It is no secret WVU’s Rodney Gallagher is an athlete.
Gallagher played all over the field in high school, and was also a star at basketball. Now, Neal Brown and WVU are trying Gallagher at a new position — at nickel on defense.
“We’ve been messing around playing Rodney a little bit as a nickel on defense,” Brown said. “We’re messing with Rodney on that because he’s got really good lateral quickness, he played defense in high school. It will give us some flexibility there and he’s done pretty well. We’ve just been throwing him in there a little bit.”
Gallagher obviously is coming into his sophomore year trying to get significant playing time at wide receiver, but putting him on the opposite side of the ball is a new experiment Brown and the Mountaineers are willing to try.
He played corner in high school. He played over there and he never showed up in the picture, but what you could see is he could play man coverage. He didn’t spend any time on it,” Brown said. “He was a raw football player in general and most of his practice time was spent at quarterback.”
Gallagher’s defensive ability stems from basketball, Brown said.
Brown went up the road to watch Gallagher play basketball a bunch in high school and the quickness on the court is able to translate to the football field.
“You play man in basketball against good people and you stay in front of them and you have a presence where you’ve got a feel where you can always play man-me-ball. He did that in basketball really well. Stayed in front of people, he wasn’t a guy that crossed over naturally,” Brown said.
He said this helped Brown knew he had great ball skills, and it helped him have a great change of direction and skills that are transferrable to the defensive side of the ball.
Right now, they’re letting Gallagher the athlete take over. Brown said they started not coaching him much, but more telling him the assignment and seeing how he can compete.
After doing this and seeing some success, they have started to coach Gallagher more and more recently.
“He’s looked pretty good and so we’re teaching him a bit now,” Brown said.
Brown said the focus for Gallagher is still at wide receiver. Brown said he’s pushing to be a starter this season, and this was evident by the creative ways they tried to force the ball to Gallagher last season.
“He’s also a guy that potentially, if he stays, could give us some snaps at nickel,” Brown said.
Brown then said he could envision Gallagher being a two-way player. He said what Colorado’s Travis Hunter is doing is ‘special’ due to the number of plays he’s playing. Brown said Gallagher could play 6-10 snaps on defense, depending on his usage on offense and special teams.
“I just think you got to be open to it,” Brown said of players playing on both sides of the ball.
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
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