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MORGANTOWN -- The first thing you notice about Fatorma Mulbah is that there is so much of him.
Sportswriters normally get used to the idea that they are dealing with people bigger than themselves. Some are 7-feet tall in the basketball locker room, some are 330 pounds in the football dressing quarters.
But Mulbah is different.
If your normally interior defensive lineman can be described as a pickup truck, Mulbah then is a tank. His muscles seem to have muscles.
As he sits before the media on this Monday lunch time, he is wearing a gold T-shirt, or what's left of it. The sleeves are gone.
It is not a fashion statement. It is a statement of comfort. If they were still there his movement would be severely restricted.
You wonder how he buys clothes. Certainly not off the rack, although he'd be strong enough to carry the whole rack home with him.
Let's just say that XL wouldn't come close to covering his massive chest.
Truth is, XXXL probably would be too small.
His solution is this.
"Mostly, I just wear WVU gear," he said.
We know DNA plays a role in shaping what we physically are and Mulbah says his father is 6-4, but it isn't just that.
"It's work," he said. "I wasn't crazy big in high school. I was decent big, bigger than most, but not crazy. But coach Mike (Joseph)'s strength program here was huge. I feel a lot stronger and move a lot better."
Not being "crazy" big in high school was "like 250, maybe 260." Now he's at 310.
And how does he feed those 310 pounds?
"My roommate is Asani (Redwood) and he cooks good. I eat a lot of rice … Rice with curry," he said.
You gotta believe the rice is delivered by the truckful.
Normally you don't spend your Monday's after a road victory over Cincinnati in one of the most important games of the year interviewing the team's nose guard, especially since the Big 12's co-Defensive Player of the Year, Anthony Wilson, is also available and will come later.
But on this week, it's hard to imagine that Mulbah didn't just skip Defensive Lineman of the Week and go straight to Defensive Lineman of the Year.
In the victory over Cincinnati, he was credited with 13 tackles.
Think about that for a moment. He's a nose guard. Plays head up on the center. His responsibility is to clog the middle. He draws a double team on almost every play run his way.
The defensive ends or linebackers or safeties are supposed to make the tackles, but against Cincinnati he would toss the offensive linemen aside like toy soldiers before wrapping his massive arms around the ball carrier.
Couldn't find a record -- either team, conference, NCAA or world -- for most tackles by a nose guard, but I did some random research just on defensive linemen at WVU since 2000 in a game. WVU has had some pretty good ones, WVU Hall of Fame players.
Guys like Bruce Irvin, whose single game high in tackles in 7, as was Dante Stills. His brother, Darius, had 10 tackles in the 2019 Texas Tech game. Will Clarke also had 10 tackles against Kansas in 2013.
Closest I found was Julian Miller, who had 12 tackles against Pitt in 2011.
So, where does 13 tackles come from for Mulbah, who earlier in the year Coach Neal Brown had said he'd been the most consistent defender on the team.
"I just didn't want them to run the ball a lot. They put a huge emphasis on the run game so I knew that was going to be our challenge going down there," he said.
Teams that want to run the ball begin with taking care of the nose guard by doubling him with a guard and center. Even that couldn't even the odds.
"It was just effort," Mulbah said. "Effort and chasing the ball. There wasn't anything crazy out there."
You might say Cincinnati played right into Mulbah's hands.
"Watching film I knew they had good linemen up front and it was going to be a good test, so I knew going into the game I was going to have to have a big game."
Mulbah wasn't just making lucky guesses to get to the ball. He'd studied film and spotted something very interesting.
"The tight end gave it away sometimes," he said. "I had an idea where the ball was going to go much of the time."
You kind of know what's going to happen when Mulbah knows where the ball is going. It's sort of like Joey Chestnut knowing where he can find the hot dogs. Nothing gets in his way.
Some might think being an inside gladiator in football and being blocked by a couple of 300-pounders send someone looking for a new easier way to make a living, but Mulbah loves life in the trenches.
"I don't know how to describe it but it's fun down in there. I love it. Taking on double teams, as crazy as it sounds, I love playing the runs."