West Virginia defense adjusts, rises to the occasion

West Virginia was admittedly running on fumes on the defensive side of the ball.

Going into the 11th round of the 12-game fight that is a college football season and with multiple injuries across the board the Mountaineers were forced to make some adjustments on the fly.

That was expected coming into the game and as part of that the defense made some personnel and scheme adjustments to make up for those issues.

Starting linebacker Exree Loe and his backup Lance Dixon both missed the game, while starting cornerback Charles Woods also wasn’t available. That forced the Mountaineers to slide safety Jackie Matthews out to cornerback and true freshman Saint McLeod moved to the starting spear in his place.

The starting linebacker then became former safety Scottie Young, who has played five different positions during his time with the West Virginia football program. Fortunately, for the Mountaineers it’s a position that Young is used to in the sense that he has played that spot in the dime package already.

“Our real dime package he goes there,” senior linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo said.

It wasn’t ideal, but at this point of the season head coach Neal Brown didn’t really have a choice.

And as part of those adjustments, the Mountaineers were intentional in dropping eight and keeping the ball in front of them. That would prevent the Longhorns from being able to get behind the defense and pick up big chunks of yards through the passing game.

And for the most part, it worked. West Virginia held Texas to essentially only one deep shot down the field, a 52-yard touchdown toss to Xavier Worthy but the next longest pass only traveled 17-yards.

“We knew they were going to be able to run the ball some. We felt like it we could keep it in front of us we’d have a chance. Make them take their time and methodically go down the field,” Brown said.

Yes, that meant sacrificing some yards on the ground given the fact that the Mountaineers were essentially in a dime look so it comes as no surprise that the Longhorns piled up 203-yards. But it was a necessary sacrifice given the personnel to prevent things Texas from scheming up plays down the field.

It was a formula that both Arkansas and Iowa State used to some success in holding down the Texas offense and it was an issue of give and take.

“We felt like if we could keep eight eyes on the running backs then we’d be able to tackle them for four or five and make them be patient,” Brown said.

While the Mountaineers permitted 23 points and 355 total yards, the unit played well especially down the stretch where it was able to get off the field with a pair of fourth down stops to protect the 31-23 lead. That has been an issue at times this year, but the defense was up for the challenge even with the adversity that the group faced both coming into and during the game.

It’s unclear how the unit could look heading into the season finale at Kansas but one thing is clear, there has been no quit on that side of the ball.

“We had a good game plan. We really just put guys out there that wanted to make a play. That was a big thing, we put our unselfish guys that work hard and run to the ball and really give it all to the defense,” Chandler-Semedo said.

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