[div align=\\\"center\\\"]![[Image: wv202070820brendan20ferns202010NOV1820ww...jpg?x43308]](http://wvmetronews.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/wv202070820brendan20ferns202010NOV1820ww-e1541911961943-650x350.jpg?x43308)
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Jaren Haden has a menacing glare.
It is the first thing you hear from opposing quarterbacks in the post-game reports. At some point, it can become humorous. It is, after all, one of the guarantees of life at this point. You wonder if they all agree on it, or if some are just making the observation because others have. Maybe it’s a learned trait now.
If you ask Jaren Haden, he’ll say it’s because of a simple fact. “It’s true.”
It’s the way the game opens in Morgantown, West Virginia. Or at least, the way the game has for the past couple of years while Haden has been patrolling the middle of the field both as an outside and inside linebacker. If you tune in to the start of the game, or at the halftime show where pundits would debate the need for this intimidation tactic, you’ll see it. Haden, standing directly in front of the center in a spread out line. He’s staring right at the quarterback, challenging him effortlessly.
“Necessary? Maybe not,” says Haden. “They all talk about necessary. You know what’s necessary? Stopping that ball. Putting in the work. Doing the little things right. This is about getting that started and getting started right.”
Like clockwork, Haden stands opposite the quarterback. Like clockwork, the quarterback options out of a play under center and goes into the shotgun. Haden has won again. Haden always wins. It’s an odd stat, to say the least, but one worth noting of quarterbacks audibling a play entirely to go into a different formation. In the Big 12, no team forced an opposing quarterback out of center and into the shotgun more often than the Mountaineers of West Virginia. As expected, led by Jaren Haden.
“When you’re out there, you have to have some form of control,” says Haden. “The offense dictates a lot, so I’m just dictating it back. If you get up there, you get in their face and you look in the quarterbacks eyes – it's up to him to respond. Maybe he backs up, maybe he fights forward. Either way, I’m in his head now.”
Haden says this is a tactic he learned from working with his father. He was trying to find a way to be noticed more in high school where he played both linebacker and fullback. His father posed him with a simple question – from the other end, what stands out to you that others do? He started noticing that uneasy feeling when someone was upright and in the hole he was meant to be driving toward. He started noticing that focus go away and the mistakes that come in for younger backs having to stand up to a defensive player early in the game. He started making notes.
Jaren Haden has a cheshire smile.
It leads to an uneasy feeling for a running back. It’s not the player who is vocal, screaming back at them with the trash talk. They’re used to that. It happens in every practice, game, even just at home. No, the concern is with the ones who make it look too easy. The player who just smiles or grins with that pleasure, like that know what they did and they’ll do it again.
“It makes you second guess yourself,” said an opposing halfback in a post-game press conference in Oklahoma. “He just makes you think like, maybe he just knows what I’m doing, maybe he’s ahead of me. Or maybe I’m just not that good.”
There is a focus with Haden which is unmatched by his peers. His smile, he says, comes from him grinding his teeth while he’s on the field. He chews on the mouthguard. He gets excited for the play. It can lead to mistakes on his part as well, he jumps a little too early sometimes. He just can’t help it. Like a kid on christmas morning on every play, you’ll see the eyes jolting back and forth; the teeth grinding with joy; the legs shaking and bouncing with excitement.
“You just want to pounce,” says Haden. “In that moment, you just want to be getting in there and making that stop. There is nothing else on your mind, you want to get that ball for your team. It may seem crazy, or like I’m working myself too hard or something. I’m just wanting to get that snap and jump on any opportunity that comes my way.”
If you slow down and go frame by frame, you can see the excitement coming alive within Haden and the infectious nature it has. His teammates seem drawn to it. It causes them to listen and engage more. By the next game, another player starts moving their feet a little more. The next game, a player is wringing their hands waiting for the play. It looks terrifying from the back end as the team slowly joins in the movement. Haden in the center, staring into that quarterback’s eyes.
