Neal Brown had an idea that his defensive line could be better than expected in fall camp.
That’s because the unit was drastically improved from the previous year when matching up against the strength of the football team on the offensive line.
“A year ago, it was pretty one-sided and this fall camp it wasn’t like that,” he said.
That’s quite the statement considering that West Virginia lost players such as Dante Stills, Jordan Jefferson and Taijh Alston to either graduation or the transfer portal.
And to replace those pieces, the program relied on guys making jumps on current on the roster such as Sean Martin, Mike Lockhart, Eddie Vesterinen, Jalen Thornton and Hammond Russell. Then the Mountaineers went into the transfer portal to add players like Fatorma Mulbah, Tomiwa Durojaiye and Davoan Hawkins.
Also, the return of injured redshirt freshman Asani Redwood was expected to be added to the equation.
While the defensive line wasn’t going to have as much firepower when it came to proven names, the coaching staff trusted their evaluations and felt that it was going to make up for it in depth. Through three games that certainly seems to be the case.
“We’re rotating guys you look at Fatorma and Mike Lockhart they are both playing at a high level. When Sean comes out Tomi comes in and he leads our team in sacks. Nobody talks about Eddie Vesterinen but he’s the most consistent player on our team,” head coach Neal Brown said.
The results aren’t surprising for defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, who is the architect to the rebuild up front. The Mountaineers trusted the evaluation process for each of their off-season additions such as Mulbah and Durojaiye despite the fact they had limited snaps at their previous stops.
The Mountaineers recruited each of those players to fill a role in the defense and match what they do well to become a better fit in their own scheme.
It isn’t a complicated process as Lesley has essentially focused on the traits that those players bring to the program and found a way to fill a need on the roster. While some people get caught chasing the big fish, Lesley instead made his efforts completely dedicated to need.
“You can go out and find some really good players that create a quality room and quality depth and I think that’s what you’re seeing,” Lesley said.
It’s an imperfect science and there will always be misses, but if you trust the evaluation process good things will happen. There are certain things that Lesley wants to find such as footspeed which directly relates to athleticism and Vesterinen is a guy that the coordinator says he evaluated off cellphone video that the player himself took over a period of time.
“If you just trust it and you believe in what you see and you stick with it you’ll be right more than you’re wrong,” Lesley said.
The sum of the parts was going to make a better whole because the coaches recruited players to do specific things and use the best of their skill sets to accomplish it.
“I think we’ve done a really nice job evaluating exactly what we need and making the scheme fit those guys. How they play is what I’m way prouder of than I am the statistics,” he said. “Guys are playing hard, playing with a lot of energy and they’re playing together. They feed off each other.”
True to their word the Mountaineers have used an expanded rotation that ranges between eight to ten guys depending on the matchup. It’s something that Lesley simply calls fun after struggling to develop depth up front over his first couple of seasons with the post.
Credit also needs to go to what position coach AJ Jackson has done as Lesley believes he is fundamentally one of the best up front that he’s been around, and he now has a group that is made up of players that he recruited to Morgantown.
The success of the defense as a whole starts up front and West Virginia believes they’ve got a strong group to help anchor the Mountaineers on that side of the ball.
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