LB Reid Carrico embracing new scheme in final college season
West Virginia defensive coordinator Zac Alley asks a lot of the players on his defense and linebacker Reid Carrico can testify to that.
Carrico has been in the scheme since Alley first arrived on campus and participated in all of spring ball. But he still doesn’t believe that he has fully adjusted to the multiple systems.
The Mountaineers are currently going through some installs and getting all the various calls and plays in place in fall camp.
That’s challenging at any spot, but especially at linebacker.
“You got to know a little bit about what everybody does, if not all of it. So, it’s kind of a complementary deal. Like Coach Alley’s scheme can be a lot if you don’t study,” Carrico said.
That’s further complicated by the tempo that the defense has to adjust to with Rich Rodriguez running the opposing offense. That means a lot of moving pieces, moving fast.
“As long as you’re sprinting to the ball and sprinting to get lined up and you’ve got your eyes on the sideline then you’ll be fine,” Carrico said.
That means studying and understanding what is going on is key across the board. One thing that does aid Carrico is the fact he does have experience at the college level and while some of the calls might be different, the fundamentals are still very similar regardless.
“I mean, there’s certain little pieces that you can keep, like as far as maybe where you put your eyes on man coverage, things like that. Yeah, there’s some carryover there. But the main thing is terminology, and learning what he calls this route, and this pass play, that sort of thing,” he said.
The scheme has calls that benefit each position and is multiple by nature, making it hard to prepare for an opposing offense. And adjusting to what he wants is just part of the process.
That’s how Carrico treated learning a new scheme in his final season as well.
“I just kind of looked at it as a challenge, so, you just got to rise to the occasion,” he said.
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