West Virginia has lost six starters this off-season to the transfer portal on the defensive side of the ball.

That might seem like a significant chunk, but it’s the new reality that is college football due to the recent changes that govern the game. Those starters are defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor, linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo, cornerback Daryl Porter, safety Jackie Matthews, cornerback Nicktroy Fortune and linebacker Vandarius Cowan.

Combined that is a total of 3,249 snaps from this past season which is a significant number but defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley doesn’t have time to worry about what isn’t here.

“At the end of the day the portal is part of life now, we can sit around and complain about it or just deal with it as it goes,” he said.

No, instead his focus is on what remains and what can be done with the roster.

And overall, this group is the first that Lesley believes isn’t fighting him and the rest of the coaching staff on some of the non-negotiables that they needed to do as a football team. A step in the right direction, but perhaps even more important is what the coaches believe they can do with the remaining roster.

Last season the Mountaineers tried to evolve some different packages and items but ran into issues with injuries and shuffling around that prevented that from occurring. Players were asked to move all around the defense late last season in order to fill holes and West Virginia even won a pair of games with a safety playing will linebacker due to injuries at that spot for example.

“It showed you the flexibility we have defensively sometimes to get some guys in position,” he said.

And even with the losses to date through the transfer portal, the Mountaineers are optimistic that the personnel that is available will allow them to get into some of the things they couldn’t last year.

“We’ll have more availability at personnel at different positions so able to hopefully develop some different packages and a little bit more versatile based on the situations,” Lesley said.

That is expected to be at the second and third level, as the Mountaineers will move not only linebackers and safeties around but even cornerbacks to create issues for opposing offenses.

“We use corners at a lot of places and all over the field in different scenarios,” he said.

That versatility that the Mountaineers have at several different spots should help fill some of the holes that are on the roster as players can play multiple positions. But that still doesn’t erase the fact that there is still work that needs to be done on attracting more talent through means of the portal.

That is especially true in the secondary where each of the safeties can play any of the three positions and allows for flexibility when it comes to moving players around.

West Virginia might have sustained some losses but Lesley believes what the program does return should give the Mountaineers some interesting options on the field and within the scheme.

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