Player to Watch: Greg Eisworth

Greg Eisworth is a beast. So far this season, he’s been great in every aspect of the game. Playing at the star position, which is a hybrid of safety and linebacker, he has shown off his tremendous pursuit skills and his talent in pass coverage.

Eisworth leads the team in tackles with 49, with four tackles for loss and one sack. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Eisworth has been directly involved in the vast majority of plays on defense this year.

Even given his talent in run support, his pass coverage has been equally as good. He has three passes deflected, which isn’t a huge number, but he also isn’t getting burned.

Playing against another pass heavy team like Texas Tech, Eisworth’s role will be similar to what it has been all season: getting pressure on quarterbacks , pressing receivers, pursuing running backs, or playing the flats. His ability to do each of those things well is part of what allows Jon Heacock to be “multiple” in defensive scheming.

I would imagine the game plan for the Red Raiders will be very similar to that of the West Virginia game. The gameplan two weeks ago included a lot of safety blitzes to try and limit the time Will Grier had to throw. The entire team performed well to make that happen, especially Eisworth.

The 6’0, 198 pound JUCO product had one sack and one tackle for loss against the Mountaineers, but those stats don’t tell the whole story. He had two plays where a block he shed led to Grier scrambling and getting sacked.

I believe that Eisworth will do a lot of the same against Alan Bowman and the Red Raiders.

Prediction: 10 tackles, 1 sack, 2 TFL, 1 pass defended