MORGANTOWN - If you project WVU's defensive depth chart for the 2017 football season, you can't help but notice one thing.
There's a very strong Mountain State presence on defensive coordinator Tony Gibson's unit.
Check along the defensive line. You'll find redshirt senior Jon Lewis of Morgantown. He'll rotate in at end.
With, that is, Ona native Reese Donahue.
Keep dragging your finger down the depth chart to linebacker. Do you see from where that redshirt freshman Dylan Tonkery, currently No. 2 at weak-side linebacker, hails? Yep, Bridgeport.
At free safety, Dravon Askew-Henry has a lock at the starting spot. Yet behind him is redshirt senior Shane Commodore, again from Morgantown.
And, well, lookie who is No. 2 at the bandit position. It's none other than Dunbar's finest: true freshman and ex-four star recruit Derrek Pitts.
That's five West Virginians projected to get serious playing time on the Mountaineer defense - without even counting St. Clairsville, Ohio, native Brendan Ferns, who could almost throw a football into the Mountain State from his home.
The big news, however, centers on the progress made by Tonkery, a 6-foot, 214-pound redshirt freshman, and Pitts, the 6-foot, 173-pound graduate of South Charleston High.
Tonkery, you might know, had a brother, Wes, who played linebacker for WVU.
"I really like the way he plays," Gibson said. "Obviously, we know his bloodlines. He's going to be a really, really good player. I tease Wes all the time. Wes came up a week ago and I said, 'He's a lot more athletic than you.'
"But Dylan has been a pleasant surprise to me. He was recruited as a safety - yet it didn't take long to move him in [to linebacker]. He's a very, very strong, explosive player. That kid is going to play a lot for us."
Pitts?
"We really like him too," Gibson said. "Athletic, can run, not afraid to hit you. We always use the saying, though, that when the horn blows and you don't know which drill to go to just run in place. Derrek runs in place a lot."
The defensive coordinator chuckled.
"Last week, I was teasing [Pitts]," Gibson said. "We had a big defensive team meeting. I was getting on him about a play. And then I said, 'Hell, I keep forgetting you should be in an English class in high school.'"
Pitts was graduated early and enrolled at WVU in December. But read carefully of what Gibson said on Tuesday. Again, Pitts is currently No. 2 at the bandit position behind redshirt junior Toyous Avery. That's expected to stick. Yet ...
"Derrek is going to play," Gibson said. "He'll play immediately. He'll give us some depth. Hell, he may even win a position."
Keep in mind that wouldn't be unprecedented at WVU. (See Henry at free safety, who started all 13 games as a true freshman.)
"The kid loves football," Gibson said of Pitts. "I mean, he's a kid that likes to play. You can get in the film room, turn on the film, watch one snap - and you can just see it. You can see his effort. You can see how he strains and works, all those things.
"He takes it to heart. You can coach him hard. [South Charleston] Coach [Donnie] Mays and those guys have done a great job with him on that. Hell, I already consider him an upperclassman. In the fall, he's even going to be more ahead."
The number of state natives on the depth chart should be encouraging to the high school players and coaches within our craggy state lines.
"[The talent] keeps getting better and we keep recruiting it," Gibson said.
"People grow up here and want to be a part of it," Lewis said. "You live and breathe it."
"If they're good enough to help us win, we're going to recruit them," Gibson said. "As a coach, though, you don't look at them and say, 'He's a West Virginian; we're going to play him.' That's not the way it works. I like my job. We're going to play the best 11.
"That said, I know how much more it means to [state natives]. A perfect example is [former linebacker] Justin Arndt [of Martinsburg]. How much the program and state meant to him is probably why he played as much as he did and ended up leading the team in tackles last season."
Indeed, Arndt finished with 84 tackles, four more than No. 2 Al-Rasheed Benton.
All of which is kind of wild for West Virginia.
And definitely wonderful.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.