Sacks standout will test Hokies

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Connor Barwin received a phone call a week before spring practice from his position coach, Mike Elston, who told him that Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly wanted to see Barwin in his office. Elston didn't say why.

"Usually, it's not a call you want to get when they don't tell you what it's about," Barwin said.

Wondering if he was in trouble, Barwin walked into the office.

"What do you think about playing defensive end?" Kelly asked.

"I never thought about playing defensive end," Barwin said.

Barwin was a tight end and hadn't played defense since high school. But the Bearcats were losing senior ends Anthony Hoke and Angelo Craig. So Barwin agreed to switch positions for his senior season. Now, he can't think of himself as anything other than a defensive end.

Heading into tonight's Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech, Barwin has 11 sacks - two fewer than Hoke had last season. Barwin ranks 14th nationally in sacks per game and leads a defense that is 26th in the country in yards allowed per game. Tonight, Barwin will try to exploit a Tech offensive line that will have redshirt freshman right Jaymes Brooks starting for the first time.

Barwin, 6-4 and 255 pounds, believed his best attribute as an end would be pass rushing. He figured if he was quick enough to run past a safety on a pass route, he could surely beat a 300-pound tackle. In the season opener against Eastern Kentucky, he relied mainly on his athleticism and instincts. "I was just a wild man running around out there," he said.

He soon picked up the position's finer points. He learned to not peek into the backfield and watch the quarterback when the ball is snapped, but rather to watch the tackle and read if he is blocking for a run or pass play. Barwin even found a favorite blitzing maneuver, rushing first to the outside of the tackle, then cutting back inside.

The switch to end wasn't the first time Barwin had to adapt himself. He was born mostly deaf in both ears. He learned to read lips as a child and still looks at a person's mouth during a conversation. To correct his hearing, he underwent five or six surgeries, the last one when he was in fifth or sixth grade, he said. Despite the surgeries, he had complications in his left ear, including tumors and infections.

Now, he can only hear a little bit out of his left ear, which has an extraordinarily deep canal. His hearing deficiency was a problem last season when he lined up on the right side of the quarterback, because he couldn't hear the snap count and was sometimes late getting off the line.

It's not an issue on defense, because he just moves when the tackle across from him moves. Other things, though, haven't changed.

"He still runs around like a wild man," said senior linebacker Torry Cornett. "But he's getting more cerebral about the game. It's starting to become like second nature."