Jared Bartlett, Cincinnati Football News: Draft Scout Player News

08/21/22 - ILB Jared Bartlett, rSr/2025, Cincinnati

The way West Virginia plays its unique defense, the position they dub "the Bandit" is crucial to its success. But just what the heck is "the Bandit" and how you would he define the perfect "Bandit"? That was the question dropped upon Jared Bartlett, the personification of the position. "I would say the perfect bandit is a guy who can rush and affect the quarterback; someone who can drop back and affect the pass game; someone who can affect the run; someone who can set the edge. It's like a mixture of a D-end, a linebacker and a nickel." It's sort of, if we might dare use a term being used far too loosely and too much around the Mountaineer camp as they put together the team that will face Pitt on Thursday night, Sept. 1, to open the 2022 college football season, a Swiss Army knife.

He is big, but not too big; fast enough to drop into coverage; vicious enough drop ball carriers; fast and vicious enough to rush around or through pass protectors and bring down a quarterback before he can release the ball. The perfect "Bandit" is, in reality, the perfect football player. Bartlett possesses all those raw abilities but they all did not exactly come easily to him. "Pass rushing came naturally to me," Bartlett admitted. "They had me on the edge when I first came here. That was the most simple thing I could learn. The drops and coverages, that took a little time to learn because when I was in high school I wasn't a cover guy. I played mostly played mostly D-end. "The run fits, as far filling the gaps when I'm in the box, it took me a little while to learn that but I picked it up quicker than the pass coverage." - Charleston Gazette-Mail

rSr/2025