West Virginia currently sits at No. 114 in passing defense nationally through two games which isn’t where the Mountaineers wanted to be in that department.
After heavily investing in defensive backs in the transfer portal, the Mountaineers allowed over 300 yards to FCS opponent Albany. That starts with technique and making plays on the ball at cornerback but its more an just that.
Because the coverage issues came down to issues all across the defense.
That’s because the Mountaineers are primarily a zone team and their underneath droppers weren’t where they were supposed to be at the second level such as MIKE, WILL, SPEAR and SPUR.
And the good news is that can be corrected with players adhering to the firm rules of the defense and sprinting back to where they’re supposed to be in their drop before looking into the backfield.
“First of all we have to play with better technique,” head coach Neal Brown said. “We’ve got guys that can play and they’ve played well before. Trying to do too much, eyes weren’t in the right spot and we didn’t play good team pass coverage.”
Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley isn’t down on his unit and instead realizes that the Mountaineers simply aren’t executing very simple things. West Virginia is trying to do too much at times and play outside the defense instead of just their assignments.
“Do what you’re coached to do. It’s simple fixes. It’s easy things whether it’s playing the ball in the air, the depth, width, execution of your drop,” Lesley said.
Lesley stresses that even with the early season struggles, the sky is not falling and it certainly isn’t time to panic when it comes to the pass coverage. Even with a Pittsburgh offense that has shown the ability to throw the football in their first two games of the season.
“It’s simple little bitty fixes and we’ll get it fixed. If we’re just going to play two games and shut it down it will make my fall a little easier, but we’ve got a lot of season left,” he said. “We’ve got to get better, play better and execute what we’re trying to do.”
Still, even with the issues spread across the defense West Virginia expects to continue to hold a competition at the cornerback spots with players such as TJ Crandall, Dontez Fagan and Jacolby Spells working into the mix to compete for more snaps there.
That’s natural this time of the year as the college coaches are able to evaluate what they have in game situations to see how players respond when the bullets start flying.
“If things aren’t going well we need to try some different things,” Brown said.
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