Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley doesn’t pay any mind to the off-season noise.

West Virginia was picked dead last in the Big 12 Conference preseason media poll but as those within the program have made clear since that was made public in July it doesn’t mean anything. Especially in the sense that those actually voting on the poll aren’t inside the building on a daily basis.

“It’s no more than an opinion. That opinion is based on something that nobody inside this building thinks about and that is last year. If there is any question about last year you have to ask somebody outside of here because we don’t think about it,” Lesley said.

The Mountaineers finished with the 98th worst defense nationally in 2022, a stark departure from the standard on that side of the ball in recent years. The defense allowed 412 yards per game while surrendering almost 33 points per contest ranking 116th nationally. In other words, not good.

That forced the coaching staff to look at making some changes and reinforcing a shift back to the basics. A decision was made in the winter that stretched through spring and summer to spend more time on the fundamentals on that side of the ball than the schematic elements.

“We went back to it and simple things and showed positives and negatives all the time, way more than we do blitzes or any kind of exotic schematics,” Lesley said. “It’s really helped our guys.”

Experience also helps considering many of the key pieces from last year’s team return and have been able to grow from where they were a season ago. That stretches at all levels from defensive lineman Sean Martin, linebacker Lee Kpogba and safety Aubrey Burks serving as leaders as well as others.

The program also was active in the transfer portal targeting experience which should help to turn things around on that side of the ball. Most of the additions are seasoned options.

“They’re obviously playing catch up with some things schematically but athletically you see some things that can really, really help us,” Lesley said.

Now, the trick is getting those players up to speed in time for the season but Lesley has embraced that challenge and believes that he has a plan in place to get it across.

Now, it’s about putting it into practice and taking the defense in a different direction than where it found itself last season. And doing so would change the minds of a lot of outsiders, too.

“You have to go out and find good football players and make them fit,” he said.

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