WVU defense makes strong first impression in opener

Sudden change. It’s not the first words that a defensive coordinator wants to use when instructing his players on the sideline between drives.

But the game of football is unpredictable and West Virginia learned that first-hand in the waning minutes of the second quarter when backup quarterback William Crest fumbled the football untouched and Missouri recovered the football inside the Mountaineers’ ten yard-line.

First and goal from the seven in a 13-3 game. Sudden change situation.

First down, a rush for no gain. Second down the same. Third down, incomplete pass. And then a 24-yard field goal was missed giving the Mountaineers the football back and avoiding disaster.

“I told them at halftime that’s a game-changer,” defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said.

For a defense that was replacing nine starters, it was the type of game-changing series that could help cement this unit as one that could be on the fast track to being a lot better than it was expected to be. But certainly it is one that raises the expectations of the unit.

“And I don’t like that at all,” Gibson said.

While the results were positive, it wasn’t all that surprising to the coordinator who stressed throughout fall camp that while the West Virginia defense had a new cast of characters, it wasn’t a group that would be green to the game of college football. That was evident on the field.

Missouri ran a total of 92 plays against the first team unit and West Virginia relented only a total of three points and 314 yards of total offense during that span. The speed of the play calling was something that caught Gibson off guard, but it also helped the Mountaineers in some situations when the offense ran plays into free defenders.

The Mountaineers also kept the Tigers out of the end zone until late in the game when the outcome had already been decided and the first team unit was already on the bench with an early exit.

The Mountaineers were prepared for what the Tigers threw at them, both literally and figuratively, as they didn’t pull out anything that the West Virginia defense wasn’t expecting.

“We had to make a couple adjustments with how much formation set to the sideline stuff they were doing but I thought our kids adjusted well,” he said.

The West Virginia defense recorded only one sack, but the unit stuffed the Missouri running backs to a total of 103 yards on 30 carriers, a less than four-yards per carry average. The secondary also covered well in the backend even when Gibson dialed up blitzes holding up against the Missouri receivers.

“I thought our secondary was very, very physical,” he said.

Now it’s just one game and Gibson understands that.

There is a lot of season left and the challenge will get tougher in the future with Big 12 Conference play not far off. But for now, the impression that the West Virginia defense left is a positive one against a power five opponent.

“We played together and played fast. And we never gave up,” senior cornerback Antonio Crawford said.