of the postgame talk would have centered around an offense that has scored just 27 points in regulation in the last two games. Brown acknowledges the offense has plenty of room for improvement but they made big plays in pressure situations in overtime.
“We were 3-for-3 on fourth down. In the red zone we were 4-for-4. If you look at our second half scoring drive — I wish we were saying plural but it was a drive, we ran the ball eight times and we figured out a way to get in the end zone. And I thought we played well in overtime.
“At times it was hard to watch. It was extremely frustrating. But here’s what I will say about it — in the second half, the offense didn’t screw it up.”
A building block in ‘The Climb’?
Entering a bye week, the Mountaineers are in prime position to be 3-1 for the second year in a row heading into their October 24th contest at Texas Tech. WVU will host Kansas next and the Jayhawks have shown little progress in their second season under Les Miles. KU is 0-3 with each defeat coming by at least fifteen points. For now, Brown is hoping that the win over Baylor can be a benchmark in the building of the program, when they found a way to win while clearly not playing to their full potential.
“My hope is that we can point back to this game and this second half and us finding a way to win and not lose, which is what I was talking about after Oklahoma State,” Brown said. “We found ways to lose that game. Here at home we found a way to win. And I hope what we can do is, when I point back and get this thing rolling, we can say this is the game we kind of figured it out.”
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Sunday notebook: Darius Stills shines once again vs. Baylor - West Virginia MetroNews
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