MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For West Virginia's Dylan Tonkery, things work best when the game slows down and he can let his mental game do the work.
That should bode well for the redshirt sophomore, who first made the transition from safety to outside linebacker and now moves inside to the Mike linebacker spot for the Mountaineers.
Tonkery is no stranger to how Tony Gibson likes to run his defense. Anything he needed to know, he likely found out from his brother, Wes, who followed the similar path of being recruited as a safety and then converting to linebacker.
Dylan, though, is in Year Two of the transition. But, like he said, it’s just football, and that’s life under Gibson, who has a way of taking players and putting them into new positions and making it work.
“He's a smart, tough kid. Understands the scheme,” Gibson said of Tonkery. “This kid has the potential to start at all three linebacker spots within 12 months. I like where he is at, I just think that is going to be his natural position and let him go get the football.”
One instance of his high school playing days might tell the story best, according to Bridgeport High School's play-by-play man Travis Jones.
Tonkery’s squad was locked in a defensive struggle with Fairmont Senior High School in the Class AA state playoffs during his senior year in a 0-0 game near halftime. Bridgeport had no timeouts left with the half winding down when Tonkery took a well-covered screen pass and opened some eyes.
“Dylan literally ran through or by almost the entire defense for about a 45-yard touchdown run,” Jones said. “It was one of the best individual efforts I had ever seen from a high school player. … Easily the best play I’ve ever seen with my own eyes in a high school football game.”
It’s Tonkery’s ability to work in space — whether closing in on ball carriers as a linebacker or working through defenders with the ball in his hands — that set him apart in high school. It’s been no different at the college level, Jones said.
“No knock on Wes, but I think Dylan is more of a natural,” Jones said. “He has a great understanding of the game and makes things look easier. I think he has great potential this season to have a breakout year in the Big 12. He has physical muscle now to endure that type of schedule to go along with his instincts and nose for the ball.”
When Tonkery arrived on West Virginia's campus in 2016, he was a 6-foot, 208-pound safety who also made his living in high school on the offensive side of the football as a powerful running back. Gibson liked him on defense and afforded him a redshirt season his first year.
In 2017, Tonkery switched to outside linebacker. He started Week 1 against Virginia Tech due to an injury to David Long at Will linebacker, and he finished the season starting at the Sam spot. He finished seventh on the team with 43 tackles — 6.5 were for loss and 3.0 were sacks.
That, Tonkery said, was just a product of letting the game come to him.
“When I first got here, I felt like everything was going 100 miles per hour,” he said. “If you just use your eyes and play how you're supposed to play, everything slows down.”
Now, things have a real chance of slowing down inside for Tonkery. He’s got less responsibility in the passing game and more time to focus on breaking offenses down.
“I'm getting blocked a lot more,” he said. “That's the only thing that's different.”
That, though, is taken care of in the weight room.
“It's all about putting on proper weight,” said linebackers coach Mark Scott. “You want to change your body composition to get more lean muscle mass, take away body fat and everything like that. So, whoever's in the middle, he's going to have to take on more than the outside guys. He's taking on guards. He's got 320-something pound tackles climbing up to him every single snap in the run. As much weight as that guy can put on, without losing any quickness or athleticism, is going to help them to take on and defeat those blocks.”
Tonkery did his part in that department by putting on almost 20 pounds since his freshman season while making the transition to linebacker.
“He's put more weight on. He's one of the stronger guys we've got, especially in the linebacker group,” Scott said of Tonkery.
While adding good weight and maintaining muscle is one benefit Tonkery has been able to accomplish, it just might be his mental game that will help him succeed the most at Mike, Scott said.
“I think on the mental side of things that he's a very smart kid,” Scott said. “He played both Sam and Will for us last year. So, he knows the defense front-to-back, back-to-front, and he really knows the responsibility of all three linebackers, which is what you need out of that Mike linebacker.”
Scott said that even though there was a learning curve early on, Tonkery’s mental ability to stay even-keel paid off this spring.
“He's a guy that doesn't get too high, he doesn't get really worked up,” Scott said. “The game's starting to slow down for him. He's being able to identify things quicker, react quicker, which is allowing him to play more physical.”
But it’s all in a day’s work for Tonkery.
“It’s just football," he said. "Go out there and play.”