It hasn’t been the season that West Virginia wanted on the defensive side of the ball, but the Mountaineers put together one of their best efforts in the 31-21 win over UCF.
The defense held the Knights to just 348 total yards and just 3-9 on third down. The 172 passing yards the defense yielded was the lowest total of the season. The Mountaineers were able to frustrate redshirt freshman quarterback Dylan Rizk at times by disguising some different things and confusing him.
“And so just being able to change up the picture on defense and just try to move around, try to get them thinking, that was one of our big goals this week,” senior safety Anthony Wilson said.
And it started early as the defense forced UCF into a three and out on their first possessions to give the football back to the offense which cashed that in for a touchdown.
“The three and out. I just wish we did that a little more,” Wilson said. “But it was good to set the tone for the game and get the ball back to the offense.
The unit didn’t score two touchdowns as they did on the road against Cincinnati, but the Mountaineers tackled better and were able to get off blocks in their most complete effort since Jeff Koonz took it over.
Wilson finished with 10 tackles and a pass breakup in his final home game for the program and admitted that while it hasn’t been the season he imagined on the defensive side of the ball, the unit has stuck together.
“It's been tough times throughout the season. But at the end of the day, what's most important is that we stick together and just block out the outside noise and negativity, what people outside this building may be saying,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, it don't matter. They don't see what we do day to day, the late nights, the early mornings. And so, at the end of the day, we’re all we got and we’re all we need.”
The home experience was an emotional one for Wilson who admittedly got most of his out after practice Thursday in the build-up to the game when head coach Neal Brown was preparing his team for it.
But the hope is that this performance isn’t a one-off and is something that the group can build upon in the season finale on the road at Texas Tech and then in the potential bowl game.
Wilson believes that as long as everybody does their job it’s well within the range of outcomes.
“And just one play at a time, making routine plays. Our coaches tell us every day, just make the routine plays. You don't got to do anything special or out of the ordinary. You just got to do your job. And everything else will take care of itself,” he said.
West Virginia is now bowl-eligible with one regular season game remaining and the hope is that the number of wins continues to grow down the stretch.
“So that's just something we just got to take it day by day and not get complacent with just six wins. We want to finish well,” Wilson 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
