Dontae Wright will be entering his third year as the safeties coach for the Mountaineers and will be welcoming a young secondary for West Virginia this season.
Last season, Wright lead a fierce secondary which proved to be one of the best in the Big 12. WVU was tied for second in the Big 12 in interceptions and only gave up 211.2 yards a game which ranked third.
Two big driving forces to a successful 2021 defensive season were senior safeties Sean Mahone and Alonzo Addae.
Mahone was second on the team with 81 tackles and had two interceptions, which was tied for the team lead. Addae ended the season third on the team in tackles with 73 and would go on to receive an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention.
With Mahone and Addae having now graduated, Wright has a much different looking secondary room. On Monday, he sat down with the media and mentioned that he has a lot of new faces to coach but all of them have plenty of potential.
“It’s a very inexperienced group, but its a very talented group,” Wright said. “It just looks different out there with that group, that’s nothing against the guys before but that’s the way it is. Those guys are all six-foot plus and can run and jump and none of them are afraid to put their face on you.”
Because Wright is dealing with a younger group, there will be a lot of competition to fight for playing time. One of those positions up for grabs is the CAT-safety. Wright gave his insight to who he feels can play that position this upcoming year and one of the top names was sophomore Aubury Burks
“The young man is extremely intelligent so I would probably move him over their first,” Wright said.
When talking about experience at the secondary, transfers Jasir Cox and Marcis Floyd came to mind for Wright. He believes Cox’s experience in bigger games can provide a veteran mentality for the younger guys.
“You don’t worry about him going into the Backyard Brawl and the moment being too big for him because he’s played in national title games,” Wright said. “Those two guys have seen almost everything that offenses can throw at you… so they’ve seen a lot of things, they can adjust on the fly and they’ll be able to help other guys get ahead of things.”
With less than one week until the season opener against Pittsburgh, Wright and his guys are gearing up to show everyone that WVU can hold their reputation as one of the best defensive units in the Big 12.