Madness surrounds him. From the eyes of the quarterback, it looks hectic and chaotic. All of it is planned and expected. All of it is made for confusion, and for focus. All of it is the way of Jaren Haden, controlled chaos on defense, dictating the play yourself.
[div align=\\\"center\\\"]![[Image: WVU-football-0918-Brendan-Ferns-in-stanc...24x400.jpg]](https://bluegoldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/WVU-football-0918-Brendan-Ferns-in-stance-front-524x400.jpg)
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Jaren Haden has massive hands.
It doesn’t play well on television. Opposing linemen will always see it though. The center he stands over, he notices the wringing of the hands, the balling of the fist. By now, they know where that’s going. They snap the ball, and like a punch from Superman himself, Haden has a fist in their chest and is backing them up. He disrupts the pocket, he upsets the game.
“If I can catch them off-guard,” says Haden, “I’m going to do it.”
He certainly does. Either by forcing the center back into the pocket and sealing off any hopes of stepping up into the play, or by making the center have to respect his punch and take a moment to stand up and check for him. If they don’t see him there, they turn to double team a defensive lineman. By that point, they’re already by and it’s bought time.
“It’s all a mental game. An emotional game,” says Haden. “If I can get you rocked early, make you have to stop and think about what I’m doing and how you combat it, then I have you all game. You’ll have to respect my play, you’ll have to think twice of what you do. Don’t turn too early, don’t turn too late. Now you’re on my timing. I control the play. I dictate what you do.”
It is all a part of a gameplan mastered by Haden to create chaos in the backfield no matter the play type. While it can’t work every time, it often buys enough time to force a scramble. Big 12 quarterbacks all set their season high for scrambles, hits taken, sacks and so on when playing against West Virginia this season.
“We want to push you off-balance and disrupt your attack,” says Haden. “If we attack you first, you’re now on your heels. So we’re attacking you, and we’ll see what you can do.”
Jaren Haden has a plan.
Now that his collegiate career is over, Haden is on a path to the professional leagues. He’s going to be a superstar, he knows it. He’s going to be a force to reckon with. It’s all in his gameplan.
Disruptions, chaos, conquering. He is going to be coming for the NSFL soon. Quarterbacks may want to start preparing for those eyes, halfbacks for that grin, centers for those hands.
[/div]Jaren Haden has a menacing glare.
It is the first thing you hear from opposing quarterbacks in the post-game reports. At some point, it can become humorous. It is, after all, one of the guarantees of life at this point. You wonder if they all agree on it, or if some are just making the observation because others have. Maybe it’s a learned trait now.
If you ask Jaren Haden, he’ll say it’s because of a simple fact. “It’s true.”
It’s the way the game opens in Morgantown, West Virginia. Or at least, the way the game has for the past couple of years while Haden has been patrolling the middle of the field both as an outside and inside linebacker. If you tune in to the start of the game, or at the halftime show where pundits would debate the need for this intimidation tactic, you’ll see it. Haden, standing directly in front of the center in a spread out line. He’s staring right at the quarterback, challenging him effortlessly.
“Necessary? Maybe not,” says Haden. “They all talk about necessary. You know what’s necessary? Stopping that ball. Putting in the work. Doing the little things right. This is about getting that started and getting started right.”
Like clockwork, Haden stands opposite the quarterback. Like clockwork, the quarterback options out of a play under center and goes into the shotgun. Haden has won again. Haden always wins. It’s an odd stat, to say the least, but one worth noting of quarterbacks audibling a play entirely to go into a different formation. In the Big 12, no team forced an opposing quarterback out of center and into the shotgun more often than the Mountaineers of West Virginia. As expected, led by Jaren Haden.
“When you’re out there, you have to have some form of control,” says Haden. “The offense dictates a lot, so I’m just dictating it back. If you get up there, you get in their face and you look in the quarterbacks eyes – it's up to him to respond. Maybe he backs up, maybe he fights forward. Either way, I’m in his head now.”
Haden says this is a tactic he learned from working with his father. He was trying to find a way to be noticed more in high school where he played both linebacker and fullback. His father posed him with a simple question – from the other end, what stands out to you that others do? He started noticing that uneasy feeling when someone was upright and in the hole he was meant to be driving toward. He started noticing that focus go away and the mistakes that come in for younger backs having to stand up to a defensive player early in the game. He started making notes.
Jaren Haden has a cheshire smile.
It leads to an uneasy feeling for a running back. It’s not the player who is vocal, screaming back at them with the trash talk. They’re used to that. It happens in every practice, game, even just at home. No, the concern is with the ones who make it look too easy. The player who just smiles or grins with that pleasure, like that know what they did and they’ll do it again.
“It makes you second guess yourself,” said an opposing halfback in a post-game press conference in Oklahoma. “He just makes you think like, maybe he just knows what I’m doing, maybe he’s ahead of me. Or maybe I’m just not that good.”
There is a focus with Haden which is unmatched by his peers. His smile, he says, comes from him grinding his teeth while he’s on the field. He chews on the mouthguard. He gets excited for the play. It can lead to mistakes on his part as well, he jumps a little too early sometimes. He just can’t help it. Like a kid on christmas morning on every play, you’ll see the eyes jolting back and forth; the teeth grinding with joy; the legs shaking and bouncing with excitement.
“You just want to pounce,” says Haden. “In that moment, you just want to be getting in there and making that stop. There is nothing else on your mind, you want to get that ball for your team. It may seem crazy, or like I’m working myself too hard or something. I’m just wanting to get that snap and jump on any opportunity that comes my way.”
If you slow down and go frame by frame, you can see the excitement coming alive within Haden and the infectious nature it has. His teammates seem drawn to it. It causes them to listen and engage more. By the next game, another player starts moving their feet a little more. The next game, a player is wringing their hands waiting for the play. It looks terrifying from the back end as the team slowly joins in the movement. Haden in the center, staring into that quarterback’s eyes.
Madness surrounds him. From the eyes of the quarterback, it looks hectic and chaotic. All of it is planned and expected. All of it is made for confusion, and for focus. All of it is the way of Jaren Haden, controlled chaos on defense, dictating the play yourself.
[div align=\\\"center\\\"]
[/div]Jaren Haden has massive hands.
It doesn’t play well on television. Opposing linemen will always see it though. The center he stands over, he notices the wringing of the hands, the balling of the fist. By now, they know where that’s going. They snap the ball, and like a punch from Superman himself, Haden has a fist in their chest and is backing them up. He disrupts the pocket, he upsets the game.
“If I can catch them off-guard,” says Haden, “I’m going to do it.”
He certainly does. Either by forcing the center back into the pocket and sealing off any hopes of stepping up into the play, or by making the center have to respect his punch and take a moment to stand up and check for him. If they don’t see him there, they turn to double team a defensive lineman. By that point, they’re already by and it’s bought time.
“It’s all a mental game. An emotional game,” says Haden. “If I can get you rocked early, make you have to stop and think about what I’m doing and how you combat it, then I have you all game. You’ll have to respect my play, you’ll have to think twice of what you do. Don’t turn too early, don’t turn too late. Now you’re on my timing. I control the play. I dictate what you do.”
It is all a part of a gameplan mastered by Haden to create chaos in the backfield no matter the play type. While it can’t work every time, it often buys enough time to force a scramble. Big 12 quarterbacks all set their season high for scrambles, hits taken, sacks and so on when playing against West Virginia this season.
“We want to push you off-balance and disrupt your attack,” says Haden. “If we attack you first, you’re now on your heels. So we’re attacking you, and we’ll see what you can do.”
Jaren Haden has a plan.
Now that his collegiate career is over, Haden is on a path to the professional leagues. He’s going to be a superstar, he knows it. He’s going to be a force to reckon with. It’s all in his gameplan.
Disruptions, chaos, conquering. He is going to be coming for the NSFL soon. Quarterbacks may want to start preparing for those eyes, halfbacks for that grin, centers for those hands.
Quote:Word Count: 1272
Figured I'd give it a shot and see how things went. Not at all my best work, not used to writing for football. Will have to get some practice in.
