It is no secret West Virginia’s secondary has struggled to start the season.
The Mountaineers rank 99th in the country through two games in pass yards allowed per game, and they sit second to last in the Big 12 in the same category.
As the Mountaineers prepare to face FCS foe Towson this week, the plan is to give younger guys in the secondary more playing time to let them try and prove themselves.
This past Saturday, West Virginia was without starting cornerback Charles Woods. The Mountaineers will be without Woods again this week and could be without him long-term. West Virginia was also without cornerback Wesley McCormick for the first half of Saturday’s game, but expect him to continue to produce this week.
In addition to McCormick, true freshmen Jacolby Spells and MuMu Bin-Wahad will more than likely see the field on Saturday. Lesley said he likes what he has seen from them in practice, and wants to see if they can help his defense.
“They understand alignments, leverage, how to play the ball in the air,” Lesley said. “Move those guys around, see if we can get them in a position to help us.”
“We’re going to get them ready, they need to play,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said of the pairing of Bin-Wahad and Spells.
Brown went on to add Bin-Wahad will likely be used more as a safety, compared to Spells who will stay at corner.
“Mumu is going to play more at safety probably than corner. Jacolby’s going to play at corner,” Brown said.
Redshirt-freshman Andrew Wilson-Lamp is also set to play this weekend. Lesley said the process of his development has been slower, but that is expected as Wilson-Lamp is going through a position change.
“Drew played mainly receiver in high school. When we have these great expectations for these young players, it’s still this huge adjustment period even if they’re in their second year especially if they played a position that’s different,” Lesley said.
Lamp, a 6-foot-2, 178-pound cornerback from Massillon, Ohio, played on the offensive side of the ball in high school and is having to relearn how to correctly use his body on the field.
“He’s an extremely long kid. Was a light kid coming in. So when you’ve got this long body and you’re playing a position that requires you to bend at the ankles, knees, and hips, your body has to train to control that. Otherwise you’re just long and can run,” Lesley said of Wilson-Lamp. “To make those movements and bend like that and move like that it takes time with [strength coach] Mike Joseph and in the weight room. And Lamp will be totally fine doing that, but he’s just quite not there yet.”
Ultimately though, Lesley knows it is his job to get his struggling defense on the same page.
“I got to be better. I got to be a better coach, got to put them in a better position,” Lesley said. “
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