Young West Virginia cornerbacks group continuing to grow during fall camp

One position change has opened the door for three freshmen to potentially see meaningful snaps on West Virginia’s defense this upcoming season.

With Josh Norwood making the move from cornerback to safety to help fulfill one of the voids left by Kenny Robinson and Derrek Pitts after they departed the team after the spring, freshmen Nicktroy Fortune, Tae Mayo and Tacorey Turner now find themselves battling for playing time and providing depth at the position as well.

While this change may not have seemed ideal for the cornerbacks at first, it speaks volumes to the confidence West Virginia’s coaches have in this position group.

Even with Norwood moving to safety, the Mountaineers still have two viable starting options in Hakeem Bailey and Keith Washington, who have 17 career starts between them. Behind those two are the three freshmen as well as junior college transfer Dreshun Miller. Alonzo Addae, cornerbacks coach Jahmile Addae’s cousin who transferred from New Hampshire, will have to sit out this season due to NCAA transfer rules.

At this point in fall camp, Addae likes what he sees out of the cornerbacks but there’s obviously room for improvement.

“Everything’s not perfect at this point, but the one thing that I do know is that they are definitely working at it and I’ve been excited about their growth just from day one to now,” Addae said. “And I think if we continue to do that with those younger guys especially I think we’ll put ourselves in a pretty good place.”

Growth and development are what Addae emphasized to the defensive backs as fall camp got underway. The key to growth however is to take the good with the bad, learn from mistakes and if mistakes and miscues are made, make them with a full effort.

“Failure is growth--having good days, having bad days, winning and maybe even losing some,” Addae said. “You gain just as much from losing as you do from winning. Sometimes getting beat or maybe not being in the right leverage or maybe not having perfect coverage is a learning tool as well and so I think that’s been awesome for our guys as they went through camp.

“They’re not afraid to make mistakes but rather to play with their hair on fire, play fast and try to make a play. So that’s been pretty good.”

According to Addae, players will continue to get reps so that they can compete and be evaluated by the staff.

The two most experienced cornerbacks in Bailey and Washington have emerged as the leaders of the group while the three freshmen are coming along and have embraced the opportunity laid out in front of them.

“All have the mindset that they’re ready to play and they’re hungry to play right now and have equally been driven to prepare themselves to play at this level for sure,” Addae said.

Playing cornerback in the Big 12 Conference is certainly no easy task with the conference being known for its high potent offenses and passing attacks but the three freshmen haven’t backed down and are getting quality reps against lengthy receivers such as George Campbell and Sean Ryan.

“They’re getting better I like their makeup it’s a challenging position to play early especially with the dudes we’re playing in our league mayo really competitive, a little light right now but pretty competitive,” head coach Neal Brown said.

“Fortune is the exact built that we want and he can run. They’re getting challenged because we’ve got some length. Technique wise he’s doing a nice job with them. I think they’re going to be a factor for us this fall. Tacorey Turner can run and has good skills.”

Ideally, Addae wants to be three-deep on both the left and right side of the field at cornerback which means he wants six guys total ready to roll by the time the season opener against James Madison on Aug. 31 rolls around but would be content with five. As of now, Addae is unsure who that five or six will be but the goal is to know by the end of fall camp.

As fall camp continues, Addae will continue to stress to his players the importance of growing and improving each day which will lead to the players developing and playing with more confidence on the field.

“I think the cornerback position is really, really important that you play proactively as opposed to reactively,” Addae said. “You need to see it before it happens and the way to do that is for them to get a fair amount of reps so they understand what it looks like before it comes.

“So I’m excited to see what that looks like because they’re doing pretty well physically now and so once their minds catch up with their bodies, it’ll be exciting to see how they play.”

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