Gibson: WVU defense back to starting point

Ask defensive coordinator Tony Gibson what stood out to him about his unit’s performance against Youngstown State and he didn’t hesitate with his answer.

“Nothing,” he said.

Gibson, visibly upset, highlighted all of his defense’s shortcomings in order after allowing 405 yards to FCS opponent Youngstown State.

Missed tackles? Gibson estimates his unit missed “at least 30,” in the 76 plays the Penguins executed. Stopping the run? Forget about it.

Covering in the backend? No, again.

Gibson even went as far as to apologize to the fan base as well as anybody that had ever played defense for West Virginia over the years. And it wasn’t just directed at the players. The assistant pointed it back to himself and the rest of his assistants because they were outcoached as well.

Yes, it was that kind of post-game.

The players echoed those comments as West Virginia struggled in many areas against the Penguins after dominating Missouri in the opener in many phases of the game.

“It was just execution, being in the right alignment with what the scheme tells you to do and when you get in the right spot it’s making a play and not missing tackles,” redshirt senior Justin Arndt said.

Execution was an all-time low for the unit as Gibson was frustrated that the Penguins controlled the line of scrimmage and overall his unit looked lost at times both in the run game and down the field.

It wasn’t as if Youngstown State went into a bag of tricks either, it was the looks Gibson expected and prepared his unit to see but time and time again the group fell flat.

“Guys get 12 opportunities to play this game and we just gave one away because that’s not playing what we did today,” Gibson fumed.

A let down is an obvious reaction following the season opener against SEC opponent Missouri followed by an FCS team, but it comes down to simply taking advantage of opportunities when on the field. And for a defense that is relatively unproven across the board that is the most difficult part to swallow.

“Our guys played with zero effort and couldn’t get off blocks. This group hasn’t proven anything yet and that will get addressed,” he said.

Fortunately for Gibson, the bye week comes at the appropriate time and he believes that the next two weeks will be quite long for the members of the defense. And while some of that can be chalked up to coach speak it was fairly obvious that he was still fuming after the performance.

Even more so because Gibson was not able to insert young players into the game late for valuable reps because the game was still within reach late into the fourth quarter.

“I’m going to find 11 guys that can do what I tell them to do and coach them to do. It’s back to ground zero now,” Gibson said.