Darius Stills Named The Draft Network's Defensive Player of the Week

After last Thursday night's game, only one bright spot shined for the Mountaineers in their 17-14 loss to Baylor - the defense led by Darius Stills. Stills dominated the Bears offensive line and was awarded this week's Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week by The Draft Network.

West Virginia DT Darius Stills is our TDN Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week. #HailWV | @DariusStills56 | @WVUfootball | #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/izqEXkppAR
— The Draft Network (@TheDraftNetwork) November 4, 2019

Stills is having himself a breakout season that not so many anticipated him being capable of. Not that he doesn't have the talent or the skill set, but playing the nose in the 3-3-5 his first two years didn't necessarily make it easy on him. To play nose in that scheme, you have to be willing to not be a "stat sheet filler". It often times means you will be double teamed with the main responsibility of clogging up the middle for the linebackers to make a play from the second level.

I can't think of any one player that has benefited from the scheme change more then Stills. His role has expanded and allows him to make more plays in the backfield, which he is thriving at through the first eight games of the season. Thursday night, he accounted for 10 tackles and three sacks. For the year, he's now sitting tied ninth in the country with six sacks and second in the Big 12 behind Baylor's James Lynch. To go with that, he also has recorded 29 tackles and nine tackles for loss.

Baylor head coach Matt Rhule praised Stills following his performance and knew that he was going to be a force to reckon with, "I want to make sure I say this, I said it in the press conference, Stills -56- is one of the best players we've played against. This kid 56, is everything that I thought he was going to be."