Identify it. Fix it. Move on to the next one.
That’s the approach for West Virginia defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley and it’s something he wants to trickle down to the players on his side of the ball as well.
Because truthfully, lamenting over what unfolded against Penn State isn’t going to accomplish much in terms of making this a better defense.
On the plus side, despite not playing well enough to win the game, the Mountaineers' defense did check the box on the three areas that Lesley evaluates his group from game to game.
That’s in the areas of effort, aggression, and toughness and while West Virginia played the game in the manner they needed to do, they failed in the area of doing their job to the best of their abilities within the scheme. The Mountaineers were trying to make plays to help their team, but sometimes that aggression led to trouble.
“Sometimes it can bite you and the good football teams when you make those mistakes they find them. Those are things that are mistakes but are very fixable,” Lesley said.
Even the coordinator took the blame for pressuring and playing man coverage at the end of the first half when it led to a late Nittany Lions touchdown. Lesley admitted that he played the personnel more than the situation but did say that he trusts Garnett Hollis to hold up in coverage in that situation nine out of ten times.
That means corrections are coming, but there was no give-in from his team at any point in the game.
“That’s how I know we have a chance. Now, we have to make the corrections. We have got to do it and play better within our job no matter what the situation is. It doesn’t matter if we’re playing Albany or Alabama,” Lesley said. “I’m not discouraged at all about this group.”
The good news is that the Mountaineers will have another opportunity to play and learn from what unfolded. Lesley has a routine after the games where he watches the film on a tablet on the drive back to his home and then watches it again Sunday morning before two more watches with the staff and head coach Neal Brown.
“I have a pretty clear understanding of what went well and what didn’t go well so by the time I get to Sunday afternoon I see it, fix it and then I’m onto the next one,” he said.
Lesley was able to get the split he wanted out of his personnel with the first group playing around 60-percent of the snaps and the second 40-percent.
But the first game is a little bit of trial and error as teams find out what they can do when the bullets start flying and what they can’t. It provides an idea of what Lesley can build upon or perhaps shift based on live-game action instead of fall camp.
But one game is exactly that, one game. Lesley now is hoping that after some adjustments the Mountaineers' effort in key areas translates into results.
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