SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - There is no team in college football more interested or more successful in sacking the quarterback than Arizona State.
"It seems like they blitz 100 percent of the time," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said of his Cactus Bowl opponent. "It's as much as I have seen, and they are really good at it."
The Sun Devils lead the country with 3.67 sacks per game. They've had eight in a game twice. Alabama has 44 sacks, which is two more than Arizona State, but the Crimson Tide has played one more game. The odds suggest the Sun Devils will be in the lead after their second all-time meeting with the Mountaineers in the Jan. 2 game at Chase Field, televised on ESPN.
Not only are the Sun Devils good at it, but the Mountaineers have had a hard time keeping their quarterback clean. They're giving up 2.5 sacks per game, which ranks No. 91 in the country. Yet as good as Arizona State (6-6) is at pressuring the opponent's passer, they're almost as inept at protecting theirs. It's allowed 39 sacks in all and 3.25 per game, which ranks No. 118.
That has the attention of WVU (7-5), which should finish its most productive pass-rushing season since 2010. The Mountaineers had 45 that season and averaged 3.46 per game, which ranked second and third in the nation, respectively. This season, they have 29 sacks and 2.42 per game.
All that with nary a contribution from Isaiah Bruce, whose brief time spent as a linebacker-turned-defensive end should help the defense long after he plays his final game against the Sun Devils.
"I think everything worked out perfect for him in this situation," defensive line coach Bruce Tall said. "The thing I love about him is everyone runs their stunt games and blitzes, and some people run to and some people run through. He's one of those guys who runs through.
"That's why it's so intriguing and exciting to show tape on him. It's a great teaching tool for younger guys. 'This is how you do it.' He's given us good clips for showing guys how we really want it done. You can draw things up all you want, but when you've got a guy who can do it, it's even better."
That Bruce is set to leave as one of the model players on defense is entirely appropriate, because that's how he hit the scene in 2013. Bruce started 12 games as a redshirt freshman. He was an inside linebacker and made 94 tackles, second on the team to safety Karl Joseph, and added 6 ½ tackles for a loss, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
Bruce looked everything like a player who'd help the defense rise from the bottom of a variety of national rankings.
He's made 68 tackles and 9 ½ tackles for a loss in the three seasons since and has only started eight times, and not once since his sophomore year, while the Mountaineers have indeed hopped up in those statistical categories.
Bruce played his first season for Keith Patterson, who was the linebackers coach promoted to defensive coordinator the following season. He left the Mountaineers after the 2013 season and today is the defensive coordinator at Arizona State.
It was the blitz-happy Patterson who groomed Bruce his first season and then moved him outside as a sophomore, which was when and where things started to change.
"I really liked when he had me at the Sam position, which was basically an inside linebacker," Bruce said. "When he moved me to outside linebacker, I really didn't feel comfortable at that. I felt I had a really good season inside before he moved me, but he told me he felt I could really help the defense more by moving me - and that was fine. As long as I was helping the defense, I was satisfied."
It was supposed help, and Patterson always believed in Bruce as a blitzer. A move outside figured to feature that. It never materialized, though, which makes his late shift to defensive end all the more easier to appreciate.
But his playing time dipped with his productivity in 2013, and Bruce was more or less caught up in the transition a year later when Tony Gibson succeeded Patterson as coordinator and gave up safeties to coach the linebackers.
The Mountaineers had players who were recruited to play Gibson's 3-3-5 and players who had locked down positions inside and outside, and they had players who were back healthy after missing time lost to injuries. Bruce became a backup and a special teamer.
WVU's defensive line thinned this season and the pass rush suffered. In the midst of a four-game losing streak in October, Bruce found Gibson one day and said he wanted to help. Bruce started practicing with a hand in the ground and found himself on the field early in a road game against TCU. He never got his hands on Trevone Boykin - and, in reality, no one did that day - but he got close again and again and flashed either the greatest beginner's luck of the most promising potential imaginable that day.
"I wish we'd done it a year earlier," Gibson said.
Bruce only has four tackles since the change, and not one is a sack. For all the plays he's made and all the action he's seen through the years, he has one half of one sack all the way back in the second game of the 2012 season against James Madison.
How he's playing - how he's spinning and swinging and pushing and willing his way into the backfield at 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds - matters as much as the plays he's not making.
"Great motor," Tall said. "He's got high football intelligence. You can take a guy like that and tell him once and he understands what to do. He can make adjustments because he sees things. His eyes have been trained from a linebacker's standpoint, so he's seeing things a little quicker than a guy who's been down."
Bruce is over his belief the position change cost him greater fame in his career. He's happy to be on the field in a meaningful capacity again. That he can eat as much as he wants as frequently as he wants so he can gain some weight and match up better with the behemoths up front is a bonus.
All that's left is what's ahead, and that's all he can think about as he nears the finish against the coach who set him up early on in his career and the coaches who picked him up at the end.
"I want to make a statement," Bruce said. "I want to get as many sacks as possible and show that I need to be out there."