Spring helps to season young West Virginia secondary

West Virginia needed on the field experience in the defensive secondary.

Only Charles Woods, who played 357 snaps, saw significant action a season ago on the current roster. That is a significant piece at cornerback but considering the rest of the unit this past spring was critical for their overall development across the board.

The graduation and the transfer portal played a role in that losing players such as Alonzo Addae, Sean Mahone, Daryl Porter, Jackie Matthews and Scottie Young. That’s a total of 3,354 combined snaps.

While some of the new players saw action at other locations a year ago such as Marcis Floyd as a starting cornerback at Murray State, only Woods returns that actually did it in Morgantown.

The only other player on the roster that returns that even played 100 snaps was Saint McLeod and he barely cleared that threshold. He also missed all of the spring after being stabbed although he is recovering and expected to return to the team in the future according to head coach Neal Brown.

“He is working out, told me he ran,” he said. “Wounds are healing and seems to be improving.”

The secondary as a whole made strides as well as the group started to settle in toward the end of spring and became more consistent across the board.

“Those guys you see them getting better,” Brown said. “I’ve been pleased with their communication.”

Floyd at cat safety along with young players such as Davis Mallinger at spear, Aubrey Burks at free safety and Andrew Wilson-Lamp at the other corner spot have made for a very athletic and interesting secondary.

When you throw others into the mix such as safety Hershey McLaurin and Caleb Coleman, the position groups have undergone a transformation over the last couple months physically from their predecessors.

"I’m really excited about them because they are long, really athletic, they can run and they are eager to run," safeties coach Dontae Wright said. "I feel confident in them being able to run with anybody we have to face. Be able to be physical and tackle in open space and do all of those good things. it’s an exciting group."

That was by design because while you can’t replace experience you can get more athletic. The Mountaineers wanted to do just that with what they brought into the program.

“We’re really athletic, we can run. I’ve said that and it was a point of emphasis. We wanted to be more athletic and we simplified some things to make it easier on them,” Brown said.

But still, there is a lack of experience with the rest of the unit the snap counts from last year being Burks (32), Mallinger (21), Wilson-Lamp (19), Coleman (5) and Malachi Ruffin with 29 total snaps.

It's the age old question of experience or talent and to Wright, it's hard to answer but he likes the mental makeup of his position group.

"Talent is just reacting to everything. I like guys that want to be great and has the ability to go out there and do what I ask them to do. It has been really good. They take to coaching and they go out and correct it," he said.

Each of the members of the secondary can slot at multiple spots in the backend and that too was something that the coaching staff wanted to unlock. By making the secondary more versatile, the Mountaineers have the possibility to do more things with the same personnel on the field.

The increase in athleticism overall is also helping out in other areas as Mallinger, a former high school track star, has been playing the spear spot and gives the Mountaineers some serious speed there.

The leadership element that was developed this spring also was critical as the more seasoned options have a mutual respect with the younger players. That allows for better communication and working in tandem between the various positions.

"They're all starting to feed off each other," coordinator Jordan Lesley said.

There is a quiet confidence in the secondary and this spring helped to cultivate that even further.

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