As far as new West Virginia State defensive coordinator George Shehl is concerned, the most important things on the road to a good defense are trust between a coach and his players as well as a winning mindset.
In the months since arriving in Institute to join coach John Pennington's first staff with the Yellow Jackets, those have been the first things Shehl has looked to accomplish.
"It's totally about the mindset. That's what we're drilling into them every chance we get," Shehl said. "We've been keeping things really basic schematically, but have been focusing in really hard on the mindset and developing our fundamentals with them this spring.
"Once they understand that and get what we expect from that standpoint, we can move on to the scheme a little more and that'll be easier to get."
Shehl admits tt's a tough road and a hard process to accomplish right away. To overhaul a defense in the way he's looking to do - shifting WVSU into a 3-3-5 defensive scheme and trying to teach different techniques than many players have been used to in their careers - takes a lot of time and patience. But so far this spring, Shehl likes the progress he's seen the group make.
Now, he said, the next step is continuing that progress and staying consistent through the final weeks of spring practice and into the offseason before camp rolls around in August.
"I've been really pleased with where we're at. We've got a long way to go still, but we've definitely come a long way from where we started two months ago," Shehl said. "That's something we feel good about, even though there's a long road ahead of us before we're a good defense."
The players have welcomed those changes with open arms after a tough 2016 season.
The Yellow Jackets won just three games last year and struggled mightily at times defensively. West Virginia State allowed more points than any school in the Mountain East Conference, ranked last in pass defense and total defense and finished ninth out of 11 teams in run defense.
But as they head into next season, this group has put everything from the past out of their minds, and instead has dedicated themselves to moving forward and buying in to what Shehl has been teaching.
"We know we have to take things day by day, game by game in order to reach any goal we set for ourselves," junior defensive back Khave' Konteh said. "We don't have any thoughts about last year anymore, it's a clean slate now. We're trying to be mentally strong so that we can transfer that over to the field because that's going to be the difference."
On top of his defensive coordinator role, Shehl has also been a valuable sounding board for Pennington as he settles into his role as a new head coach. Shehl spent last season as an analyst with Marshall but before that was also an MEC head coach, leading West Virginia Wesleyan for three seasons.
That experience has been valuable for the new Yellow Jackets coach as they move forward.
"He takes a lot of pride in his work and always has," Pennington said. "I can lean on him and he'll show me certain things to help along the way as we go into the season.
"He's not only been a great friend but an outstanding confidante. It's rare to have someone on your staff who is one of your best friends and also has previously been a head coach at this level, so it's been a lot of fun to have him around, and he's been doing a great job."
Shehl is hoping he can bring a level of experience that can help West Virginia State turn things around after a few difficult seasons. But, like the players, he understands it doesn't happen overnight. For him, the spring has been a great resource as they have made the initial installation of the defense. It has helped the players get a feel for him and understand what he wants as he looks to win their trust.
With that trust comes the mindset they need to win, and then the scheme will begin to come even easier and things will trend in the right direction. For now, the focus remains on winning each moment.
"When you come in new, everything is going to be so different to them out of the gate. The guys are used to doing things certain ways and now we're asking them to do things differently so you have to earn that trust from them," Shehl said. "The most important part of coaching is that relationship with the players and coaches and we had to establish that with them at this part of the offseason.
"Since I got here, we were trying to instill that mindset and build those relationships and now we're getting to see that on the field in spring ball. That's an exciting thing."