West Virginia has placed a priority on affecting the quarterback.
The Mountaineers already had several players coming back up front such as Edward Vesterinen, Hammond Russell and Asani Redwood but lost both of their primary edge rushers to graduation in Tyrin Bradley and Ty French. That made finding those players who could affect the quarterback a necessity.
“You can’t have too many pass rushers,” head coach Rich Rodriguez said.
One of the biggest additions came in Texas San Antonio edge transfer Jimmori Robinson. Robinson, 6-foot-5, 250-pounds, was one of the premier edge rushers available in the transfer market and for good reason. The Virginia native is coming off a season where he was named the Defensive Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference as well as a first-team all-league choice.
Wyoming transfer Braden Siders is another who brings experience to the table. Siders, 6-foot-3, 252-pounds, spent four seasons with the Cowboys but played in a total of three of those seasons. Over the past three years, Siders appeared in 33 total games and started 26 contests.
West Virginia then used the transfer portal to add Incarnate Word edge Devin Grant, who was considered one of the top pass rushing options available in the second transfer portal window. Grant finished last season with 31 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks and a forced fumble. That was a significant jump from the 13 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks that he posted the year prior.
The Texas native spent his first three years at Colorado.
The Mountaineers also added defensive lineman Adam Tomczyk for spring ball and are set to welcome Missouri transfer Eddie Kelly and junior college pass rushers in Keenan Eck and Marshon Oxley to the mix as well in the summer.
But identifying options is just one part of the equation. They have to actually do their job and place pressure on opposing quarterbacks. That takes work and time.
Finding a way to rush the passer was something that the Mountaineers spent a lot of time during the spring working on just that in controlled settings and scrimmage situations to see where the defense was at.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do on the edges and just generating that from a four-man, three-man rush standpoint. We've got to get a little bit more polished there, understand rush lanes,” coordinator Zac Alley said. “A couple times we have a good move, but we’re working inside, the quarterback scrambles outside, and no one’s there to recover for it because you can’t go inside on that play.”
That also means looking at some non-traditional ways to generate pressure, which is something bandits coach Jeff Casteel and defensive line coach William Green have worked on in tandem to maximize those efforts.
“Something we work on really hard. We’ve got a ways to go there, but we’re on our way,” Alley said.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
