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Much like a basketball coach would love to build around a point guard, a defensive coach wants to build around the middle of his defense. And that's absolutely what Mendenhall got in Kiser. "You have to have someone who can set the front and communicate every time," he explained. "It's not too big of a stretch to say that the Mike linebacker is that posi- tion, and Micah is that player." To Kiser, changing defensive schemes was more about terminology than it was about the actuals X's and O's, at least at first. "I think I have a pretty good feel for the game," he said. "I can just play off my in- stincts, and I think I find the ball pretty well. At the end of the day, defense comes down to 'See ball, hit ball.' And that's what I do." That's not to say that the change didn't come without work. Kiser said he benefits greatly from being coached by assistant Shane Hunter, who himself played line- backer for Mendenhall at BYU. "Having Coach Hunter as a coach is great. He's played this position in this de- fense, and he's played for Coach Menden- hall and knows what he expects," Kiser ex- plained. "Having him is a great help. I'll say, too, that our previous coaching staff did a really good job of preparing me and teach- ing me football, what offenses are trying to do. We understand what college football is all about. "The change was more about learning different terminology, and learning what the coaches wanted out of us and what they expected from us. It hasn't been too bad for us." Kiser opened the season with a 14-tackle effort against Richmond, and after four games led the Wahoos with 40 total and 18 unassisted. He was also tied for third on the team in tackles for loss (3.0) and first in sacks (2.5). Despite his continued production, the for- mer Gilman School standout knows there is a lot of work to be done as the season moves forward. "I'm still working through some of those kinks," Kiser said. "As far as the 3-4 goes, a lot of it is just adjusting. The defensive line doesn't penetrate quite as much. They want the ball to go very flat whereas before, we were a one-gap defense. You got in the gap and got vertical to get penetration. "Learning the fits has been the biggest thing, and that's what we've been working on a lot so far this season — stopping the run. "I think you saw that against UConn. We made that an emphasis, and to hold them to just 120 yards rushing and three a carry was good for us." "The game is slow to Micah," Menden- hall said. "A lot of it is because of how smart he is, but a lot of it is because of how prepared he is. Of our existing defensive players, there are really two who stand out in that regard. "A lot of time, NFL personnel guys will ask us how a player learns. They'll ask us if a player is a 'rep learner.' Micah and Quin are both 'see it one time or tell them one time' sort of guys. It's grasped and it's applied. "Their ability," he added, "to take con- tent either visually or through what they hear and then apply it on the field correctly stands out. In relation to all of the guys I've coached, they're at the highest tier. That'll allow them to make more plays and appear faster on film because of their ability to diagnose." Of course, the defense doesn't just have