Since the beginning of last season, West Virginia’s secondary issues have plagued them.
Through two games this season, WVU has given up an average of 281.5 yards through the air, which is third-worst in the Big 12. Their five touchdowns they have given up are also most in the Big 12.
This secondary is a problem WVU has aimed to stop recently. Bringing in a new group of transfers, head coach Neal Brown thought the personnel chance would be good for his defense which finished 2022 118th out of 131 teams in passing defense.
Obviously where we got to improve on pass overage. Really it’s a few guys that are playing with some bad fundamentals,” Brown said. “We got to get better. That’s only going to continue to get exposed as we move through the season, starting this week unless we get that fixed.”
After WVU’s win against Duquesne, Brown said the Mountaineers are going to go back to the drawing board, but what that looks like isn’t just switching out rotations.
“We wer pretty vanilla the other night. We’ve made some adjustments since Penn State. Hoping because we were better (than Duquesne), we may not give up some pass plays. Obviously that wasn’t the case, we still gave up some but we broke contain,” Brown said. “Our issues are eye violations first and foremost and second is not getting our hands on receivers and allowing them free runs.
Brown said some of the fix will rely upon “promotions and demotions” within the secondary as far as playing time is concerned.
“I think we’ve got two games and without getting into it here, there’s going to be some playing time, there’s going to be some decisions made. We’ve got two games on film where some people have not performed as well and their playing time will decrease,” Brown said. “There’s going to be some demotions and promotions and some decreased snaps from some people.”
Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley is aligned in Brown’s thinking of needing some guys to step up.
Plain and simple, a few, not all, guys got to play better. That’s what it is,” Lesley said. “I’m not saying anything to you all that I haven’t said to them in a group setting, individually and they know what the consequences are. There’s going to be some demotions and promotions and that’s as simple as I can make it.”
