The transfer portal can taketh. But it can giveth, too.
The latter is exactly what West Virginia has seen occur when it comes to addressing the defensive backs at this stage of the off-season with several veterans added to the program.
The Mountaineers have added a total of five transfer defensive backs at this stage of the process in South Alabama nickel Jordan Scruggs, Nevada cornerback Michael Coats, Jacksonville State safety Fred Perry, UT Chattanooga safety Jordan Walker and Jacksonville State cornerback Derek Carter. Each of the five have one season of eligibility remaining.
Each of those brings not only a lot of on-the-field experience but production with them.
And that’s a good thing considering when it comes to returners, West Virginia brings back only Keke Tarnue with 414 snaps and Israel Boyce with 138 snaps at safety and Jacolby Spells with 143 snaps at cornerback.
Essentially, the Mountaineers must replace the entire backend of the defense with exits either through graduation or the transfer portal and the coaching staff has been working to do just that.
Scruggs was the first addition this off-season after a strong season at South Alabama where he played a total of 662 snaps with 462 of those in the slot. He finished the year with 70 tackles and an interception while grading out at 80.7 overall according to Pro Football Focus.
That included stellar marks in run defense at 81.8, tackling at 83.9 and coverage at 80.9 where he permitted just 28 of 46 passes to be completed for 387 yards.
Coats is coming off a season where he earned first-team all-Mountain West honors after recording 41 tackles, 17 passes defended and 4 interceptions while charting elite coverage grades. He allowed just 25 catches on 55 targets for just 328 yards and 2 touchdowns with 4 interceptions.
The Mississippi native recorded 13 tackles, 5 passes defended and an interception in his first season with the Wolfpack. Prior that that, Coats was at East Central C.C. where he again posted strong numbers over 21 games despite the fact that he did not play football at the high school level.
Coats has played 1,135 snaps over the past two seasons and almost all of that has been at outside corner.
Perry was a standout performer during his three seasons at Jacksonville State where he collected 257 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, 10 passes defended, 6 forced fumbles, 3 sacks and 2 interceptions across 36 games. He is coming off a season where he notched 110 tackles for the Gamecocks and was a freshman all-American.
He finished with a solid grade of 64.5 on defense but was stellar against the run at 86.3. He saw his coverage grades take a dip in 2024 but had been at over 70 during the first two years of his career. Still, the senior is an experienced defensive back that has played in Zac Alley’s defensive scheme and put up major numbers.
Walker is another that has played a lot of football over his five seasons with the Mocs appearing in over 2,000 snaps. And with that comes a lot of production, as Walker has racked up 147 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 9 passes defended and 4 interceptions across the course of his career.
That included this past season where Walker recorded 60 tackles, 7 pass breakups, and 4 tackles and graded out at 75.6 according to Pro Football Focus. He has posted stellar coverage numbers of his career with at least a mark of 72.1 in the past three years and has permitted just 47 of 77 passes to be completed for 280 yards while surrendering just 2 touchdowns to four interceptions.
Walker also has plenty of versatility spending time at free safety, in the box and in the slot giving him opportunities to fill multiple roles.
Carter is the final piece of the puzzle, and he too has plenty of experience under his belt appearing in 35 games at cornerback during his time with the Gamecocks. Like Perry, he has already played in the defensive scheme and in 2023 was a second-team all-Conference USA selection.
Over his three years on the field, Carter has racked up 89 tackles, 10 passes defended and an interception and has permitted just two touchdowns in his coverage in his career.
That’s a whole lot of experience injected into a secondary that didn’t have a lot of it. And the work likely isn’t done either as the coaching staff are still involved with several defensive backs that could add to the mix.
There will be a lot of new faces in the backend of the defense in 2025, but they certainly won’t lack experience if the recent additions have anything to say about it.
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