After a late 38-34 loss to Pitt Saturday, West Virginia center Brandon Yates showed confidence in the team’s defense to bounce back.
The Panthers came back from a late 10-point deficit to win a thrilling game against the Mountaineers. While the offense struggled to produce and build its lead after taking the two-possession lead, most of the blame fell on the defense.
“A lot of people talk about the defense, but the offense, we could have put ourselves in a better situation to win that game as well,” Yates said.
After allowing just four yards of offense before the two late touchdown drives, West Virginia gave up 152 yards combined on those two drives. Following their last scoring drive, WVU’s offense failed to pick up a first down.
“It’s easy to pick on the defense but you know they played just as hard as us and they played hard too. I can’t sit there and discredit how hard they work, I see how hard they work every single day,”
Yates has been with West Virginia since 2019 and was tasked with attempting to fill Zach Frazier’s role at center, not only snapping the ball but as a leader. Despite a rough start, Yates believes his team will turn it around.
“They’re going to get it fixed; trust me, I know those guys; I seen those guys how hard they work. They’re going to get things fixed,” Yates said.
Instead of dwelling on past results, Yates suggests that the team will just continue to work and look to improve.
“I mean talking to the guys just let them know like ‘hey like all we can do is just work.’ All the negativity outside of here like you’re going to hear it, it’s going to be like that, but it doesn’t change who we are as people, it doesn’t change how things are going to go around here, we’re going to keep being the same program, same values, same everything. We go out here and just work and just be better every single day,” Yates said. “(I) support them (defense) 100 percent. Just build confidence. In situations like that, that’s when you need confidence the most. And if you’re confident you’ll be able to play a lot better.”
Looking to right the ship, West Virginia takes on Kansas in their first Big 12 game on Saturday. Kickoff is set for noon EST and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
