To West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart, the difference in his defense is clear.

Despite the fact that the Mountaineers were ranked No. 1 in the Big East in scoring defense, only giving up 17 points per game last year, something was still missing.

That something was linebacker Reed Williams, who Stewart said makes a difference simply by stepping on the field.

‘He makes you a whole lot better,’ Stewart said. ‘It’s like going on the honeymoon with your bride instead of going alone; he gives us all the ingredients. This guy is special. He is the heart and sole of probably not only our defense, but our entire team.’

Williams, a fifth year senior, only played in two games last year and took a medical redshirt as he struggled to fully recover from off-season surgery on both of his shoulders.

After an early-season injury this year, Williams is back and starting for the Mountaineers once again, adding a new level of toughness that Stewart said his team desperately missed during his absence.

As a junior, in 2007, Williams led the Mountaineers with 107 tackles and added three forced fumbles with an interception.

He capped off the year by winning defensive MVP honors at the Fiesta Bowl in a 48-28 West Virginia victory over Oklahoma. Williams had nine tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble.

The scary part of William’s junior year, however, is the fact that he played a majority of the season with a torn labrum in not just one, but both of his shoulders.

‘This kid was raised to do hard work on the farm and he has never backed off one iota, not one ounce in his entire life,’ Stewart said. ‘He is a tough football player, but he is just tough mentally in the way that he lives his life.’

After the season was over, Williams opted to have surgery on both of his shoulders at the same time instead of having two separate operations.

Williams didn’t recover as fast as he thought he would, but he still managed to play in two games last year. He sat out the first two games but played in the third and fourth games, managing to register 17 tackles, with two tackles for a loss and an interception.

After the two starts, Williams realized that he wasn’t healthy enough to play at the level he wanted to, so he chose to take a redshirt and come back completely healthy for a fifth and final year.

The down time was hard for Williams, though he said the year off didn’t go wasted and he still managed to take something away from the experience.

‘When you take a step back from football, you really see the game in its simplest form,’ Williams said. ‘I got the opportunity to actually be a player/coach and I really took it upon myself to find the intangibles that I was missing before. I have tried to find those missing pieces in my game and improve upon them.’

As the year progressed he spent more and more time in the weight room rehabbing his shoulders, getting ready for his chance to come back.

Williams said that it was during the bowl season last year that he finally started to feel healthy again. By the time spring camp rolled around, he was back.

‘I think anybody you talk to that has major surgery will tell you that the one-year mark is really the plateau,’ Williams said. ‘The pain starts to go downhill and you feel like a new person. I really came around in spring ball. I was healthy the whole time, and I was flying around hitting people.’

Williams’ return at the beginning of the year wasn’t as successful as one would assume, though.

WVU gave up at least 20 points in each of its first four games. Williams himself experienced a setback, too. He only registered 10 tackles in the first three games and suffered an injury to his right foot in the second game. The injury will force Williams to wear a boot on the foot for the rest of the year.

But as history shows, an injured Williams is better than none at all.

Since returning from the injury, Williams has showed that his mobility isn’t suffering at all. In the past four games he has 22 tackles with 6 pass breakups, while leading the Mountaineers defense to holding two of their last three opponents to under 20 points.

‘He is greedy right now because when you sit for a year and you miss it and you’re not in that arena, it hurts,’ Stewart said. ‘It hurts the great ones. The good one, maybe it bothers, but the great ones, it’s painful and it hurts. He is glad to be back.’

Williams isn’t at full strength quite yet, but with his shoulders back he could be even better this time around.

‘I don’t think I have reached my full potential yet,’ Williams said. ‘You can’t get too comfortable as a player, you have to stay hungry. Once you get too comfortable you start trailing and you really start to lose yourself as a player with the little things.

‘I just have to continue to work and keep the speed up, stay big and physical with those big linemen and get off their blocks and just play.’

Game of the Week

West Virginia at South Florida, Friday 8 p.m., ESPN2

This week, West Virginia heads to South Florida for a matchup between two teams in two very different situations.

On one hand there is West Virginia, who has won four straight games and has made their way up to No. 21 in the BCS rankings.

A win for the Mountaineers could catapult them even further, but a loss could put a serious damper on their chances of winning the Big East title.

South Florida, on the other hand, is coming off of two straight losses and continues to struggle in Big East play. Over the past three years the Bulls have gone 14-0 in regular season non-conference games, while going 7-10 in Big East play.

But, a win against West Virginia could be just the thing to help turn that trend around.

‘They have had two tough loses to supposedly, and I agree, the best two teams in the league in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh,’ said West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart. ‘We will not be in the game if we don’t go in there and take care of the football and play the way we are supposed to play.’

rwmarfur@syr.edu

Published on October 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm