First Rodney Williams jumped in the air and pumped his fist in celebration, running down the sideline. Kielan Whitner, standing next to Williams by a pile up of players along the Syracuse sideline, did the same, pointing the direction the Orange was going.

Then came De’Jon Wilson. He emerged from the pile holding the ball that Virginia Tech had just coughed up in his right hand, high-stepping his way tens of yards down the field.

Wilson, a 250-pound defensive end, started the play 13 yards from where he ended up diving into a crowd of players. But he finished it with the ball, thwarting Virginia Tech’s last drive and shot at a comeback.

“He stepped up big time,” Williams said. “He made plays.”

In his first start for Syracuse (3-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast), Wilson, was at the center of the best performance for the Orange’s defense all year in a 31-17 win over No. 17 Virginia Tech (4-2, 2-1). The graduate transfer from Colorado finished with two tackles, a sack, a tackle for a loss, a fumble recovery and a quarterback hurry while starting in place of Kendall Coleman, who was suspended for the first half of the game.

“With Kendall being out I just felt as though I just had to step it up,” Wilson said. “I had a lot of reps in practice and I feel as though that our defense came out there and made plays.”

The first offensive play for Virginia Tech ended with Wilson crushing quarterback Jerod Evans on the ground. Wilson knew from film that Virginia Tech’s linemen didn’t use their hands aggressively, so he had swiped his to get by the right tackle.

When Wilson popped up he hopped around the field holding a finger in a shushing gesture to his facemask.

When did didn’t sack Evans, he pressured around the edge. It happened frequently enough that by the second quarter, Virginia Tech was throwing consistent double teams his way. On the sidelines, Wilson approached Williams and told him that the defense was going to put enough pressure on the quarterback for Williams to get an interception.

In the third quarter, Wilson ran at Evans from the near side and jumped up to swat the pass. He missed, but Evans had to throw off his back foot more than 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, floating a pass into the end zone for Williams to pick off.

Wilson jumped up and down, pointed to his helmet and chest bumped an assistant coach. He even found Williams right afterward to let him know he kept the promise and that he provided the pressure.

“What people don’t know is that he really kept our energy high, our faith high,” Williams said. “He kept coming to us between drives. … I think he had a great game, but his energy and his leadership that some may not have seen was big time today.”

Wilson had just two solo tackles in the six games prior. He doubled that on Saturday. He had just half a tackle for a loss and half a sack entering the game, and doubled those in 60 minutes as well.

It was a breakout game for Wilson in a game where the inexperienced defensive ends were even more undermanned than usual. His play was paramount to a vastly improved defensive group.

Babers was stressed during the 48 hours prior to the Virginia Tech matchup, holding individual meetings with players. His message to Wilson was simple.

“Coach just came to me and told me to do what he brought me here to do,” Wilson recalled.

Published on October 15, 2016 at 10:18 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus