West Virginia has had issues in the secondary.
The Mountaineers currently sit at 120th nationally in passing defense allowing 280.7 yards per game through three contests and has been an issue not only with technique but consistency.
“That’s where it’s frustrating, just the lack of consistency but at the same time we have to do a better job of putting our guys in position to make plays,” head coach Neal Brown said.
As part of that West Virginia is looking at this from a complete perspective starting with coaching and evaluating where the Mountaineers can do better from a schematic standpoint and giving people better opportunities to be successful. That also includes changing some things and ensuring that players are put in the best spots to succeed.
For example, Brown points out that there have been times that the defense has played man coverage when it’s not the best situation for a particular player, and other times there have been checks that probably didn’t need to occur with certain players in the game.
“We’re not going to continue to do the same things,” he said.
There is also a mental piece where the Mountaineers have to get those in the secondary motivated in order for the group to hit some of the marks that Brown believed the group could be in the preseason.
“We did perform better in fall camp but we haven’t shown that in a game we’re 0-3 in those opportunities,” Brown said.
The final aspect of this comes in terms of personnel where West Virginia isn’t going to reward players for not performing when they’re in the game. That means that there will be chances for others in the secondary to potentially carve out a role with cornerbacks Jacolby Spells and TJ Crandall in the mix to receive in-game reps as long as they stay healthy and prove it in practice.
Spells has seen action before but bounced back from an injury in the spring to get close to 100-percent while Crandall transferred in from Colorado State and brings speed and athleticism there.
“It’s about opportunity,” he said.
Behind those two Brown doesn’t have any others in mind for the time being but freshman Key’on Washington could be in line for some in the future. But ultimately it comes down to performing and it’s something that the group as a whole has shown in practice at times.
“We just got out of practice, and we’ll go back to practice again tomorrow. The reason we believe that is we’ve seen it, and I wouldn’t ask people to do things that we haven’t seen. That wouldn’t make me very smart. Why? We just have to keep getting better,” coordinator Jordan Lesley said.
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