Jeffery Pooler Jr.'s Transformation Into a Highly Productive Player
The West Virginia defense rides into this weekend's game at Texas Tech as the No. 1 defense in the country. A big reason for that has been the outstanding play of the Mountaineers' defensive line. Darius and Dante Stills soak up most of the attention and rightfully so, but redshirt senior Jeffery Pooler Jr. is playing the best football of his career and has helped take that defense to the next level.
Last year, Pooler Jr. rose into a starting role for the first time in his collegiate career and although he was productive, he was hit and miss at times, which caused him to be inconsistent. He finished the 2019 season with 26 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in 12 games. This year? Well, he's on pace to shatter those numbers from a year ago. In just four games this season, Pooler already has more sacks (3) than he did last season, has four tackles for loss, and 11 tackles. If he continues at this pace, he's going to get a look from the NFL as an undrafted free agent or maybe a 7th rounder.
Pooler is a bit undersized (6'2", 250 lbs), but that not how he came to West Virginia. He was a near 300 lbs when he signed with the Mountaineers back in 2016 and has put in a lot of work to transform his body, which has helped him play a higher volume of snaps at a high level.
"He changed his body tremendously since January a year ago when I first saw him," West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said. "He's one of the guys that Mike Joseph (strength and conditioning coach) always uses on the before and after pictures and it's really impressive how he's changed his body. Most the time when guys come in, we're adding weight to them and bulking them up, he was a guy that came in with some excess weight and really reduced down."
Not only has he transformed his body, but his practice habits and the energy in which he plays with have also improved and Neal Brown says that has been the biggest difference in Pooler's game.
"He's really grown up since first meeting him. He's really matured, kind of grown into one of the leaders on the defensive side of the ball. And then just the effort he played with on Saturday, that's what I was most impressed with. It goes back to what we've been preaching defensively for the last month. If you play with extreme effort and you play physical, you've got a chance - even if you're making mistakes, you've got a chance and he did. He was really impressive and how hard he played on Saturday."
Pooler had himself one heck of a game last week vs Kansas notching six tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks and would earn defensive player of the week honors from the coaching staff.
You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top righthand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook & Twitter:
Facebook - @WVUonSI
Twitter - @SI_WVU and Schuyler Callihan at @Callihan_.
