It's a Three-Man Battle for the Starting WILL LB Spot with a Wild Card Mixed In

There will be competition for starting jobs all across the West Virginia defense but the one everyone has their eyes on, including the coaching staff, is the WILL linebacker spot.

Prior to the start of fall camp, WVU listed Jairo Faverus, Trey Lathan, and Ben Cutter as the three players competing for that starting spot. 

Faverus is one of the international recruits that Brown and co. brought in and is starting to finally see his development take off. He's bounced around a little bit playing in different spots of the defense, initially starting out in the secondary before moving down to linebacker. 

"Jai [Faverus] is probably over a three-year period has maybe made as big a jump football-wise like understanding the game, as much as anybody we've had," Brown said. "He's going to be a plus special teams player for us and I think if he continues to develop, he'll be a guy that'll give us some defensive snaps."

Trey Lathan is the guy I dubbed as WVU's top defensive recruit in the 2022 class and I'm of the belief that he'll end up starting the most games of the three currently in the mix. Now whether he's the Week 1 starter is anybody's guess. 

"I think Trey Lathan's a guy right now that is showing some big improvements," defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said last week. "Again, a young player. You look at the WILL linebacker position, probably where we need him to make an impact."

Lathan is a very disciplined linebacker that doesn't overplay runs to the outside. He is a downhill backer that tackles extremely well in one-on-ones in the open field. He doesn't bite on misdirections and can diagnose which gap he needs to fill prior to the handoff. And his background as a wide receiver should help him with his pass coverage responsibility, which is an area a lot of young backers struggle with.

True freshman Ben Cutter is the long shot in the race. 

He's a true freshman who is still trying to learn and adjust to the speed of the game. The staff has been extremely high on him and it's not hard to see why when you flip on the tape. The kid is everywhere, a tackling machine. But in 2023, we'll probably see him more on special teams than in the rotation at the WILL or any other linebacker spot.

If for whatever reason a starter fails to emerge from that group over the course of the next three weeks, WVU could move Lance Dixon back over from SPEAR.

"There's always that possibility because he's played the position," Lesley stated. "I think for Lance's skillset, what we're doing with him really is an advantage for him, an advantage for us. I think WILL linebacker is...coach [Brown] has been open about it, I've been open about it, it's the question mark. We got some pieces in there that we're putting them under some pretty tough evaluations over the next 20-22 days whatever it is to figure out who our guy is there, what our rotation is going to be there. And we'll know that probably sooner than that, but we don't know it now and that's something that's a really tough competition right now. We got some guys there that we like."

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